# First Nano - 10 Gallon DIY (Light Finished!)



## 691175002

I haven't kept fish in quite a while; however, I used to have a planted high tech 50 gallon which I kept going for a few years. Most of the equipment has been sitting in the basement for quite a while but I decided to get back into the hobby.

This journal is going to start off with a fair amount of DIY before going into a typical planted tank log. I figure that splitting it into a bunch of threads is a pain and this way everyone can follow the entire project. Plus I feel more at home in the nano forum since you guys are the ones who convinced me to pick up a 10 gallon to begin with.

First step is ripping the rim off a cheap 10 gallon.









Guided by a tutorial whose location I cannot remember, the rim came off pretty easily but the glass underneath is a little rough and slightly chipped. Also, the glass panes don't quite line up but I live in Canada and getting an ADA tank up here would be too expensive (Plus I'm hoping to DIY almost every component of the tank in some way).









Anyways, onwards to the bottom rim. The tank was built a little weirdly where the bottom pane is raised but it doesn't seem to impact the strength of the tank. I was pretty nervous loosening up the silicone since I wasn't sure if one unlucky scrape would turn the tempered(?) bottom pane into sand.









After the rims come off it took a metric crapload of scraping to fix up the sillicone. Was it worth the work? Perhaps, but I wouldn't do it again.









Finally I stuck it in the bathtub with some non toxic washable markers to make sure it doesn't explode all over the floor. Looking good for now, I'll paint it tomorrow and then stick it downstairs while the rest of the project comes together.

Pretty typical start but I've got some tricks up my sleeve. LEDs, glass and microcontrollers to come. I'll keep regular updates going.


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## 691175002

Time to do something a little more exciting. I am going to be running your generic aquaclear 20 on this tank but the intake tube is really ugly. I've been drooling over all the glassware canister filters have, why no love for HOB?









Looks like we are going to have to correct this somehow... The picture is pyrex tubing from 4mm upwards.









I was hoping to have a diameter of tubing that would fit without modification, but this is slightly too thin.









Take it over to the torch...

















A rim and a small bulge later, it makes an airtight pressfit with the U piece.









I didn't want to set up a full jig to cut the slits precisely, but I also wanted the cuts to at least look ok so I stuck a few pieces of wax to the tube and clamped some wood down.









Ideally one would want a lapidary saw for this kind of work, but this tile saw did an ok job.









All done.

Works perfectly and looks great. I've already got a lot of pictures in this post and it looks lonely in the tank so that's all for today.


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## KentCurtis

Awesome job on the HOB intake, thats really cool and I have never seen it done to a HOB. This journal should definitely be interesting, especially since we have already seen your DIY savviness!


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## Ugly Genius

So far, this is an awesome journal. Keep it up.

Please.


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## CL

are those glass pipes? This is pretty awesome. Are the markers to help detect a leak? I would be careful with the bathtub- not all of them have completely flat bottoms.


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## Kayen

Very nice, job on the pipes, i'm thinking of doing a pair of acrylics for my tank.
An alternative to ADA tanks : Aquarium Illusions in Edmonton: Great quality and they offer starphire, very nice stuff.
Nice start though - that flaming picture doesn't look too safe.
Intuitive idea with the HOB - i don't know why people on this forum are obsessed with canisters - sure they're really nice and all but , on a nano a HOB will do damn well as well.


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## 691175002

The intake is glass. I have about 5 years of soft glass lampworking experience (Basically solid shapes) but I am picking up a little scientific glassblowing for the aquarium. When I work I use a much smaller flame, but it looks more impressive all the way open 

All the glassware you see in aquariums is borosilicate (pyrex) "hard" glass which I don't normally use. This intake was pretty simple since most of the work was done on a saw but I am working on some more complex stuff for the CO2 system and if I ever upgrade to a canister I will have another project .

The markers were to detect a leak since the bathtub got wet despite my best efforts. I laid out a few inches of pink foam to even out the pressure on the tank, you can see it just peeking out from underneath.

I'll check out aquarium illusions, I'm in Calgary so it is pretty close too. I've also got a bunch of 1/2" scrap acrylic taking up space so if this tank goes well I was thinking of trying to build a nano with grotesquely thick sides.


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## Kayen

If you're in Calgary i think it was Golds that builds tanks - which i heard are pretty good.
By the way nice job on the pipes, i might consider persuading you to sell me some in the future ;p .
As for 1/2" it isn't THAT thick, but it would be thick enough to detract from the tank, but hey it's acrylic.


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## 691175002

I'll take a look at golds. Since I already have this tank I'll do what I can with it but I have a feeling that the aquariums are going to multiply in the future.

Again back to something more traditional, black paint on the back of the tank.









Because of the rather peculiar positioning of the glass panes the bottom is raised about half an inch. I decided to take advantage of this and paint the bottom which gives it pretty sharp looking "rim" along the bottom.









I had some clear sticker paper and I was going to print out a logo or something to go along the bottom until I realized printers don't have white ink...









And finally downstairs where it will live for the next little while. Its on concrete and near a drain should things make a turn for the worst. The front and back panes bow out about 1.5mm each but it still appears pretty solid. I have a few ideas to brace the tank without ruining the look.

Next up is the light. It will be powered by 11 3W LEDs and 60 5mm LEDs of varying colors for a total of around 36W of light with a microcontroller to orchestrate it all. I also have a somewhat unorthodox plan for the enclosure.

Stay tuned.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Go pink styrofoam!!!


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## herefisheefishee

I'd spotted your thread the other day when i was looking at rimless setups. 
I like how this is progressing, good job with the glass work!


