I thought DIY was supposed to be cheaper :P

[Gilligan]

If you want to go DIY, those Lumina IC's are pretty nice.

I would go with something like this if/when I DIY a fixture.

 

If I may go a little off-topic here, shadows could be reduced in many ways that don't have to cost much. I get it though, you want some new stuff.

 

This is not specifically targeted at the OP. (ConnorFood)

Mirrors, LED strips, LED spots or even a T5 can be used to augment the colour and reduce or eliminate shadows.

This suits a hooded aquarium.

 

Pendant fans have a tougher choices. I may have mentioned before, but you could easily shade the sides of the lights to eliminate spillage. Could be as cheap as a few old debit cards and some tape. lol.

 

A real set of barn doors could be retrofitted from a $16.95 kit from the amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Photographic-Honeycomb-Norman-Smith-Victor-Flash/dp/B003KIWP02

[cocojakes]

barn doors are a great idea to reduce spillage of circular pendants over square tanks my issue with shadows isn't that I don't want them, its that I only want 1 of them. The disco ball effect is created when lights from different locations, create different shadows, add in the constructive and destructive interference from the surface agitation, and you get a lot of dancing multicoloured lines all over your tank. Most of us want those dancing lines like in the ocean, but we want a single one, that is a single colour, not one red, one green, one yellow, one blue, all doing different things all over the aquarium. I'm hoping that my 3 almost point sources, combined with potentially some fogged glass diffuser, will help reduce this, and create an even colour tone, without losing the shimmer.

[Gilligan]

I don't think it was this thread, but in another one I was trolling I suggested a Kessil 360N suspended 5' off the aquarium floor.

[tibbsy07]

this was a really helpful link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2361330/LEDGroupBuy/LumiaBuild/lumiabuild.pdf

 

basicly a step by step of what is needed, and how to hook up, the lumina, or basically any led strings.

This is great - now just to figure out how to adapt it to non-lumia 5.2 for my 5g if I ever want to build one.

shoot us an email and we can help you out

support@ledgroupbuy.zendesk.com

If I go the DIY route, I will do this. I'm not sure I need the Lumia 5.2 power for my 5g, lol, but I suppose I can dim it.

[cocojakes]

okay, so because one of my drivers was bent, and ended up breaking the 5th spot on the 5up board, so I'm just gonna go with 4 channels. How do you think I should split up the LEDs? these are the different colours, arranged in two pucks:

 

12 Royal Blue

12 True Violet

8 Neutral White

2 Blue

2 Cyan

2 Deep Red

 

The main question is should the red be by itself, and the blue/cyan go on the royal blue channel, or should the red go with the blue/cyan, or should the red go with the white? I want to be able to colour mix as best as possible, I might try soldering the 5th driver back onto the board, or just wire it up separately without the board.