In the first set up, I had the 5V power wired to the LEDs via a DC power adapter jack to terminal block, with a wire from the LEDs to the 5V pin on the arduino.
In the second set up, I unplugged the 5v from the jack and plugged it straight into the arduino power input (the larger input next to the USB input), with a wire from the 5v power pin to the LEDs.
Again my apologies is what I am describing is not clear. Hope this helped and thanks for sticking with me!