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## KentCurtis

Great work. I was definitely impressed with the glass work, but I have a feeling that when all the technicalities of the LED and microcontroller are posted I will be blown away haha.


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## Register

691175002 said:


> The front and back panes bow out about 1.5mm each but it still appears pretty solid.


My AGA 10 gallon bows out the same with both top and bottom rim in place.


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## Burks

Looks good. I love the intake idea!


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## Kapow3000

Great DIY...subscribed!


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## 691175002

Good to know that the 1.5mm bowing isn't too abnormal. When you are looking at the tank from the top it seems pretty excessive.


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## Register

691175002 said:


> Good to know that the 1.5mm bowing isn't too abnormal. When you are looking at the tank from the top it seems pretty excessive.


Never noticed it till I put on a glass top and had that straight edge to compare it to. Seems from asking around this is normal with a 10g tank.


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## 691175002

As I mentioned in the first post, I used to have a 50 gallon high tech. Since I want to reduce the cost of this 10 gallon as much as possible, I will be making use of some of the equipment from the old tank, namely the CO2 system and the light.

Both are going to be modified, I will be replacing some parts of the CO2 system with new glassware (diy of course) and the light is going to have to be chopped down and retrofitted.

And here's the victim:








36" Coralife fluorescent. It may seem like a shame to gut this guy and chop it up after having received many years of faithful service from it; however, I do not expect to ever use it again.

I am going to be reusing the extruded aluminum enclosure because it is pretty, and whatever electronics that I can scavenge from it.









Internally it is rather dusty but the construction is pretty top notch. No glue of any kind, everything is held down with screws.









The ballasts will have to go, but the 12V supply and fans will remain. I will also make use of the two switches on the side to control the light. It would take a lot of effort to build such a well equipped enclosure myself.









And here is the plan, drop in a 24V power supply and a microcontroller. I've used an arduino for this picture but the final version will make use of a PIC 16F88. The 12V transformer originally in the light will power the fans and microcontroller and the 24V supply will do the LEDs.

The electronics will take up a bit of space on the sides but I don't think it will be a huge issue for even light distribution.

Anyways, I am going to break one of the cardinal rules of DIY by keeping a running list of costs for the DIY projects. 

I would keep a list of the total cost of the tank as well, but then I would get depressed. I'd forgotten how expensive things like substrate can become.

Tank: 17CAD (Petsmart)
Glass Tubing: <1$ (Glass tubing is cents per foot)
Light: 42USD (I'll break this down more later, many of the components are surplus/scrap)


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## Reginald2

Wow, I'm watching.


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## kyle loves gars

Cannot wait to see this project grow. your doing a very good job so far keep it up! :thumbsup:


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## 691175002

Time to start playing with the electronics. I ordered all of the LEDs from dealextreme because they are by far the cheapest source.

Cree LEDs come in several "bins" with price increasing exponentionally with brightness. When you are making a flashlight that can only fit a single LED it might be worth paying double for a 20% increase in brightness, but since I can throw as many LEDs into the enclosure as I want I went with the cheaper ones.

Here are the two models I ordered:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1302
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2395
I chose these two because they have slightly different color temperatures (5K and ~7K I believe). They were actually priced a few dimes more when I ordered, and now they are practically a steal at 3.15$ a piece shipped. I got 5 of one and 6 of the other so I would have one to play with.









Here is one of each running very dimly. I spent some time troubleshooting to discover that I had fried the potentiometer I was using to regulate current.

Second try, this time with ~6 resistors in parallel to get around 750mA.








My driver circuits are LM1084's that I ordered as free samples. If you can pull a power supply out of a dumpster you can literally build an entire 10 gallon lighting fixture for 30$.

And running:








These guys are so bright it is literally painful to look at them (Which is why I covered them with paper). Since all the light is coming from a pin sized point it is absolutely blinding. I honestly cannot tell the difference in color between the two LEDs but I haven't been able to examine them closely either.









Without the paper... I think the picture speaks for itself.


You may also have remembered me mentioning something about colors. I will be using yellow LEDs for a sunset/sunrise effect and blue LEDs during noon and as moonlight. I got 30 of each and they only added a few dollars to the order:









But these guys are for another time and post; stay tuned.


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## Kapow3000

Holy crap that is bright...OUCH!


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## chase127

>


nice


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## paulrw

those lights are freakin bright! your a diy ninja.awsome


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## 691175002

The light is still going smoothly and I decided it was time to wire up the colored LEDs.

Frankly, lighting a tank with 5mm LEDs isn't very practical, but the idea of having a few colors to fade in and out appealed to me so I went with it.

I decided that the easiest way to wire them would be to mount them in sets on a PCB with a current regulator, essentially making them self-contained lights that just need 24V.

Since these are cheap I should have probbably just used a resistor to limit current but I had a bag of LDO regulators so I decided to splurge. Everything is getting 30mA.









This is the first prototype I built to make sure it worked.









I used a sponge and tape to keep all the LEDs flush when soldering.









Because of the different forward voltages between blue and yellow LEDs I am making 5 sets of 6 blue and 3 sets of 10 yellow.









These can't compare to the 3W LEDs, but they do give a nice amount of blue. Unfortunately they have very tight focus so I will get a pretty strong spotlight effect, but since these will mainly simulate moonlight it should be fine.









And the yellows... Either I lost an LED or deal extreme missed one, but I ended up making a 10, 10 and a 9. No big deal.









The blues are much brighter than the yellow but both look bright enough to give the effect I am going for.


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## KentCurtis

Nice work man. Keep the pictures coming, I dont think any of us have seen such an in-depth journal with a DIY LED setup!


