Question about electricity and water, UW LEDs 5-10-09
I want to put a few LED lights inside my aquarium (underwater) and was wondering about the connections. If both of the leads (one positive, one negative) off of the LED are simply soldered to an insulated wire and the connections are bare is the electricity going to flow into the water and kill/harm my fish? If installing underwater lights do all connections need to be sealed watertight?
<Besides irritating those fish that have some degree of electric sensitivity (e.g., catfish) or using electricity directly to find their way around (e.g., Mormyrids) it was at one time suspected that stray electrical
voltage led to problems such as Hole-in-the-Head. Whilst I'm not sure that's accepted anymore, the wisdom of having a live wire, even at a low voltage, exposed to the water is questionable. You can buy ready made submersible lights, and if you were to DIY some yourself -- something I think WWM would have to recommend against, given the legal implications of you electrocuting yourself! -- it would surely make more sense to insulate everything using aquarium silicone or similar.>
My plan is to have concealed LED lights in some sort of plant or other decoration and have a bunch of fiber-optics sprouting out so it looks like "glowing underwater plants"
<Do look at the safe, commercial products such as "Hydor Aqua Color Aquarium".>
Thank You,
Nick
<Cheers, Neale.>