HOW TO: CHEAP and EASY LED aquarium light - SUPER CHARGED

How to build an LED aquarium light that is fully customizable, cost effective and looks great!

Buy the lights on amazon or eBay. I have bought from both places.
Search for this and choose the seller of your choice:

16.4ft 5M Waterproof Rope Lights 300 LED 5050 SMD Color Changing RGB Flexible LED Strip Light + 12V 6A Power Supply + Remote + IR Controller

I DO NOT POST LINKS TO WHERE TO BUY IT. This is why:
Due to the shear volume of viewers that buy what I mention in my videos, odds are that not everyone will have a great experience with the seller I post. When this happens, I sometimes get blamed or asked to help resolve any issues. So please do not ask me to post links. i will not.
Search the terms posted and you will find what you are looking for.

[MelissaLaura]

My boyfriend and I just made this today within about 2 ½-3 hours! It looks amazing! Couldn't get the spacing as great as you did but it still looks amazing! Thanks for the tutorial!! We didn't bother with the painting because we plan on using a canopy for our tank once it's set up.

[brendanworley]

Joey, you truly are the king of diy! I'm a 16 year old fish enthusiast, hoping to become an engineer one day and your creativity amazes me! Keep up the great work

[vapelounge]

took your idea with this diy light system for my 110 gallon that didn't have a light or lid, and it saved me a fortune.. also used the clear roof for greenhouse that you use and it def saved me some money, and gave me a Lil extra money for decor and stocking my tank.. I bought the 110gal from a yard sale for 30 bucks. got it home cleaned it built a stand, set it up and filled it up halfway. good to go, thrn topped it off. and left it a few days. no leaks.. so took 2 spare cascade 1000 canister filters that had been up and running for about 3 years, along with 2 aqua clear 110 hob filters to help jump start the cycle. waited a month and just stocked it. I have always kept central and south American cichlids and been wanting to try africans, so ended up making the 110 gal a peacock and hap tank and with this diy light system, it is amazing and super bright. I got the super night rgb + cool white led strip and love it thanks for your awesome vids Joey, keep em coming sir. o and one last thing. a good 2 years ago I was watching videos and learned about a algae scrubber. an how it eats the nitrates so I picked up all the supplies and made 6 for all my tanks. they're still up and running an thriving. but was watching your vids and come to find out it was your video I used to make the algae scrubbers yrs ago. and now I'm done blabbing. thanks sir

[Aquatasy]

This is one of your better do-it-yourself project ideas. Using the PVC pipes is sheer genius.

[stephenalonzi]

love the videos!! as someone who uses LEDS I can tell you that if you get the right kind and enough of them you will grow plants! my 75g tank is thriving with about 8m of LED strip lights in a DIY hood for the tank. I've even been able to grow mid and mid-high light plants!

[TheBatz]

You could use this same technique on a fluorescent light set-up (the ones supplied with most tanks) by wrapping the actual tube bulbs with the LEDs and using the housing instead of just tossing it.

[Mr_C.Bacteria]

Wrapping it around the pvc pipe is a great idea! I'm currently building a housing for my led strips for the aquarium and I was getting all panicky about how to deal with the led going back and forth regarding corners. Trying to find adaptors is difficult and I dont have a soldiering iron so this is brilliant! Thanks so much mate

[DancingMyPlantsOff]

Thanks for the idea / tutorial. I modified it a hair and did a 5 foot version. I just did one light down the center, I used 1" Schedule 40 PVC (Figured thicker walls and may be stronger so less bow). Also lined the pvc with some of the tape for kicks. On the ends rather than using tape I used some wire ties.

As well Down the center of the 1" PVC I had some 1/2" pvc laying around. I took a piece cut slightly shorter than the 1" and wrapped it 20 times in masking tape at 3 spots spaced throughout the mid section of the pipe. This allowed it to snug up to the inside of the 1" and not move around.

The 1/2" will also ace as reinforcement to the 1" PVC, I don't believe I will have any warping issues. Very slick. Thanks a bunch!

[MikeE-hbzb]

Built my light almost the very same way about a year ago!!! It was a great light, very bright and looked great!!! Only problem was ( I`m sure it was due to bad craftsmanship ) it developed a short at the connection... These are great lights, just make sure to use a zip tie or something over the connection, I just left mine hang and over time the short developed!!! ANOTHER GREAT VID JOEY!!!

[MrGrimCarnage]

This is a great idea!

I set up the normal 11 gal. "starter tank" for my two sons a couple of years ago, since I wasn't sure they'd really want to stick with having an aquarium.

They've really liked it, so now I'm upgrading to a 30 gal. that a friend gave to me. It's an older tank, with a fluorescent tube light, and I was trying to figure out a cost effective way to convert it to LED. It's already got a nice hood around the tube light, so I'll pull that entire assembly out, and replace it with two rows of LED's, like you showed here. Being only 25" long, it should be very bright with only one role of LED's.

Thanks a bunch for making this video!

[erick]

Aww man! I built the old version 6 months ago. I like the reflective tape, I'll add that for sure. I ended up making as many passes as I could with one spool of lights in a 6 ft long gutter. I did have to use silicone to glue the strips on cause even with electrical tape, they fell down. Great build Joey.

[Danielism]

You can buy clear tube instead of the white PVC, I used this stuff when I made a UV light for my salwater tank and works great! that way you can get all the reflected light through the tube and increase your light spread instead of blocking it with a solid tube that will block the backside from emitting as much light as possible.

[juggernautautobot]

I know this is an old video, but I just made two of the old version for my 40gal a month ago I just stuck two strips to the gutter and just found this video Saturday and built one like this for my 20 gal guarantine tank an used one strip...I painted both the insides with chrome silver spray paint from Walmart and the outsides with black kyron and side by side I don't know why the wrapped one is definitely brighter then the two stuck down flat...I dont know how haha. But great build Joey love your DIY videos

[thekingofdiy]

How to build an LED aquarium light that is fully customizable, cost effective and looks great!

[talontd]

This is why you're the KING of DIY!

[jeremyh]

Great vid joey!!
You always do a great job showing and describing without wasting a bunch of time. My question is why didnt you just put the strips flat (like your first build) side by side (~4strips in paralel) and solder the ends to connect each pair?
You would not have as much light loss. all the leds would be facing down you would not have to reflect the light from the leds facing up or to the side.
This method would eliminate the cost of the pipe, the pipe end caps, the bolts and the worry about the pvc pipe sagging.

just a thought

keep up the good work!

[JB-wgzj]

brother you are the master tinker-er.
I am really suprised (&I am assuming this HASN'T happened) that you have not been approached by some of these companies to be on their design team. This like most of your builds was simple genius!! I have been going back and forth about lights for a few months now. I think it is safe to say this knocks a few lights right out of the box.

[kritykat]

I have an old desk from when I was a child. I'm going to take out the desk light that no longer works and put in these light strips along the hutch. I am using this desk as a sewing desk and need as much light as possible. I would prefer a simple switch, so I'm still toying around with the idea. my tanks are 4 ft and 2 ft wide and I found relatively cheap led lights for them so did not go with this plan. just goes to show you how your diy videos are handy for just about anything! I'll let you know how it turns out!

[Berbs]

I love watching your videos even though I may never build these things. It's refreshing to see someone apply themself like you do.

[duenasj]

GREAT upgrade to your first couple of videos on LED lights! Brilliant, in fact! (no pun intended) I really have to thank you though. I started using LED strips a couple weeks ago on one of my tanks, and I was just trying to hash out how I was going to install them on a fish rack I'm currently building. You solved my installation AND brightness issues in under eight minutes! Thanks!