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## herefisheefishee

Yeah this is looking good.
I was thinking along the same lines the other day, i want to make my own LED moonlight. Buying one for $15+ seems a little silly for how cheap the parts are to DIY.


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## JadeIceGreen

You are like some DIY god to me as the only thing I ever do myself is to change bulbs!
I am really looking forward to this aquarium.


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## Phoenix-cry

Okay, it looks like someone has mad skillz! Sweet!


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## 691175002

Thanks for the comments everyone! I am really more of a jack of all trades, master of none but with the internet and enough time you can pull off pretty much anything :icon_lol:.

Upon the revelation that you can connect PH probes, temperature sensors and a whole host of other electronics to a micro controller I have been tempted to retrofit the light with an LCD and go all out but I am holding myself back for now.



herefisheefishee said:


> Yeah this is looking good.
> I was thinking along the same lines the other day, i want to make my own LED moonlight. Buying one for $15+ seems a little silly for how cheap the parts are to DIY.


The electronics for a moonlight are pretty straightforward but making it look professional could be tough. On my old 50 gallon I had a few meters of wire snaking across the top to light up 20 or so white LEDs at night. Worked fine, but was pretty ugly. 

Adding them to an existing lighting fixture would work nicely though, especially if you have one like the corallife which already has a 12V power supply you can borrow.


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## KentCurtis

Ahh! I saw your username as the last post and I was expecting some more pictures of things I dont understand!! Dont let me down, I need to see some more of this stuff! Any ideas on the tanks inhabitants and/or plants?


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## 691175002

KentCurtis said:


> Ahh! I saw your username as the last post and I was expecting some more pictures of things I dont understand!! Dont let me down, I need to see some more of this stuff! Any ideas on the tanks inhabitants and/or plants?


Haha, don't worry, I've got plenty of pictures coming. The next step involves some big machines and plexiglass so I'm sure it will be entertaining.

I am probably going to start off the tank with plants only and then add cherry shrimp and a pair of nerite snails if I can find some.

Going to start immersed (the tank will take long enough to set up as is); hopefully with some driftwood, HC, microsword and then whatever else I can find.

This is likely to be a no-fish tank for a while, but if I ever get the urge to buy fish here is my list of fish I would like:
Zebra Otto
Celestial Pearl Danio
Blue Ram

Some of them are more of a dream though, I doubt I will ever get my hands on any zebra ottos and I'm not sure if the tank is big enough for a ram(s). I have yet to find a LFS that sells CPDs so those might be a pain to get as well.


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## Kayen

Try checking out Big Als, they're a safe bet for CPD's i think i saw a few at the one up here.
Also try going there for plants - i hear the one in Calgary has HC, glosso, and UG if that's of any help.

I saw a zebra otto up here in etown but i forgot which store.

You could try asking for a special order at an LFS.
I'll give you a heads up if i see more up here.

Also if you're in need of manzanita - see link in my siggy.


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## CL

This build is just plain sick! You have some awesome diy skills and some very cool tools! :thumbsup:


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## 691175002

Kayen said:


> Try checking out Big Als, they're a safe bet for CPD's i think i saw a few at the one up here.
> Also try going there for plants - i hear the one in Calgary has HC, glosso, and UG if that's of any help.
> 
> I saw a zebra otto up here in etown but i forgot which store.
> 
> You could try asking for a special order at an LFS.
> I'll give you a heads up if i see more up here.
> 
> Also if you're in need of manzanita - see link in my siggy.


Thanks for the info, I had been concerned about finding the plants since the close fish stores don't have any plants (or at least ones that aren't half dead).

There used to be a big als nearby but they closed it down a few years ago and the remaining one in Calgary was far enough away that I didn't check it out (At this point I'm mostly browsing anyways).

I've considered asking a LFS to order in some zebra ottos but I'm a little scared of the price. I'm not sure if I am confident enough to buy fish more than a few dollars each.

I have a piece of that "other" type of driftwood which is thicker and dark brown but I prefer the look of manzanita so I might end up picking some up from your link.


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## Kayen

They are based out of Millet Alberta, so closer to Edmonton, but they can ship.
They had a bunch of nicer branchier pieces that would've been perfect for a 10gallon.
But someone purchased it all ...(me) .

Also special orders will cost alot more.
I asked about a few species of microrasboras .. the price came up to be quite a bit.
Also another place is PJ's Pets.
I'm finding the one closest to me has a very nice selection of plants every now and then from tropica, and they carry interesting fish from time to time.
Best part is they're a chain to easily findable, but this varies from store to store - the one i go to has 3 pretty nice CO2 heavily fertilized planted display tanks so i guess i'm lucky .


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## monkeyruler90

wow, that light is gonna look awesome! can't wait till its finished!


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## 691175002

For this post I'm going to take a brief change of pace from all the electricity and wires. Its time for the light stand.

I had a few goals in mind, I wanted something elegant and out of the way that could fit on the rim of the tank. I don't have the space to set up some form of hanging contraption and it would be very hard to counterweight something like the ada light that sits on the side of the tank (Plus it always looks to me like they are just a few degrees off level which would drive me insane).

I believe I mentioned having a pile of 1/2" acrylic way back on the first page, I splurged on scrap acrylic a few years ago after getting a reasonable deal and have a myriad of sizes and colors.










Here are two pieces of 1/2" sliced up and marked. I had left the tank full of water to this point but stuff had started growing so I emptied it.










And here is a ghetto acrylic bender made from plywood, a car battery charger and the heating element from a hair drier.

This took a few tries to perfect but it ended up giving some acceptable bends. I was never able to get it hot enough to bend smoothly and I needed to help it along with a blowtorch as well. I get the feeling that 1/2" is on the limit for bending in this way. It is so thick that the top side cools down as fast as you heat the bottom.

