This rack of nine 15 gallon cube tanks is currently lit by three 54w T5 florescent tubes. This doesn’t work all that well. For one, the built-in ballasts and lights themselves create a bunch of heat. This heat doesn’t have anywhere to go, and sitting too close to the top of the tank, or shelf of the tank above it, just adds to the heat inside the tanks.

At the moment the lights are placed 2″ above the tank as to not overheat it. But the heat just get’s sucked into the tank above it because of how close it is to the shelf.

The second issue is that I really can’t mount the ballest to the shelf above or it will be even closer to transmit heat. And to avoid heat transmission I have to put the light on it’s side, which means most of the light is wasted lighting the back wall. Lame.

While you may think that’s bad, take a look at my other rack of six 20 gallon vertical tanks. They are lit by work lamps with 13w CFLs. Talk about wasted space on a rack. But I don’t have much by way of options.

While I’m currently in the process of trying to merge these racks together on one wall, I have been looking into more form fitting options. Specifically LEDs that point  in only one direction with no wasted light, and have their own heat sinks to dissipate heat. They also need to give off enough light to keep a bromeliad healthy. That means over 1ooo lumens. And while kicking around on kickstarter I may have found it.

www.easyledlighting.com sells a system they state uses three Cree XT-E LED, rated at 1500mA and output 5.3Watt per chip. They give off a 5000K natural white, which is usually the most pleasing to look at since 6500k tends to be a bit blue to the human eye (although better for plants).

The nice things about these modules is that they can be angled directly to where I need the light, while not taking up too much space between tanks. And the heat sink can be mounted easily with some double-sided foam tape. I think foam tape  is best because it tends to be stronger, and the foam will act as a buffer between the heated metal and wooden shelf.

Another idea I have been kicking around is a way to mount the lights above the front of the tanks without it touch anything. That way the entire system is kept air cooled, and perhaps more metal in the equation might help with better heat dissipation.

Ikea has Part #103886. You pop it into the side of a Ivar rack, and it ca be used to hold something in place. So in theory , you could take two of these and place them at the front top of the tank. You would have a 2″ x 15.5″ piece of metal to screw the metal parts onto, and the easy lighting module can adhere to that, for even greater heat dissipation. Plus now there is no connection between the light and a shelving unit.