Say no to arm, say yes to freedom: DIY Ikea Reef Light with Prime :)

[Aqua Splendor]

Hello everyone, I'm posting here because I'm not sure if people follow my nano reef competition videos,  so I made a full explanation video, step by step on how I made my Reef light fixture with Ikea and a Prime 16HD.

 

The hardest part is mostly the diffuser, which I still don't know how to fully use it correctly but I made a tweak at the end and ... well, it works, but it could be better!
If you have ideas let me know, I hope this video will inspire others to create their own fixture 🙂
 

- Aqua Splendor

[mcarroll]

Interesting!  (You should consider posting a written summary of some kind.)

[DSA65PRO]

I don’t think that Lamp is going to last very long. The Socket is not Ceramic, to act as a heat sink. It needs holes drilled in the narrow part of the fixture to let the heat out. I wonder if you could add 445nm LED tape to the inside rim for more blue light. For the diffuser, I’d use some thin acrylic, roughen it up with some 1200 grit sandpaper or a Scotchbrite Pad. 

[A.m.P]

11 minutes ago, DSA65PRO said:

I don’t think that Lamp is going to last very long. The Socket is not Ceramic, to act as a heat sink. It needs holes drilled in the narrow part of the fixture to let the heat out. I wonder if you could add 445nm LED tape to the inside rim for more blue light. For the diffuser, I’d use some thin acrylic, roughen it up with some 1200 grit sandpaper or a Scotchbrite Pad. 

I don't believe ceramic is necessary, but I 100% agree that ventilation really, really is.
You could also just grab actual diffuser paneling meant for ceiling fixtures and cut it to size, or even contact a local glass shop and see if they have some scrap frosted diffuser panel they'd be willing to give out (could get it for free or heavily discounted).
 

And the LED tape is a solid idea, but I don't think the internal angle of that shade would lend itself well to doing anything productive sadly, you'd almost need to fashion a ring around the base of it. Could be fun to grab actinic stripping closer to 420/400/380 for pure pop and UV without much in the way of additional apparent-brightness.

[Aqua Splendor]

Great suggestions overall!

For the holes on the top of the fixture, I though about that, but small hole around 2-4mm, drill multiple places wouldn't be even enough.
The fixture is a dome shape, the heated air out on the side then follow the shape of the dome downward, on that diffuser paper and then come back up... A part goes up, but not much. Even with tiny whole it wouldn't have made a significant amount to resolve fully the problem.
The second thing, which for me is a big no no: Light leak, I would have some light on the celling because of reflection and this for me is a big no for personal aesthetic reason.

Not a fan of glass diffuser because of weight issue, that why I preferred using gel/paper

Has for the LED supplement it's interesting, we could do something to add more around the edge, I just miss some on the extremity of my tank. 
Interesting... lot of work would be involve but interesting. The truth is: I feel like just 2 prime would have been perfect to cover completely this small tank. Other truth: I have a Radion G5 Pro doing nothing and I keep thinking about it... It's more rectangular and would be a better option. ..  I hesitate a lot lol (I'm saving this light for a big battle)

At the end, I'm just a little picky, the light just work has it is And I do some noise suppression in post all the time...