That being said, it did its job and didn't cost anything other than time.










Next I did some quick cuts on the mill (Yup, I've got a machine shop as well). I finished it with 400 grit on the edges. I didn't bother flame polishing since I don't mind the matte finish and there was the risk of setting it on fire or messing up somehow.










And the result of my labours. The notches in the acrylic slide over the glass rims and act like a brace which is nice. They seem like they stand out a lot in this picture but if you are looking at the front of the tank (as opposed to the top) they stay out of the way. I am very happy with how they turned out, especially with the aluminium enclosure on top.

You probbably also noticed the aquaclear 20 with its pimped intake. Still working great (or at least it was when there was water in the tank).

Anyways, up for next post is more work on the light - specifically the enclosure. Stay tuned.


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## JadeIceGreen

I've said this before but I'll say it again, your DIY skills are simply awesome. Looking forward to that lightset sitting on top of that tank.


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## garuf

That's absolutely brilliant! I wish I had the facilities to do the same! I recon you could probably cut one of those legs in half and that would still be plenty though, the less obtrusive the better I find with equipment.


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## 691175002

garuf said:


> That's absolutely brilliant! I wish I had the facilities to do the same! I recon you could probably cut one of those legs in half and that would still be plenty though, the less obtrusive the better I find with equipment.


My rational for making them a few inches thick was that I also wanted them to brace the tank; but I am starting to warm up to the idea of making them thinner.

At the moment when the tank is full they take a fair amount of pressure off the glass, you can see them bend very slightly and they reduce the bowing of the front glass which is nice.

A slightly less practical reason for the extra support is that my cats absolutely love sleeping on anything warm and would collectively spend 6-8 hours a day on top of the light when it was on the 50 gallon. I get the feeling they miss having the light to sleep on and would be very unamused if the light gave out and dumped them into the tank.

I'm still going over the implications of having an open topped tank with cats but we will see how that goes... I'm expecting someone to roll into the tank while sleeping within two days.

Since the aquarium is solid black at the moment your eyes get drawn to the closest point of visual interest - which unfortunately is the light, but I am confident that the effect will be lessened once there is stuff in there.








A little preview of whats to come.


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## 691175002

Allright, time for a quick update on the light.










At the moment the 36" light is looking a tad long for the tank so I need to chop it down.










I was initially concerned about cutting it since my cheap 4x6 bandsaw can cut pretty crooked but a little adjustment and very slow feed rate worked well enough.
Frankly, it's almost a marvel that I am able to modify this light so much. I mean; how many other fixtures would look like new after being gutted and cut in half?










With the ends on. I am going to have to do something about the second power cable.










And I'll finish off this update with a quick preview of the inside.










Next up is some programming and more electrical work.


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## ddtran46

Wow. The light looks fantastic!! 
I wish I was handy with tools


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## 691175002

The main selling point of this light will be the microcontroller which will orchestrate the fading of several colors and intensities of LEDs.

My weapon of choice for controlling the light is the PIC 16F88 mainly because it is cheap (~1.50$).

Truthfully, I prefer the Arduino since it is much more convenient (I have never programmed assembly before) but it costs about 40 times as much and would be massive overkill.

The main difference between the Arduino and PIC is that the arduino contains a microcontroller as well as a large amount of supporting hardware and software. To use the pic I must rely on supplementary hardware such as a programmer and will need to build a circuit to power it. The programming language for the PIC is also much more difficult to write in.

On the other hand, the arduino simply plugs into the computer or wall and just works. It is a pleasure to write code for and happens to be much more powerful than the 16F88.










I picked up this cheap PIC programmer online. It uses a serial port which I didn't think would be a problem; however, as luck would have it not a single computer in the house (~4) has a serial port. Some of these are old computers too. I thought that serial ports were still common but apparently I was wrong.

My last ditch attempt was to try the low power serial port on an old laptop. This is not supposed to work since PICs require the full serial port voltage to program properly.










The red numbers you see are what things going wrong looks like. The PIC doesn't like the low power serial port. I am still impressed that I don't have a single real serial port in the house.

Oh well, I enjoy working with the arduino more anyways.










A few lines of code and some LEDs later and I have 3 channels of 8 bit PWM working. Essentially I can dim all the leds independently and on a predetermined schedule.










Here is the plan. I have three colors of leds: blue, yellow and white.

The left of the chart is nighttime and the right side is daytime. When I turn the light on the blue moonlight slowly fades and is replaced by yellow and white. After white is fully on the blue comes in to add a little more brightness.

When I turn the light off the chart will go in reverse. Blue fades out first followed by white and yellow.

The entire process from moonlight to daylight takes about 20 minutes. The built in arduino PWM is a little bit lacking and you can see the "steps" as the brightness changes but I will see if I can improve that.

Since I don't have the real light hooked up yet I don't know if the effect will be like what I am seeing in my head, but the idea looks good to me.

Stay tuned.


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## nytowl83

I envy your craftsmanship


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## crimsonbull57

Wow!


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## Phoenix-cry

By the time you are done you're going to be able to land this baby on the moon!!


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## Kapow3000

Nevermind the moon...this baby is intergalactic! Great job!


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## Ugly Genius

I was kinda-sorta able to follow this thread up until the micro controller part. There you lost me.
Never-the-less, this thread keeps getting better and better.
Please do something clever and creative with your filter. That would make this the DIY thread to end all DIY threads.


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## 691175002

Thanks for the comments everyone!

The microcontroller is certainly high tech, but wait until you see the mess of wires I'm putting together. Here is 3/3 yellow boards, 4/5 blue boards and 0/10 high powered leds:








I have to watch out every time I stick my hand in there or I'll get assimilated. 

