Solving My AI Blade Refugium LED Mounting Issue with 3D Printing

Table of Contents

Recently, I faced an unexpected challenge while setting up my macro algae chamber: the glass edges weren’t perfectly level, which meant my AI Blade Refugium LED wasn’t sitting flat. This wasn’t just visually frustrating, it would also impacted the performance and effectiveness of the lighting.

Determined to solve this, I turned to my 3D printer to create a custom solution. First, I sketched out an idea to raise one side, making the light sit perfectly level. The initial prototype had the right height, but the gap was too wide, causing instability for the LED unit.

The second prototype corrected the height but required extending the light frame beyond a safe zone, causing too much flex. The risk of the LED falling into the water was not ideal. Also, the lip was too narrow for the LED attachment to hook into nicely.

The third prototype was nearly perfect—just the right height and placement—but it was too easy for the LED to accidentally slide off.

Finally, the fourth prototype nailed it: it offered both stability and security, holding the LED precisely in place.

With the mounting sorted, my next challenge was dealing with the unwanted light bleed around the edges. After a couple of quick iterations, I found a simple but effective design that worked well. To boost efficiency even further, I’ll glue some reflective foil onto it to direct all that valuable LED light exactly where it’s needed.