320g build/journey/experiment DIY :-) - Page 23

matinbc · #**221** 01-29-2011, 05:20 AM

Well done! Cant wait to see the rest! Good work on the photo shoot along the way.

Greenmaster · #**222** 01-29-2011, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skimmer King

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM looks fantastic Green hows is the LED light doing

sore subject... turns out my dad fried about 90% of them... that's the problem when you let your dad live in your house... doesn't always think before he does stuff. oh well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matinbc

Well done! Cant wait to see the rest! Good work on the photo shoot along the way.

Thanks... but any ideas on what I should do with my extra pump?

Lampshade · #**223** 01-29-2011, 09:14 AM

Sorry to hear about your LED's, that's rough. The injuries are not good either, but bodies heal faster than the wallet sometimes :S.

If you want a thermal shutoff for your LED's there's some decent options, I've been looking at making an Arduino controller for my future LED's and putting a few thermometers on the heatsinks to set at 130°F to shut off the LED's. can get an arduino for $15-$20 off ebay and the thermometers are about $3 a pop, pretty cheap and would let you play with the LED's a lot, and have the safety shut off coded in.

Tank looks great, can't wait to see what it looks like with fish/coral in there. The rock is amazing.

Greenmaster · #**224** 01-29-2011, 10:23 PM

I plan on getting an apex and having it do the same thing... Only have the temp set at around 100F... but I'll change the temp if it's shutting it off.

Greenmaster · #**225** 02-02-2011, 04:36 PM

Week one of a two week test... current PH is 7.9 if it stays at 8.0 or less till next week then I will fill with salt water, and test for three weeks... I may have one to two weeks with the tank empty, before the salt... if I decide to drill another hole or two...

matinbc · #**226** 02-04-2011, 07:02 PM

You could always use that extra pump to make a water feature for the front lawn! hahaha. Or hook it up to the tank for water change days and run a hose out to your driveway to get rid of the ice if we ever see cold weather this year! (Kidding)

Whats your plan for lighting then? I Have a good buddy who is a dealer for led lights and I am thinking about making my own heat sink similar to yours for a led fixture. (On a smaller scale as I am only runing a 90gal tank)

I would be interested to better understand how you wired the fixture!

Greenmaster · #**227** 02-04-2011, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matinbc

You could always use that extra pump to make a water feature for the front lawn! hahaha. Or hook it up to the tank for water change days and run a hose out to your driveway to get rid of the ice if we ever see cold weather this year! (Kidding)

Whats your plan for lighting then? I Have a good buddy who is a dealer for led lights and I am thinking about making my own heat sink similar to yours for a led fixture. (On a smaller scale as I am only runing a 90gal tank)

I would be interested to better understand how you wired the fixture!

Well I think I'm going to forget about the extra pump for now and save it as a spare/water change pump.
Lighting wise I'm just waiting for Chinese new year to be over so I can order my LED's from china.
I wired each LED to it's own driver (strait on/off no fade) I then have five drivers wired to one plug... each driving same color LED's

GMGQ · #**228** 02-04-2011, 10:22 PM

Hey, great build! Very unique concepts thrown together here, should be interested.

Regarding that extra pump and the question about circulation, I definitely think you need to add some water flow in the bottom half of your tank. The way I see it now, you have very little circulation in the bottom half of the tank, and around the rocks. You want more flow for nutrient export. Especially in all those caves you've created, the fish will probably be pooping in all those caves as if they were outhouses :P Normally with such intricate rock structures, people would build the rocks on top of PVC piping which they have drilled a million holes into, and plumb those pipes as returns from bulkheads at the bottom of the tank, so that there's water flow from within the rockwork.

That's my 2 cents on the subject.

Very exciting!

Greenmaster · #**229** 02-07-2011, 04:52 AM

So after 1.5 weeks my pH was still at 7.9 so I decided to drain it fill it with salt water and start a cycle going... as of February 6th at 8:30pm (PST) I added 60 ml of 14% ammonia solution to my tank putting my ammonia off the scale... I believe it is 6.5-7 PPM. At 9:30pm I added a 375ml/12.7 fl oz of Hagen/Nutrafin "Cycle" (bacteria), I will test in the morning and as often as I have time/deem appropriate and post results on or before Wednesday (probably on Tuesday night). After my cycle has completed (1-4 weeks) I will test my pH again... if the pH is off the chart again then I will dump the water and let it do a few more FW washes before I try the SW again.

Greenmaster · #**230** 02-09-2011, 05:49 AM

So I'll do a full run down of the cycle when it's closer to completion, so all of the info is in one post. For now I'll just say my Ammonia is around 4-5, Nitrite is around 3, and my Nitrate is around 20-30. I'll post a complete run down of my cycle once it is, well... complete.