I've even managed to avoid getting hit by wall power even though I've got quite a few bare wires. I've heard that it isn't too bad as long as you arent wet but I've never experienced it.

I did manage to take a nearly direct 400V hit after some moron dropped the power supply to a strobe light onto a metal table a few years ago though. Low current but my arm felt like jelly for a few days.



I've been hoping to find out some other ways to modify the filter but the aquaclear seems pretty well equipped as is. A diy canister wouldn't be too bad and that would let me inline a heater but I'm not sure if I have the space to put the filter out of the way.

As for my next project though... I've got plenty of ideas. Might be a little too early to start plotting but I am hoping for the entire tank to be a single contained unit with everything built into the tank. I'd also commission a microcontroller to run everything - lights, moon cycles, a nice color display, temperature and pH probes and automatic fertilization. Probably around 7 gallons. But that will be a looooooong time from now.

Crazy ideas welcome.


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## herefisheefishee

WOW!!! Very impressive with the microcontroller. 
You are a credit to DIY'ers everywhere.



691175002 said:


> I've even managed to avoid getting hit by wall power even though I've got quite a few bare wires. I've heard that it isn't too bad as long as you arent wet but I've never experienced it.


If you get zapped in the hand it's alot like a joy buzzer. 
If it travels through your hand and down your arm, I'd equate it with He-Man hitting you in the funny bone with a hammer.

Anything beats a 50,000v performance car ignition system through your arm, across your back and out your other arm. i was on the floor for 5 minutes.


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## CobraGuppy

Your are an amazing DIY'er O_O

When you get your lighting set up, you should do a time lapse video of how cool it looks throughout the day lol.


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## Ugly Genius

DIY your hardscape.
A rock wall, for example. Or something I've been wanting to do for a while but lack the skill to do: create a miniature stone wall. Like the ones they have in Ireland. And the Shire.
Basically, mod the hardscape in a creative yet subtle way that all at once looks natural- but-impossible inside of an aquarium.


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## 691175002

Ugly Genius said:


> DIY your hardscape.
> A rock wall, for example. Or something I've been wanting to do for a while but lack the skill to do: create a miniature stone wall. Like the ones they have in Ireland. And the Shire.
> Basically, mod the hardscape in a creative yet subtle way that all at once looks natural- but-impossible inside of an aquarium.


I'm not sure if my aquascaping skills can live up to my DIY. My current plan is to drop a generic piece of Malaysian driftwood into a few inches of flourite black sand.

Your suggestion appeals to me though. I had been eying the underwater sand waterfalls for quite a while ( http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007/10/creating-waterfall-illusion-underwater.html ). A rock wall with sand pouring down it almost like tiny streams down a mountain would be pretty interesting.

Creative yet subtle... Natural but impossible... I'm going to be thinking for a while...


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## vtkid

next challenge is to make your own rimless tank.:hihi:


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## CAM6467

Yeah..... Your thread just took mine and flushed it. Way to go man! This is truly the most amazing DIY project on TPT. LED lights aren't really my bag, but you definitely make a case with your innovative approach. I'm not a HOB hater, but I would definitely spend some time thinking of a way to build a DIY canister. THAT would make this thing the ultimate DIY. You might also consider drilling the bottom of this tank and hiding your plumbing for a less cluttered look. 

On a different note, I LOVE all those toys you have at your disposal in the workshop. When I'm finally done with college and get this Ph.D., I'm going to get myself some nice toys like yours that way I can do this sort of fun stuff as well. 

Keep up the AMAZING work and keep those pictures coming!!!

Charlie Mims


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## 691175002

I've been trying to think of a way to DIY a canister filter but I'm not sure if I could pull it off to my satisfaction. IMO appearance plays a large roll in the finished project (I'm a superficial guy ) and aside from sticking some PVC pipe together there aren't many simple options.

Of course, I do have a machine shop so if we are talking a filter like 6" by 10" I could machine something out of aluminum but I'm not sure what size they normally are for 10 gallon tanks. Is aluminum even aquarium safe?

Should I ever get to a second tank I will definitely DIY 90%+ including tank, filter and full computer control. I'm even considering trying to DIY a zero-edge tank but that has a few drawbacks.


I've always wanted a small machine shop since I always found myself wishing I had one. I don't do a huge amount of machining, but whenever I see something cool that I want to duplicate or I am missing some obscure metal part or have a neat idea in my head it is always nice to be able to pop downstairs and leave with a finished part. I never intended to go all the way but a freak pricing accident at Busy Bee gave me a full sized lathe for the price of a mini lathe and I got the mill to finish up the set.



I digress... Time for another update.









This is the plan for the positioning of the LEDs. Since the light enclosure is rather narrow I will be angling two rows of LEDs to evenly spread the light.









Here is where most of the work gets done. As you can see I am insanely messy while I work. My entire desk is a constantly evolving pile of stuff; except for a small clearing near the back corner which is always reserved for Dandy, the cat.

This guy diligently watches over me, sometimes for hours, from that corner while I work. I don't know why he does it but its nice to have his silent companionship while I work. I do chase him away when I have something dangerous going on though.









And a bit of work. Mostly some rewiring of the internals. I pulled out the second power cord and glued in a small piece of clear acrylic which looks professional enough. I also changed the connectors on the fans and transformer.









Last post I mentioned I was unhappy with the arduinos built in PWM (PWM basically means fading). The arduino has 256 steps, so basically a fade from 0-100% will happen in 256 discrete increments. This may sound pretty smooth but at lower brightness levels you can see some substantial jumps.

