Bedside Aquarium

[Michael Cosgrove]

Hi @Miss-Pepper,

Am I right in saying that the male connector is slightly too big in the centre (pin) for the female which is the power lead? I think it is just a matter of working out the correct size. I'll see if I can measure mine and will come back to you on this today. I recall seeing "5.5mm" mentioned but don't know (yet) how that is measured.

As @Jayefc1 wrote, it should be possible to get one off of eBay. I heard @Siege mention "CPC" in one of the videos he was in. RS Components will also probably have them.

Chat soon.

Regards
Michael

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

"5.5mm" mentioned but don't know (yet) how that is measured.

On the male connectors 5.5.mm is the length of the barrel, the diameter of the central cavity is either 2.1 or 2.5 mm.

cheers Darrel

 

[Tim Harrison]

I think this is what you need off eBay. Although it's gone up in price since I bought mine, from 99p to £1.00 🙄

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Hi @Miss-Pepper,

Am I right in saying that the male connector is slightly too big in the centre (pin) for the female which is the power lead? I think it is just a matter of working out the correct size. I'll see if I can measure mine and will come back to you on this today. I recall seeing "5.5mm" mentioned but don't know (yet) how that is measured.

As @Jayefc1 wrote, it should be possible to get one off of eBay. I heard @Siege mention "CPC" in one of the videos he was in. RS Components will also probably have them.

Chat soon.

Regards
Michael

You are right yes the pin is slightly too big! Thank you I wasn't sure what to search to get anything to come up, I'm determined to make this thing work now so I can have a nice sunrise to sunset.

I think this is what you need off eBay. Although it's gone up in price since I bought mine, from 99p to £1.00 🙄

Outrageous 😱 haha thank you for the link!

 

[Michael Cosgrove]

Hi @Miss-Pepper, firstly, apologies for naming the gender of the connectors wrongly! What appeared obvious to me was back to front! 😳

The learned member @Tim Harrison got the right answer for you despite that!! And very kindly did not point out my mistake.

I've been learning a lot more than I thought was possible about these connectors today! 😕

I've learnt that the measurements referred to as 2.1mm or 2.5mm are the thickness (what Darrel (@dw1305) was referring to), inner diameter of the hole in the male connector and diameter of the pin inside the female socket. The measurement of 5.5mm mentioned in the dimmer's website / documents is the outer diameter of the metal part of the male plug and the inner diameter of the female socket. 😱

The female connector (what you have on the power input end of the dimmer) is the one which has the hole with the pin in it. This is also referred to as a "socket" on some websites and also "input". The pin in the dimmer's socket is 2.5mm. For that you need a male 2.5mm output "plug" or "connector".
The male bit (aka "plug" or "connector") is the one that goes into the socket and has a hole in the centre. This is the bit at the output end of your power supply. Your connector being smaller than 2.5mm will likely be 2.1mm. For that, you need a 2.1mm socket which is why it won't fit the dimmer as the pin in the middle of the socket on the dimmer is too thick.

So, your adapter will need to have a 2.1mm female socket on the one end to receive the power supply's cable and a 2.5mm male connector on the other side to fit into the dimmer's cable.


(Picture from CPC-Farnell)

I've only used this pic as it's easy to see both ends in one image. The male end is on the left with the yellow plastic bit and the female on the right with the pin in the hole. 🙂

So, long story short, the ebay link that Tim provided is the correct item. If you're happy to wait, but want to take advantage of the price - you will get 4 of them for £1 - then you can go ahead. However, if you are in more of a rush and are happy to pay a little more, you can find alternative from UK suppliers (your choice entirely):

CPC-Farnell have them but you'd pay around £7odd for two of them (if you still plan to have two light sets) or about £5 for one due to their handling charge. I expect that would be waived if you needed to buy a higher value of items from them but you probably don't? So, I've not provided the links but let me know if you want them.

