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TMC mini 400 LED tile

Lee Sweeting

Member
Joined
7 Jul 2013
Messages
677
Hi! I'm thinking of starting a nano (20 ltr) iwagumi tank and was wondering if anyone has got any experience with the TMC 400 mini LED tile?

I'm looking to grow HC and dwarf hair grass, the usual iwagumi type plants. Will this tile be sufficient? I'm not sure how bright these tiles are? Would i also need to buy the TMC controller so i can dim to fit my needs?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Lee.
 
Good choice of light, lindy (ldcgroomer) is the person for this thread she has one and is finding it far to bright without a controller, im sure she can answer you much better :)
 
I'm running these tiles on both my 40L nanos, and they are a lot of light for a tank that size.
The controller is set at 55% and that's with over half the surface covered by floaters, and everything grows like crazy..
 
Hi, I raised mine higher as I have no controller, currently at 30cm above tank and still really bright! May get a controller in the new year...
 
This is the standard white TMC 400 you're talking about right?
I've looked at these before, didnt know the aquaray controller worked on these tho... it's so difficult to find any good info on the TMC page... all it seems to do is try and tell me where has stock no real details of the products...
bah!
 
I run 2 with a controller over a fluval roma 90 at about 65%.
The only downsides in my opinion is that I preferred the colour rendition and colour choices you get from T5 and that there is no option to turn 1 or both units on from the controller when working on the aquarium outside of the pre programmed times, you need to disconnect the unit and the power supply from the controller and connect the unit straight onto the power supply (make sure you unplug the power supply before doing this otherwise the connections will arc).
I didnt care much for the Aquaray mounting bracket either as it made the tank look top heavy so made my own from clear acrylic sheet and the supplied mounts.
 
The controller works with one tile but i think it works with 2 aquaray strips. A bit annoying that if you want 2 tiles you need two controllers
 
My Aquaray 2 channel controller which doesnt have the storm function works fine with both my 400 tiles plugged in. You dont need 2 controllers.
 
Really? All of the stuff I've read says otherwise but I'll go by you. Great, that settles it, a controller on the list.
 
I run 2 with a controller over a fluval roma 90 at about 65%.
The only downsides in my opinion is that I preferred the colour rendition and colour choices you get from T5 and that there is no option to turn 1 or both units on from the controller when working on the aquarium outside of the pre programmed times, you need to disconnect the unit and the power supply from the controller and connect the unit straight onto the power supply (make sure you unplug the power supply before doing this otherwise the connections will arc).
I didnt care much for the Aquaray mounting bracket either as it made the tank look top heavy so made my own from clear acrylic sheet and the supplied mounts.


Hi Natty! Any chance you could post some pics of your acrylic bracket? I was thinking of doing the same thing, kind of like the ADA auqasky but with the tile. Like you i'm not so keen on the TMC bracket, and didn't buy one as a result.

Thanks,

Lee.
 
Only just seen your post and its funny you should ask that as I took one last night.

SWjYpOM.jpg


Unfortunately I dont have any close ups but can take some if you need
The angled support bar is from a discarded metal and cloth magazine rack that slots onto a slightly smaller dia tube that slots into a straight piece from the same rack that is fixed to the back of the cabinet allowing the light to be raised and lowered by lifting the top tube.
I had to add an aluminium angle to the rear of the acrylic as it started to curve, you should be ok with one tile though and will have to decide on a way to mount the fitting.
I used nylon bolts and nuts but it might be better to use stainless, screwfix is a good place to go and thats were the tube (pipe) brackets are from that mount the acrylic to the tube.
I followed advice on the web for drilling the holes in acrylic but didnt use any special drill bits.
Acrylic (6mm) was from here as it appeared to be a good price.

CLEAR ACRYLIC PERSPEX PLASTIC SHEET - CUSTOM SIZES 2mm - 6mm THICK MATERIAL | eBay

You could use the expensive Aqauray bars to mount the tiles to the acrylic and it would be a bit neater but I didnt want to spend any more money so used the supplied plastic brackets.
One day I will get a similar sized optiwite tank and I think it will look even better over that with a little tidying up.
 
That acrylic mount looks great. You should loook on ebay for the aquaray aluminium bars as I picked up 2 for 99p each plus postage!
 
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