The bigger problem is that the human eye is logarithmic. That is, when something is dim the human eye can pick out even the most minute changes in brightness but if something is very bright even massive changes in brightness are imperceptible. A fade from 0-10% will _look_ like a bigger change than 10-100%.

To correct this I grabbed a few TLC5940's from Texas Instruments. They shipped them to me next day international for free as a sample. I love Texas Instruments so much I'm not even angry that they make us pay 100$ for 20 year old 5$ graphing calculators.

This new chip has 4096 steps of brightness (impressive) and 16 different channels. If I had the need for it, I could run 16 independent strings of LEDs.

Unfortunately, in my carelessness I managed to fry the first chip and wasted a while figuring out what was wrong. I heard a quick pop when I pulled the chip out of the packaging but I had never lost a component to static electricity before so I thought nothing of it.

Here is the working version with the fried one up front.








Because I now have 4096 brightness levels I step through them quadratically to make the fade seem smoother. For example, instead of going 1,2,3,4 I go 1,2,4,8,16... This gives an absolutely deliciously smooth fade.

(I lied, the actual formula I use is 0.063 * n^2 where n is 0-255).

Next up is - you guessed it, more electronics. Since the big LEDs draw a crapload of power I will need to amplify the output of the IC which will be done using this pile of power transistors.









More to come, and _lots_ more pictures to come. I don't know how it happens, but once lights start flashing I just can't stop myself from taking pictures.


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## quicktap

Awesome DIY.

I'm curious how you managed to track time with your Arduino. I've been working on a DIY timer myself (to control CO2, lights, and pumps). However, I can't find a better way than the *millis()* function and some creative math to avoid overflow. How did you deal with that problem?

-qt


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## Phoenix-cry

You must do that sand waterfall thing, that's amazing.


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## 691175002

quicktap said:


> Awesome DIY.
> 
> I'm curious how you managed to track time with your Arduino. I've been working on a DIY timer myself (to control CO2, lights, and pumps). However, I can't find a better way than the *millis()* function and some creative math to avoid overflow. How did you deal with that problem?
> 
> -qt


I don't actually track time on the arduino. At the moment the light will be controlled via a switch since the tank will be in my room and I will prefer if I can turn the light on once I'm awake.

I have heard of people using the millis function to track time however you will get some decent drift. After a week or two even if you try to compensate for the shift you are going to loose a few minutes/hours.

For a reliable clock, the easiest solution would be to pick up something like this http://futurlec.com/Mini_DS1307.shtml although you could also put something together yourself.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

By the way, how do you remember your username?:icon_eek:


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## monkeyruler90

i love that you keep us posted on making these lights. you're awesome! they're gonna come out great!


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## quicktap

Thanks, 691... 

Yeah, I'd read about the drift, then wrote something to test for it, wasn't pretty (the code was, the amount of drift wasn't) 

-qt


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## 691175002

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> By the way, how do you remember your username?:icon_eek:


It was actually my student ID. You end up typing it in a few times every day and it just becomes second nature. I don't even need to think about typing it anymore, just stick my hands over the keyboard and bam its there.

Anyways, as I mentioned last time I need to amplify the output of the fading signal using transistors.

Unfortunately, the IC sinks current and therefore requires PNP transistors. Most of my stash is NPN. I was lucky enough to have exactly three 3A power PNPs on hand though so as long as I don't fry any of them I'll be fine.










I am not confident enough with electronics to put together the entire circuit in one shot so here I am playing with the transistor.









And then wire in the microcontroller...









And then add in some more LEDs...









And here I am testing how dim I can get the 3W leds.








A little brighter...








Full power. The fading works wonderfully.

With the fading I can go as low as 0.16mA of current. For comparison, full power is around 800mA.








This is a good example of how the eye does not have a direct relationship between brightness and light output. Right now the LEDs are putting out about 0.02% of their total light output but they look like they are 2-3% of their total brightness.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

691175002 said:


> It was actually my student ID. You end up typing it in a few times every day and it just becomes second nature. I don't even need to think about typing it anymore, just stick my hands over the keyboard and bam its there.


Dang, my ID number is 55% shorter:icon_eek:


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## ES4

B-U-teeful tank progress. Patience beyond belief, your attention to every detail is incredible. I will be checking this everyday for the progress report!


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## 691175002

Since all the electronics tested out fine its time to make things more permanent.








Playing around with the layout for a protoboard.









Soldering the stuff...









Testing partway to make sure things work.









Finished and taped to the heatsink for testing.









Blue dimmed down. (I didn't use all of the blues since my breadboard only hooks up 4 per row)









Full power.









Add some yellow.

















Everything is working nicely.









And testing the big LEDs.

Since everything is looking good it is time to thermal epoxy the regulators to the heatsink.


















I'm going to have to come clean here, this project had actually been in progress for about a month before I started this thread and I expect to finish the full light tomorrow. I did not actually complete work as fast as I have posted it; and many of the posts are not even in chronological order.

I figured that no one wants to wait weeks between updates for shipping and for me to get work done so this adds some excitement :icon_lol:.

So, with the advantage of foresight, I can say that the last step where I thermal epoxied the regulators to the heatsink (And subsequently the heatsink to the light enclosure) killed the entire circuit since the regulators don't like having their v_out pins connected. Idiot move on my part. That mistake managed to fry one of the three transistors I have (Remember when I said I have exactly three so as long as I don't fry one, I'm ok?). Fun times ahead.


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## 691175002

I had a minor absence since I ended up going to laser tag for a few hours, and then to a sleepover (Essentially a few hours of intense running and crouching followed by sleep deprivation) and then got dragged along to a concert I didn't want to see and then got sick and then didn't feel like doing anything for a while but I have finally finished the light.