On eBay, there are many available. Here is one UK supplier:

plugz2go: 2.1mm to 2.5mm converter @ £1.99 each but only 2-3 days for delivery.

So far, so good. That then gets your power cable all connected through to the dimmer...

What I've not found any assurance on is the other end of your dimmer. As the cable connects currently, it's not been mentioned as a problem but a thought occurred to me that it may not be a good connection. Can you tell if it is a "little loose". If you wiggle it, does it stay firm or can you feel it give a little? It may also need an adapter to make a proper connection. @Tim Harrison , can you comment on this? Or anyone else who knows about these things. Is the fact that a 5.5mm x 2.5mm male plug can insert into a 5.5mm x 2.1mm female sock a potential connection issue or is it fine?

If you do need the same sized connector, here is an adapter from the same eBay seller as mentioned above:

plugz2go: £1.99 as per the other one. This one takes the size from 2.5mm as per the dimmer's output back down to 2.1mm as per the light's input cable.

If you have any further questions, shout or if anyone else has more advice, it would be welcome.

Regards

Michael

 

[Michael Cosgrove]

5.5.mm is the length of the barrel

Hi @dw1305, I measured my dimmer's connectors and the length of the barrel was more than that. 🙁 So I did a bit of searching and found out that the 5.5mm is the diameter of the barrel (OD on the male end and ID on the female end). See this from CPC-Farnell.

PS: I "discovered" emoji's today too!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

and found out that the 5.5mm is the diameter of the barrel (OD on the male end and ID on the female end). See this from CPC-Farnell.

That makes a lot more sense. Looking at them I can see that the barrel is longer than that.

I had no idea there was such a range of PSU possibilities until I had to start trying to source cheaper power units for scientific balances, bench pH meters etc. Often the company will sell you a replacement for ~£70, but when it arrives you can find exactly the same unit on the WWW for less than a £10.

cheers Darrel

 

[Edvet]

Often the company will sell you a replacement for ~£70,

That's what you get for being a "rich"lab🙂

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Hi @Miss-Pepper, firstly, apologies for naming the gender of the connectors wrongly! What appeared obvious to me was back to front! 😳

The learned member @Tim Harrison got the right answer for you despite that!! And very kindly did not point out my mistake.

I've been learning a lot more than I thought was possible about these connectors today! 😕

I've learnt that the measurements referred to as 2.1mm or 2.5mm are the thickness (what Darrel (@dw1305) was referring to), inner diameter of the hole in the male connector and diameter of the pin inside the female socket. The measurement of 5.5mm mentioned in the dimmer's website / documents is the outer diameter of the metal part of the male plug and the inner diameter of the female socket. 😱

The female connector (what you have on the power input end of the dimmer) is the one which has the hole with the pin in it. This is also referred to as a "socket" on some websites and also "input". The pin in the dimmer's socket is 2.5mm. For that you need a male 2.5mm output "plug" or "connector".
The male bit (aka "plug" or "connector") is the one that goes into the socket and has a hole in the centre. This is the bit at the output end of your power supply. Your connector being smaller than 2.5mm will likely be 2.1mm. For that, you need a 2.1mm socket which is why it won't fit the dimmer as the pin in the middle of the socket on the dimmer is too thick.

So, your adapter will need to have a 2.1mm female socket on the one end to receive the power supply's cable and a 2.5mm male connector on the other side to fit into the dimmer's cable.


(Picture from CPC-Farnell)

I've only used this pic as it's easy to see both ends in one image. The male end is on the left with the yellow plastic bit and the female on the right with the pin in the hole. 🙂

So, long story short, the ebay link that Tim provided is the correct item. If you're happy to wait, but want to take advantage of the price - you will get 4 of them for £1 - then you can go ahead. However, if you are in more of a rush and are happy to pay a little more, you can find alternative from UK suppliers (your choice entirely):

CPC-Farnell have them but you'd pay around £7odd for two of them (if you still plan to have two light sets) or about £5 for one due to their handling charge. I expect that would be waived if you needed to buy a higher value of items from them but you probably don't? So, I've not provided the links but let me know if you want them.

