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A Blast from the past! L.E.D Custom lighting

krazypara3165

Member
Joined
23 Aug 2012
Messages
591
Location
Warrington, Cheshire
Howdy! my name is craig.

As some of you are aware, i am about to embark on a huge journey! after buying a second hand 4ft tank and equipment, and after the brace bar snapped during testing, i have ordered a 285l Beast and i will be starting a journal on that very soon!

Thankfully, this is not my first attempt at a planted aquarium (altho it will be my first attempt doing things the RIGHT way) here is my previous tank, including a custom L.E.D build and every wrong thing to possibly do to an aquarium! (thankfully i discovered this website!)

The Tank - Fluval edge
plants - no idea, most usually ended up dying apart from the fern!
Fish - varied but at one point was three neons, three glowlights, two shrimp two clams and two rams (yes RAMS!!!)

I bought the tank two years ago and had grand ideas for it! however in the early days i had servere difficulty with growing most plants in there (apart from java fern) i also struggled to keep fish alive (guppys when i had them and the rams) upon reading 'the official edge thread' it appeared the standard halogen lighting was inefficient and crap to put it bluntly so i assumed that was why my plants were dying. the result was to upgrade the standard lighting!

The tetras..
PC034755.jpg


The Rams!!!!!!
PC034752.jpg


the L.E.D upgrade consisted of 6 cree L.E.D's 3 white and three royal blue connected to a heatsink that was wired to the Edge's bar and on/off switch on two different circuits.

This was the wiring behind my drawes. it consisted of 1 240v feed in, 2 step down power transformers to 33v, 2 L.E.D controllers and then onto the cree led's which were wired in series.
PC034759.jpg


....and the cree L.E.D's (wide angle lenses were put on top to disperse the light more evenly)
PC034743.jpg


The final product!
PC034748.jpg

PC034747.jpg

PC034741.jpg

PC034740.jpg

PC034739.jpg


All in the equipment cost me around £200 and was imported from america and china.

For a noob, i was ecstatic with the results..........however it didnt last long. It did not take long for the tall plants to die, no worries i thought as the staff at my lfs said i can now grow the likes of hc cuba and hair grass ect. and tbh, they did ok for a while that was until i started with horrific algae problems which i now realise was cause by way too much light, far to little co2 (dosing excel) little or no ferts, and general poor maintenance.

amongst other things i had two catastrophe's when doing water changes...... bubbles appeared everywhere and near enough wiped out my livestock twice (rip rams shrimp and one clam)

the tank is now a mere shell of its former glory, 6 neon tetras remain alongside a black phantom (or widow) tetra, 2 cherry shrimp, 1 glass shrimp and a clam. with an annubis thats doing well and one unidentified plant. (after a severe reduction in lighting)

basically the point im trying to make, is that the knowledge i have learned from this forum is invaluable, and i have made some very very costly mistakes which could have been avoided if i would have done the proper research! i aim to take the knowledge i have learned form my mistakes and from here to make my new aquarium as good as possible. i know i have yet many more mistakes to make, and a lot more to learn but with the advice ive been receiving from here its no longer daunting and i am jumping back into the planted community with all guns blazing!

i would like to say thanks to everyone that has given me advice so far, and to all those that are always willing to help!

Just WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!

Craig.

Oh, and here is how the edge looks today,
IMG_20121108_235734.jpg




i apologise for any spelling errors or mistakes- just came in of a 12 hour shift and my grammar is poor at the best of times!!!!!!
 
The tall central plant llikely died because it wasn't aquatic (the white/green leaved one).
 
Hi all,
The tall central plant llikely died because it wasn't aquatic (the white/green leaved one)........cheers! that was probably the only lesson i learnt from the edge thread! it beggers belief tho that i still have three lfs that still stock that plant as a submerged aquarium plant!
I couldn't agree more it really p*sses me off, the plant was Dracaena "deremensis" (D. fragrans), and it is a good house plant, but it needs careful watering in the winter! <http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=2845>

cheers Darrel
 
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