Anyways now that most of the electronics look like they work its time to glue everything together.









All joins were done with a mixture of thermal paste and silicone. Thermal paste goes in the center for conduction and silicone goes around the edge to hold the parts together.









Same deal with the LEDs, a drop of thermal paste in the center and a thin ring of silicone around it.









Solder some wire between them, I'm trying to keep it neat since all hell is going to break loose once the rest of the wires get in there.









These guys produce almost no heat so I used only silicone.









And the wires...









I still haven't wired up the current limiting circuitry for the big leds but the small ones work fine.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums

WoW! Very well done! Subscribed


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## 691175002

And the final post for this light. I don't have all that many pictures since a fair deal of troubleshooting, cursing and part replacing went on here. Basically it was just a rehash of the previous posts until it worked.

Earlier I had fried one of the power transistors by messing up the current regulation circuit and the closest thing I could find to replace it was a linear amplifier (which is not what I needed). To make it work I set it up as a darlington with a 2n5401 or something but it gets pretty hot considering it should only be passing current.

Here are some pictures of the assembly process:
























And finished.

Here is a low quality animated gif of the fading process:









The actual fade takes about 20 minutes and of course looks much smoother.


Anyways here is just a quick runthrough of what worked and what didn't. I ended up dropping the fans because they were very small and noisy. There isn't enough room in there for a larger fan so I will be running it passive. The entire thing stabilizes at around 45C which seems pretty hot but the rated lifetimes on the LEDs are at a junction temperature of 80C and the rest of the circuitry is good till 150C. At most I will be losing a bit of lifetime on the LEDs.

The fade looks nice but it might not have been worth the trouble. If I were to make a guess at the amount of time I spent on the light, making it light up would be 10% and making it fade would be 90%. It added a crapload of electronics and wires.

I ended up making a few stupid mistakes that cost a fair bit of time, namely when I glued both regulators to the same aluminum block without isolating them, and when I used a linear transistor instead of a power one.

Everything works for now though, and I expect everything to keep running for at least a few months. The construction is a little shabby though, especially since I am using a breadboard in the final product.

If/when I make a second version of this, I will use a beefier enclosure (mill some fins into a piece of aluminum channel) and only fade the white LEDs.


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## moorin

wow this is some serious diy! if i had the faintest clue into how u have done that i would have a go but i think i will leave it to people like you who know what you are doing, so what are your plans for the tank, like the plants and inhabitants?


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## chase127

Kick ass light man. cough cough *make this a reef* cough cough


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## 691175002

I've worked out the hardscape and decided on something I like. I had a terrible time trying to photograph it though, the LEDs really mess with the camera's exposure and colors (The wood looks blue in these pictures...)

















It doesn't look quite right in the photographs but I like it in person.

I will be picking up plants tomorrow. Lots of HC and then whatever else looks nice.

From there I will just add in a basic algae cleaning crew over a few weeks. A pair of nerite snails, 3-5 ottos and some shrimp.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums

I applaud you for your excellent DIY skills Well executed from start to finish.

-Orlando


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## Ugly Genius

Friggin' incredible!
Hardscape needs work. (EDIT: The *paper* hardscape. Not the new one! New one's great.)
But the lights are awesome!


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## 691175002

Lol, I'd imagine the paper hardscape would start to mush up once the tank is full.

We'll see how the rock and driftwood hardscape does, I'm sure I'll be moving things around for the next few days.

It's almost anticlimatic to see the finished light on top of the tank. It went from a mindbending mess of wires to flip the switch and get light. It's funny to think of how much work and complexity went into such a mundane product.


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## CL

*tear
The diy lover inside me just cried a little.
It's so
_beautiful_


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## Ugly Genius

Oh, I just figured out a cool project for you to tackle that everyone here would love to see.
Your driftwood is great. Love that thing. I feel, however, that it would look even better on a high slope.
So:
Create a something that will allow you to have and, more importantly, keep said slope. Some sort of substrate slope retaining floor (SSRF, for short). Think about it.

A gently-placed suggestion:
The rocks don't quite match the wood. They're too desert to the wood's swamp/forest.
Small, dark, stones -- akin to Yamaya stones -- clumped in a small group, would look better, perhaps.

Like these:


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## mistergreen

nice! I smell an electrical/mechanical engineer.

you should make the light react to your music.

Did you mention you programmed the timer in the microcontroller or it's a separate device?


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## 691175002

I was actually gung ho about tossing two bags of fluorite sand into the tank and then sloping up like 7" to the back but if you remember the good ol glass intake...








I was halfway through stuffing the filter full of sand before I realized there was only about 3" between the intake and the bottom of the tank. That was when the filter was on the right side (behind the driftwood) and I moved the filter to the left so there should be room for a healthy slope now.

Another benefit to some thick substrate is that I only have about 35 watts of LEDs. I'm not sure how that translates into PAR but it seems low so if I move the plants higher they should get more light.

In terms of maintaining a slope I have a pile of scrap acrylic and silicone so putting together a set of terraces is probably the best I can do.

I agree with you on the rock, I had trouble finding good rocks so I smashed up a piece from the LFS. I'll try to find some nicer pieces or check out a bonsai store.

I'll keep moving stuff around and playing with the substrate. I remember failing art class back in grade 8 or so, so I may need some prodding.


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## 691175002

mistergreen said:


> nice! I smell an electrical/mechanical engineer.
> 
> you should make the light react to your music.
> 
> Did you mention you programmed the timer in the microcontroller or it's a separate device?


I don't know how happy the inhabitants would be with lights flashing everywhere . I really wanted to mill a hole and stick an LCD on the front of the light but I had nothing to display...