On eBay, there are many available. Here is one UK supplier:

plugz2go: 2.1mm to 2.5mm converter @ £1.99 each but only 2-3 days for delivery.

So far, so good. That then gets your power cable all connected through to the dimmer...

What I've not found any assurance on is the other end of your dimmer. As the cable connects currently, it's not been mentioned as a problem but a thought occurred to me that it may not be a good connection. Can you tell if it is a "little loose". If you wiggle it, does it stay firm or can you feel it give a little? It may also need an adapter to make a proper connection. @Tim Harrison , can you comment on this? Or anyone else who knows about these things. Is the fact that a 5.5mm x 2.5mm male plug can insert into a 5.5mm x 2.1mm female sock a potential connection issue or is it fine?

If you do need the same sized connector, here is an adapter from the same eBay seller as mentioned above:

plugz2go: £1.99 as per the other one. This one takes the size from 2.5mm as per the dimmer's output back down to 2.1mm as per the light's input cable.

If you have any further questions, shout or if anyone else has more advice, it would be welcome.

Regards

Michael

Wow thank you so much for such a detailed and informative response! You're not the only one who's learned a lot hehe. This is why I love forums, people can follow this and see what problems I had and all the lovely members who told me how to fix it so they can overcome any similar problems themselves! I'm keen to get this working so I may pay a bit extra for UK, but I imagine I have at least 4 weeks of dry start to go through before this hair grass starts doing anything so I 'could' wait...

As far as the other end goes, I've just tested it and there is a slightly wiggle if I force it around but the original connection seems to have a similar give to it if I treat it the same. So, it feels well connected but if the device doesn't work after I get an adapting connector I at least know what to try next.

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Well the new connector works perfectly! I do get some 'flashing' from the LED at a very low brightness (under 5% I think), almost like lightning! Not sure if this is damaging the bulb?

Plants are slow but steady, finally getting some actual new shoots from the hairgrass!! 😎 But sadly have lost 1 1/2 anubias plants due to mold. It wasn't very obvious, little white dots but the rhizome of my biggest cluster had to be chopped in half 🙁 it showed new growth on the 'safe part' so fingers crossed it recovers.

 

[Jayefc1]

Looks really nice glad the connector works
Now sit back and enjoy oh plus a lil hard work but we'll worth it

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Sorry for such a big gap in the journal. I'd say it's been about 6 weeks now since I planted it up and started experimenting with the DSM. I just wanted to put in some updates and also mention what I'm doing on a daily basis to maintain it. It's been a good exercise in being patient...but it's nearly there now, as soon as the hairgrass fills out it'll be time to fill up!

I spray the aquarium down with a small pressure sprayer about 2-3 times a day, and attempt to keep the humidity in with some bubble wrap. I spray it so often as things are on a slope, the back plants get dry and so does the moss on the wood. This ensures nothing dries out too badly, but it does leave me with a puddle at the lowest point! Every few days I remove the puddle by soaking some kitchen paper in it, wringing it dry, and repeating. Very quick and doesn't disturb anything. I've been using tap water and tap water with a bit of flourish excel in the sprayer, no real rhyme or reason but the sand is obviously not providing any nutrients to plants like the hairgrass.





The background plants have filled in nicely, and the moss is doing well and anchoring itself to the wood. The ranunculus inundatus is doing really well, sending out far reaching runners and what looks like a new stalk everyday.





I want to assume the hairgrass has been busy sorting out it's root system because all these shoots seem to have appeared overnight! I'm really hoping this is the start of it finally filling in between the clumps. I probably made the clumps too large, and it may need a more nutrient rich substrate to speed things along.



