Rich Jackson
Member
Looking good! Like a good summed tank. I would have to put some gloss white vinyl over the weir to cover it as seeing the pipework would annoy me.
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Wife approved a fish tank! 120L+70L sump+lots of DIY=my planted tank :)
- Thread starter RandomFactoid
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Measured 50cm of the strip I ordered (24v, RGBW), that's pulling 0.39A, so around 9.36W. Will stuff at least 4 of such strips, so should be reasonably bright. I know watts and luminosity don't correlate very well, but hey...at least I have cool white white, plus red/green/blue separately on every LED, so should do the trick.
Sump and dividers.
I've ordered some pre-cut glass...which appeared to be 1-1.5mm too long. Thought I'd just sand it down with a sander. Which kind of worked, but was taking off probably a few microns per minute with 80/120 grit sandpaper. We're all busy...no time for that.
What I did next...I'm not too proud of and it wasn't pretty...glassworkers and 'health and safety department' would probably expell me from Hogwarts for this, but screw it.
Heavy artillery to the rescue. Remember the glass hole saws? Well...if you keep them at an angle, they chew through glass like butter. Not pretty at all, edges get chipped, but as these are just dividers and won't bear any load, I'll let it slip.
I've ordered some pre-cut glass...which appeared to be 1-1.5mm too long. Thought I'd just sand it down with a sander. Which kind of worked, but was taking off probably a few microns per minute with 80/120 grit sandpaper. We're all busy...no time for that.
What I did next...I'm not too proud of and it wasn't pretty...glassworkers and 'health and safety department' would probably expell me from Hogwarts for this, but screw it.
Heavy artillery to the rescue. Remember the glass hole saws? Well...if you keep them at an angle, they chew through glass like butter. Not pretty at all, edges get chipped, but as these are just dividers and won't bear any load, I'll let it slip.
Added 2 more dividers in my sump...and had to test it. Wife with food coloring to the rescue 
That was pretty
That was pretty 
zozo
Member
I've used the cheaper extruded acrylic sheet to make the sumps dividers, which can easily be cut to size and corrected with a sharp box cutter and or sandpaper... That was quite some years ago and it still runs today without any issues. For tank building, silicon and acrylic don't go together, but for dividers in a glass sump that don't bear a load, it works a charm.
Should've figured to do that...oh well. Good tip for next time🙂👍I've used the cheaper extruded acrylic sheet to make the sumps dividers, which can easily be cut to size and corrected with a sharp box cutter and or sandpaper... That was quite some years ago and it still runs today without any issues. For tank building, silicon and acrylic don't go together, but for dividers in a glass sump that don't bear a load, it works a charm.
Tiny update. Lights. I promissed they'd become smart one day and they kind of did.
I've decided to keep it simple and go with higher luminosity LED strips. Unfortunately, unless you buy the really expensive, their brightness is a lottery. So I just went for whoever promissed more lumens/meter and settled with 24V RGBW (cool white) strip from amazon. (£30 from amazon for 5M) This allows me to have a separate cool white LED, plus RGB.
I also got a Shelly RGBW2 that can control either 1 RGBW strip or 4 single colour strips. Only the latter mode allowed me to control separate color channels independently, so I went with the single color mode - as if every color is a different strip. What's great is that Shelly readily integrates with Home Assistant, so automations shouldn't be an issue.
I dismantled my old light - found some thermal paste under the PCB with 1W not-too-bright LEDs.
After a bit of tidying up and wiring this is the end result. Power usage at full blast - around 35W. If I believed what the product description says, that should yeld 1932 lumens at 100% (in reality - undoubtedly less). Will see what the plants think about this
One step closer...
I've decided to keep it simple and go with higher luminosity LED strips. Unfortunately, unless you buy the really expensive, their brightness is a lottery. So I just went for whoever promissed more lumens/meter and settled with 24V RGBW (cool white) strip from amazon. (£30 from amazon for 5M) This allows me to have a separate cool white LED, plus RGB.
I also got a Shelly RGBW2 that can control either 1 RGBW strip or 4 single colour strips. Only the latter mode allowed me to control separate color channels independently, so I went with the single color mode - as if every color is a different strip. What's great is that Shelly readily integrates with Home Assistant, so automations shouldn't be an issue.
I dismantled my old light - found some thermal paste under the PCB with 1W not-too-bright LEDs.
After a bit of tidying up and wiring this is the end result. Power usage at full blast - around 35W. If I believed what the product description says, that should yeld 1932 lumens at 100% (in reality - undoubtedly less). Will see what the plants think about this
One step closer...
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Myrtle
Member
I can only see the last picture
Think I've fixed it. It was showing fine to me, but I've noticed if I just paste a picture into a post, some people only see a lot of random letters. Is it showing now ?I can only see the last picture
Myrtle
Member
Yep! Much better!
Please read this on my experience of LED strips. Yours do look to be way away from the water, but even so condensation will be the killer.
Wife approved a fish tank! 120L+70L sump+lots of DIY=my planted tank :)
Obviously your mileage will be different, as they say.....
Wife approved a fish tank! 120L+70L sump+lots of DIY=my planted tank :)
Obviously your mileage will be different, as they say.....
Thanks. I don't think i would've used strips if they were any closer to the tank. Will see. If anything, I'll just replace them with separate led chips. I wanted to use RGBW chips as all the expensive manufacturers now do and the only cheap way to do it is by means of a led strip.
Finally found some time to start putting it all together.
Some Tropica soil, 1-2-Grow plants, dragon stone and...dry start is on
Plants:
Some Tropica soil, 1-2-Grow plants, dragon stone and...dry start is on
Plants:
- HC 'Cuba'
- Proserpinaca palustris 'Cuba'
- Bucephalandra 'Kedagang'
- Rotala H'ra
- Pogostemon Erectus
- Helanthium tenellum
Been awhile. I did use my DIY light for some time, however one evening my finger slipped and I ordered a Chihiros WRGB2. Then got a CO2 extinguisher, filled the tank with water...waited some. Then got an algae+cyanobacteria bloom, which I've dealt with "Easy Life Blue Exit" which I've used before and some 7-10 days later the cyano seems to be gone. I'm using water from a local Spotless Water 'vending machine' that, apparently, window cleaners use..but they also advertise that it's good for fish tanks. Tests show a very soft water...so why not. £2 for 40ish liters is a bargain anyway for kinda-RO water.
Anyway. Currently this is how it looks. Will see how it goes further.
Anyway. Currently this is how it looks. Will see how it goes further.
hypnogogia
Member
I use it when I run out of rainwater. It’s got very low TDS - about 10 from my local vending machine, so is vey good.
Kaliilo
Member
Ive never heard of spotless water how did I not know this was a thing???
how did I not know this was a thing???