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Thoughts on the ADA Background light

eastoceansg.com

DET Light Screen for Aquarium Background

DET LIGHT SCREEN is a LED aquarium background screen that can easily be installed with provided hooks on the rear side of aquarium tank Comes with a Sky-blue film and Sunset film which create a beautiful background of your choice LIGHT SCREEN has a dimmer with remote controller that enables you...
eastoceansg.com eastoceansg.com

Just FYI as I'm from Singapore so it may or may not be applicable to UK.

I recently bought a DET Light screen in 60x45 size (I understand ADA only does 60x36). The shop I bought it for also stocks ADA stuff and the ADA light screen is like 3x the price.

The DET controller is a removable 'in-line' unit which does not work with timers (i.e. if power off, the light will not come on again when power is on with the wireless controller attached).

Edit: Today the timer worked with the wireless controller attached. When the timer powered on, the light screen turned on with the last remembered settings. I must have pressed something wrongly earlier.
 
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David Shanahan said:
I wonder if it helps with lower stem health in deep tanks. Just a thought 🤔
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Depends..
Deferring to an authority..
barrreport.com

What Causes Stem Rot?

I just thought I would put this out there. One more than one occasion and in different substrates and even in tanks at full throttle(with re: to c02 30 ppm, EI fertilization, and adequate lighting), I have noticed stem rot. This is where, a plant(ambulia, Bacopa monnieri, Ludwiga Repens...
barrreport.com barrreport.com
Here's the general idea behind what is referred to as "auto fragmentation".
Low nutrients, low CO2 particularly and low N, bad place to live.
Maybe current, maybe light etc, anyway, the plants break up in hopes of drifting away to a better place and regrowing, sort of like seed dispersal, but much faster and better to find new and better habitat.

Generally poor CO2, poor nutrients(easy to rule out light and nutrients).

Regards,
Tom Barr
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My own personal thought.. If the plant has sufficient healthy biomass above the rot translocation of nutrients should suffice to keep the less productive parts healthy.
If they become err "parasitic" consuming but not producing that could cause some response and rot.
Plants will trans-locate nutrients, think trees in fall as chlorophyll is broken down and stored.
In the autumn, when deciduous leaves begin to get old, the leaf is able to break down some of the expensive pigments it has produced (such as chlorophyll) and absorb parts of them back into the stems for other uses. When the green color of chlorophyll is gone, the other colors are unmasked.
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More questions than answers really. Is this "spreading" mechanism active (plant signals start a shift to necrosis) or passive (lack of "on site" nutrients cause necrosis)?
 
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DIY for about £20.
www.ukaps.org

Updating an old aquarium, Juwel Rekord 72, and other ramblings

I like the effects of that, how did you make the light screen? I have seen the prices of the ADA ones :eek:
www.ukaps.org
I will say, the foam board back has eventually warped. That said, it would cost me next to nothing to pop a new straight piece of foam board on there.
Pros: cost, can set own colours, timing, light strength.
Cons: Its not posh ADA.
 
Ed Wiser said:
View attachment 169807

As I have an ADA 120p it would have been a special order. So I bought the Lightground background. Very happy with it. Very well made. I had tried the DIY method. I can make anything as I am a retired industrial maintenance man.
But I decided I could not get the same look have trying the different diy method.
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Ed. Love the look of your tank and really like the juxtaposition between the wood and Skype on one side and very green portion on the other.

Can I ask what lights you’re using please?
 
DIY'd one myself. Total cost was about £30 i guess, mostly on the LEDs and the ESP8266 controller. Other stuff i had lying around. Diffusers from a broken TV and framed with some old wood battens.


IMG_6090.jpeg
 
mangeltrueman said:
DIY'd one myself. Total cost was about £30 i guess, mostly on the LEDs and the ESP8266 controller. Other stuff i had lying around. Diffusers from a broken TV and framed with some old wood battens.
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Great job! But the critical component is the light diffuser. Solutions like semi-transparent films or acrylic panels deliver sub-par results... and buying a proper light diffuser raises the costs close to the commercial products :(

PS: any reason to DYI the LED controller instead of using a WiFi controllable LED strip?
 
arcturus said:
Great job! But the critical component is the light diffuser. Solutions like semi-transparent films or acrylic panels deliver sub-par results... and buying a proper light diffuser raises the costs close to the commercial products :(

PS: any reason to DYI the LED controller instead of using a WiFi controllable LED strip?
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The diffuser does work pretty well for me. I also routed out the frame so that i can set the leds back as well as diffusing them on the routed out section. Doing this prevents any of the annoying "dotting" that you would often associate with DIY LED light boxes.

1641224640796.jpeg


As for the controller, I have a lot of my home automation set up to control WLED on ESP8266 so its an easy thing to set up for me. Fully wifi controllable, along with much more powerful controls of the LEDS as they are individually addressable. Ive got a cool "aurora" style setting which makes it seems like there are the northern lights running around the lightbox. Not sure you get that with the commercial products?
 
mangeltrueman said:
Ive got a cool "aurora" style setting which makes it seems like there are the northern lights running around the lightbox. Not sure you get that with the commercial products?
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Not sure if the commercial background panels have such degree of flexibility. But if you are building your own panel you can use a WiFi (or Bluetooth) controllable LED flexible strip bar with fully individual configurable segments that support colour gradients and dozens of fancy effects. I am trying to find a suitable way to diffuse the light of one of those bars but so far without too much success.
 
CJM70 said:
Ed. Love the look of your tank and really like the juxtaposition between the wood and Skype on one side and very green portion on the other.

Can I ask what lights you’re using please?
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The light I am using are GHL Mitras
LX 7X04
They are fully adjustable lights.
Coming from a Saltwater background. I learned how important fully adjustable spectrum lights are.
I have them dialed in now so the plants grow but hair algae doesn’t.

GHL Store. Buy GHL products online from the manufacturer

Whether aquarium, terrarium or pond, here you will find first-class products for the passionate user, made in Germany
store.aquariumcomputer.com store.aquariumcomputer.com
 
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