All in all, I've enjoyed tending to my little humid box garden and watching as new leaves appear. However, I'd very much like to get some fish in here soon and watch it develop into an underwater jungle! Fingers crossed I don't have to wait another 6 weeks 😀

 

[Tim Harrison]

Nice scape. The hairgrass clumps are fine size wise and will fill in soon enough. You can always add more if you want to speed up the process.

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Nice scape. The hairgrass clumps are fine size wise and will fill in soon enough. You can always add more if you want to speed up the process.

Thank you very much! That's good to know the clumps are ok, and it's just a slow process. Happy to wait as there's no point rushing it now! I keep toying with the idea of making it a mixed carpet with some micranthemum monte carlo but not sure if that will do well with the planned no co2. I'm following your NatureScape journal and really like the look of your carpet and planting in general. I might have to do some swapping around later on, but I guess that's part of the journey.

 

[Tim Harrison]

I keep toying with the idea of making it a mixed carpet with some micranthemum monte carlo but not sure if that will do well with the planned no co2.

I'd be inclined to just stick with hair grass. It starts to get a bit complicated if you mix it with something that requires trimming like MC, and it probably won't grow very compact without CO2 although LC might help.

I might have to do some swapping around later on, but I guess that's part of the journey.

It certainly is, just like terrestrial gardening. It's how we learn and progress. I swap stuff out all the time 🙂

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Grabbed a bargain pot of Riccia Fluitans today. It was mostly yellow but I've tweezers out the good bits and I'm experimenting mixing it in with the java fern, right at the top of the aquarium. You probably wouldn't know it was there unless I told you but we'll see what happens...I'm hoping the java moss will anchor it down! I also grabbed a pot of Leptodictyum Riparium, which to me looks very similar to the emersed java fern but I'd never seen this plant before so I've just added a bit to the wood.



Everything I've read says Riccia won't attach to wood but it's so near the surface I'm hoping floating bits will get caught on itself. Worth a go.

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Can't believe it's almost been a month again been busy with 'on land' gardening and my art so the tank has been largely ignored in this time. I've let water pool up from spraying it down, but seemingly no harm done and the hairgrass is actually growing better where the pool was collecting! I am going to order a few more plants and then fill it up very soon . I stare at the tank every morning as I struggle to get up, it'd be nice to have a little movement!





Riccia doing nicely in amongst the java moss, and I've tied it to the branches as it kept falling off lol.





I have the lights on pretty much all day currently, so I will have to devise a new lighting timer schedule that allows me to view it in the morning, largely ignore it during the day and view again before bed in the evening. Any suggestions please?

 

[TAJ-Coral]

Well I flooded the aquarium on Wednesday, added ammonia along with some Cloverleaf pearls as well as squeezing some filter floss mulm in from another aquarium to speed the cycle up a bit. Two days later I already had some nitrite showing up, but my tank is in this really horrible messy stage. Some diatoms, even a bit of cyano which I am removing and I've done two 50% water changes on separate days. I cannot wait to get some shrimp in there to help me clean the leaves 😉 On another note, I'm really impressed how quiet the little Denerle filter is I got, don't even notice it now! But it's filter media is pretty crap. Not sure how to modify it yet but I think I will have to.

 

[TBRO]

Good work, diatoms are horrible. They always seem to go on and on for me, when I’m just about to loose hope they dissolve.

Maybe try nerite snails, they are really good at scouring rocks and anubias leaves.

Personally I would get rid of the Riccia, it always seems to disintegrate and get stuck everywhere, messy stuff. T


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[TAJ-Coral]

Good work, diatoms are horrible. They always seem to go on and on for me, when I’m just about to loose hope they dissolve.

Maybe try nerite snails, they are really good at scouring rocks and anubias leaves.

Personally I would get rid of the Riccia, it always seems to disintegrate and get stuck everywhere, messy stuff. T


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aren't they just awful! As soon as the tank is cycled I'll try some snails, shrimp, ottos the lot

Thanks I'll keep an eye on the Riccia, I do keep fishing little bits out that never stuck down properly but if it all goes that way so be it!