Innovation of Juwel aquarium light
The aquarium lighting has been running for about 6 years since the last adjustment. It had fans to cool down the LED profiles. The profiles were placed under the aquarium hood. So, the fans were working in a constantly humid environment. From time to time, the fan stopped working and needed to be replaced. Last time, I tried to replace two fans with larger ones. 40x40 mm instead of the original 25x25 mm.
Humidity had also a negative impact on the connectors for connecting the LEDs and fan cables. The contacts gradually degraded and needed to be replaced occasionally. It was also necessary to have a fan to remove air under the aquarium hood and prevent hot air accumulation there.
I realized that the light needed to be redesigned. Ideally, to have the cooling profiles and all connectors above the aquarium cover. The solution was to place the LED profiles on a ramp.
In fact, I don't need the original Juwel ramp. The ramp can be substituted by an aluminum profile, which will serve as a ramp and the LED profiles will be mounted on the bottom side. At the same time, it will dissipate heat from the LED profiles. The aluminum profile is attached in the same way as the original ramp. It is only necessary to make holders for the hood.
It was not easy to find a heatsink of such a size. So, I started thinking about something more accessible. On the website www.alupa.cz, I found a rectangular aluminum profile with dimensions of 65 x 35 mm and a thickness of 3 mm. Which is almost the width of the original ramp. So, there was space for the hood holders. The required length was 694 mm, i.e. a weight of 1.06 kg. It cost 252 CZK (US$ 10.50) + 140 CZK (US$ 5.80) for shipping.
I had the profile. It fit the aquarium exactly. I designed the hood holders and manufactured them on the 3D printer. I tested the profile with the holders on the aquarium. It worked as well as the original Juwel ramp. Next, it was necessary to get profiles for the LEDs and LED strips. I ordered them again from www.ledme.cz:
- Aluminum profile Mikro 2, width 15 mm, length 3 m, price 162 CZK (US$ 6.80)
- Diffuser for the profile, length 3 m, price 165 CZK (US$ 6.90)
- LED strip: daylight white, 20 W/m, CRI 98, length 1 m, price 280 CZK (US$ 11.70)
- LED strip: RGB, 24 W/m, length 1 m, price 289 CZK (US$ 12.10)
The space for the LED profiles on the ramp is 62 mm, i.e. it is possible to place four 15 mm wide profiles there. Unfortunately, they delivered a slightly different profile, which was 16 mm wide. I had to complain about the order. Fortunately, they handled the complaint quickly. They replaced the goods within a week.
Now it was enough to cut the profiles to a length of 665 mm and place them on the ramp. The profiles are screwed at the ends. I applied the thermal compound on the profiles to improve heat dissipation. To ensure to be in close contact with the main profile I also applied silicone in three places.
I placed white LEDs in two profiles and RGB LEDs in the other two profiles. The length of each strip is 50 cm. I added another 10 cm from old LED strips that I had left over from the previous light.
I placed a fan in the middle of the top of the ramp. It was necessary to design a fan holder and print it on the 3D printer. Also, to create holes in the aluminum profile. The fan thus extracts hot air from inside the profile. This lowers the temperature of the LEDs. The fan is 12 V, but I run it at 5 V due to noise.
I recorded the assembly process and light simulation on the aquarium in the following video.
