[mike31154]

Originally Posted by chewie

Very informative read. I am in the process of trying to figure out how to do a build myself, following along this thread to see how it is done.

Here is a list of parts I am thinking of using:

Dimmer. ( may have a few to run different led temps, blue, daylight 12000k etc...)
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/dimming...s-dc-12v-73618

Daylight 12000k
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t10-sv8...-dc-12v-112583

Blue light
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/10w-180...r-9-11v-100875
OR
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/31-44mm...-dc-12v-100622

Power supply ( once again a few to run different lights on timer. Not sure if this will work or if I need an actually LED driver supply. )
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/120w-un...-240v-ac-37110

or if I need a proper led driver
http://s.dealextreme.com/search/led%20driver%2012v

any suggestions?

The dimmer is something I've also been looking at to control the current my 12 Volt power supply delivers to the LEDs.

The daylight 12000K 5630 SMD LEDs are generally considered insufficient for our purposes, since the LEDs are not large enough to penetrate the water properly. Yes, there are 32 of them on the board for 16 watts, but I'd still advise against trying to use these since they just don't have enough punch per individual LED. About the only advantage to them is that since they're designed to replace automobile lighting, any 12 Volt DC power supply may be used to run them, no driver to worry about.

Your first link for the blue light is the same 10 watt LED form factor that I'm using in different colour temperatures. You will need either large heatsinks, or the fan/heatsink combination I'm using for my build. You will also need either individual drivers for each 10 watt LED, or a power supply in the 12 Volt DC range of sufficient rating to run multiple 10 watters in addition to a current limiting resistor for each 10 watt LED.
The second link for blue light is again, a board with low wattage 5050 SMD LEDs really unsuitable for anything except maybe a night light.

With respect to power supplies/drivers, the preceding paragraph should pretty much answer that. Your choice really. You can either get a separate driver for each 10 watt LED, or a larger 12 Volt DC power supply to drive a bunch of them with current limiting resistors for each 10 watt LED. If you decide to use the SMD LEDs for sunrise/sunset or night lighting, all you need is the 12 Volt DC power supply on a timer.