Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

Buy Site Supporter Role (remove some ads) | LPF Donations

Links below open in new window

FrozenGate by Avery

Need waterproof 1.5mw laser built

J

jhunt269

0
Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Messages
6
Points
0
Hi all,
I'm not a laser guy. I'm a saltwater aquarium guy and an looking to get a 1.5mw or higher 445nm laser to burn up some aquarium pests.
Rather than send money to China, I was hoping someone could build me something. I'm looking for something waterproof for under $200 bucks. Can anyone help?

Regards,
Jeff
 





Ha ha, yes I realized that after I posted. I meant 1.5 watt / 1500mw. Needs to be powerful enough to burn aiptasia in a fish tank.
 
Yes, I will have to use it inside the tank, because some of the critters are towards the back of the tank and others are at different angles that would be impossible to hit from outside the tank.
 
Speculation: I think you might have serious problems burning anything with a laser under water. The water surrounding the object will dissipate the heat very, very quickly, and the water scatters laser light very quickly so the range will be very, very short.

EDIT: I stand corrected.
 
Last edited:
Event_Horizon said:
Speculation: I think you might have serious problems burning anything with a laser under water. The water surrounding the object will dissipate the heat very, very quickly, and the water scatters laser light very quickly so the range will be very, very short.
Click to expand...

Surprisingly it does work... it's been done with 1.2W lasers.

Personally I think a 405nm dual diode build would work much better, but price would also be much higher.
 
Yes it does work very well. There are several video posted on youtube. Here are some links.

Marine Aquarists Laser Series - Aiptasia - YouTube

Aiptasia Laser Kill - YouTube

They say the higher the power that quicker the vaporizing of the anemone. Also, they suggest turning off all the pumps to stop water movement. Water moving will make it harder to build up the heat needed to kill the pest anemone.

Still no takers for building this? If not, could someone suggest a reputable dealers. I've checked out Survivor Lasers, but they are not waterproof and Lazerer does not seem to make waterproof lasers anymore.
 
Trippy said:
I'm not sure about the reputable part as people seem to be somewhat dissatisfied with them lately but O-like sells one.

Power Rock 1W Blue laser torch /Focusable/ waterproof [OL-PRBL1000] - $152.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce
Click to expand...

I would stay away from that laser;

1. Likely to be underspec:
3)Output power:>800mW
Click to expand...
2. The brass heatsink inside it is SMALL... so shorty duty cycles.
3. No double o-ring seals.

Find a decent underwater flashlight, then ask someone here to build you a nice 1.5W+ laser in it instead.
 
I would take this challenge but im still waiting on lots of orders to come through.
Are you bothered which host ?
Is 1.5watt enough?
Does it need to be focusable?
What is your price range?

If no one does offer to make one, id be glade to help.
Will be after christmas im guessing.


Richard.
 
Last edited:
Well, not only waterproof but completely submersible lasers are very tricky to build.

So many things can go wrong. I don't know how many people actually tangled with something like that, but I know that I so far have not, so I don't have needed skills and experience to take this challenge.

I doubt many people have :undecided: You may have to be patient a bit here.
 
If you build the laser in a waterproof clear project box or a project box with a glass window this build could be damn easy! You can build a socket in the side and a rechargeable batteries and charge it through the socket, then you can seal all the insides with silicone and you can fit a HUGE heatsink in there!
 
Last edited:
You also have to consider maneuverability of such a large build inside a fish tank. Also, a superior design would actually conduct the heat generated by the laser right into the water making the duty cycle far greater.

You may want to send a PM to Jayrob and ask his advice since he seems to love building exotic things. You could also ask FlaminPyro if he would be willing to undertake such a build.

If I had the tools to cast acrylic and a lathe I could totally make a wicked submersible infinite duty cycle, AC wall powered laser water pest zapper thingy XD
 
Last edited:
Would a ZIP-LOCK Baggy work ??? Seriously ?!? I was just wondering if that would work. If it did, it would be cheap & easy. You'd be able to use a far lower mW out-put laser to accomplish the same thing & that way, the laser wouldn't melt the plastic bag.
Yes ? No ? Maybe ? IDK, but it would be something cheap to experiment with. I know that when I was much younger & into SCUBA Diving, a cheap alternative to an expensive, waterproofed dive camera, or a LUCITE housing for a regular camera, one company offered a simple ZIP-LOCK Baggy with a waterproofed, glass porthole in the side to focus the camera through. As long as the diver remained above 10 meters or so, the ZIP-LOCK Baggy was able to keep the water out. AFAIK they worked quite well & were very cheap too. Just a thought ?????? rob
 
Interesting thread... allow me to ramble a bit? ;)
Perhaps you don't need an entirely waterproof laser if all you need to do is stick the business end of the laser in the water from the top of the tank; would a more "conventional" 445 placed say in a PVC sleeve with a window on the business end do the job? And, if the diode output is polarized, one could cut the end of the tube at the Brewster angle for the wavelength (ensuring minimal loss into the water and no back reflection into the diode). This would also require proper orientation of the laser in said sleeve, and would also change the angle of the beam off the end of the device via the refraction at the window.

R.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top