I didn't bother including a timer in the light. My sleep schedule can be erratic and the tank is in my bedroom. This way I can turn it on approximately when I wake up and turn it off around 8 hours later or so. I don't know how the plants will like it though.


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## Dollface

I still say you should go for the waterfall scape.


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## 691175002

I love DIY but I think I am going to have to keep my focus here. Remember that while this log went pretty speedy the light took me about two months (or more?) to build. If I went all out with waterfalls and terraces I would be here for another two months and I am so close to finally having green in this tank I'm not sure I can do that to myself.

I do want to see some nice sand waterfalls and acrylic kung-fu though so I'll compromise. I'll grab another 5g or 10g (or both) and do all the experiments in those while this tank grows in. Once I have the kinks worked out I'll set up another full DIY tank custom built out of acrylic, with diy filter, diy light, diy ph controller, diy thermometer...

The last piece of DIY this tank is likely to see will be an auto dry fert doser. I have a vague plan in mind involving a microcontroller, some servos, machined aluminum and glass but building it is going to take a while.


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## redza

i love your work. i just scrolled down trough the pics without reading, and i can tell that its complicated and perfect


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## mistergreen

> I don't know how happy the inhabitants would be with lights flashing everywhere


I think they'd have a blast.. Disco night!

I have a Wiring micro-control board I like to play with. I'll use it for aquarium use one day. 

You should hook up your co2 to your micro-controller. Have it turn on an hour before lights turn on and off when the lights are off or even before the lights are off.


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## 691175002

Hooking up the co2 to the microcontroller would be a lot of trouble because I would need another pair of wires from the light to a relay. For now I will be plugging and unplugging the solenoid... (I'll figure out a more elegant solution later).

Onwards... Threw in some more sand and upgraded the slope a bit.









Driftwood...









And some new rocks that I picked up with the plants. They look a lot better.


















And then to planting the HC.








I planted them in arbitrary clumps from single stems to bunches. Two pots stretched pretty well and I think I got some nice coverage.

The rest of the plants...








I'm not altogether sure what I got. I just picked up some of whatever looked nice.

And filled... The sand was a nightmare when filling. The stuff blows around and settles on all the leaves.









I also moved the CO2 around so that the bubbles get more water movement.









Now all that remains is waiting... I have a feeling I will be replacing some of the plants on the right side later.


What do you guys suggest in the way of when to add ferts? I have excel and dry.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums

The Micro controller is really nice. The sunrise/sunset affect is awesome

This has to be the coolest DIY LED Ive seen yet. 

Do your plants show any signs of pearling?

-O


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## 691175002

Orlando said:


> The Micro controller is really nice. The sunrise/sunset affect is awesome
> 
> This has to be the coolest DIY LED Ive seen yet.
> 
> Do your plants show any signs of pearling?
> 
> -O


The HC is actually pearling pretty intensely at the moment, which surprised me since I wasn't sure if I really had enough light with only 30W of cheap LEDs (so probably less than rated).

One thing I am not so happy about is the color spectrum of the LEDs. The light looks really cold and I feel like the plants and wood aren't popping as much as they could. I can honestly say that over a reef this lighting would be incredible but I think I am going to throw in a bunch of green, red and yellow LEDs in to make the wood and plants pop a bit and warm up the spectrum. The light (especially since I have a bunch of blue LEDs for the moonlight) looks almost like 10K and I feel like this tank needs something a tad warmer. I think that specifically adding in green lights to make the plants brighter will look nice too.


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## 691175002

Here is the upgraded light with an extra 40 LEDs in yellow red and green.








Just waiting for the silicone to dry and I'll see how I like the change of color.


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## crimsonbull57

thats so sick nasty, for your next 5 or 10 gallon you should do a DIY backround/terrace with styrofoam
LINK: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_other_netmax_styro.htm


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## Outlawboss

Coolest DIY I've ever seen! This thread has been a blast to read. Thanks!


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## 691175002

Here is just a quick update now that the tank has cleared up a bit:








I'm running the CO2 pretty high since there is nothing else alive in there.









The HC is sparse but it's pearling nicely. Some of the other plants have a little bit of pearling but nothing that compares to the HC.









And a neat little reflection of the light so you can see all the different LEDs and colors in it.


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## Ugly Genius

I'm going to talk what I know because -- quite frankly -- I got lost right around the time you posted those screen shots of programming the LED light cycles.

The hardscape and plantscape look rad!

The addition of Bolbitis and a moss would not hurt, but you're doing really good so far!


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## 691175002

Thanks for the encouragement. Every one of your tanks are inspiring so it means a lot.

I have some moss coming from ebay since I couldn't find any I liked at the LFS. I'll also try replacing the green cabomba with bolbitis after the tank settles. When do you think I should start adding fertilizer? It seems like a common sense thing to hold off until the plants get settled in but the principle behind EI dosing is that a lack of nutrients can cause algae so is it better to fertilize right from the start?

I've been going pretty heavy on the CO2 and dosing 1ml of excel daily so far to keep off algae and everything appears to be doing fine.


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## CL

That has to be the most awesome light on the forum! The scape is nice too 
Bravo!


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## Clemsons2k

Updates?


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## Matt724

WOW. BEAUTIFUL. Art & technology working hand in hand to form a masterpiece. Love it. Keep the updates coming. I wanna see some livestock. =)


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## Chrisinator

Amazing.


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## JennaH

update?


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## mumushummus

Nice one man! 
I call it "The Disco Tank"


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## TipStylez

Subscribed!


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## Strick

You're a DIY god! Great looking tank. How about an update?


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