Jakedoza

Wired up the drivers and tested.. Pulled down the canopy and removed the old lighting... Amazing how fast if comes apart compared to how long it took to put together.. Installed the new LED light strip and tested.. and now for the moment I have been waiting for.... All in all it cost me about $300 to light my tank... It is a 135 Oceanic.. 72"x24"x18" PAR readings to come.. When I get a PAR meter to test with..

Today was a fruitful day.. I made a trip to Lowe's and bought some hardware and some U-channel to mount the LEDs on... Measured where I wanted the LEDs and then set them up to drill holes for mounting.. Mounted with thermal grease underneath for heat transfer.. Now for the fun part... Running wire, soldering and heat shrink..

I will be using These.. with 100K potentiometers for now... A controller will come later.

LEDs came in today... I have to say that I was very surprised that they beat the drivers here...

I am going to try and be pretty informative here.. I have not gotten my LEDs in yet but here is what I ordered.. I bought 1 lot of 5 of these.. http://www.aliexpres...holesalers.html and I bought 2 lots of 5 of these.. http://www.aliexpres...holesalers.html These ship out of China, so they will take some time getting here.. I elected to get the expedited shipping for an extra $20.. My total was a little over $100.. I had some difficulties finding drivers for these because I wanted to fire all the whites with one driver and all the blues with one driver. If you don't know the formula for finding the right driver for your LEDs here it is.. If you want to run them in series, you multiply the voltage by the number of LEDs in the string and keep the same current.. For example: I have 5 LEDs I want to fire.. They are 20w, 35v, 700mA each.. I would need a driver that puts out 175v @700mA to fire these in series... If you want to run them in parallel, you keep the voltage and you multiply the current by the number of LEDs in the string.. Same LED string wired in parallel would require a driver [email protected]... I elected to run my LEDs in parallel.. There are some advantages to this. If one goes out.. they all don't go out.. I wanted dimmable drivers for my LEDs as well.. so, I began to hunt.. This is what I found.. I probably could have saved some money by getting the drivers out of China as well, but I elected to go with Mean Well dimmable drivers. For the Blues I purchased: http://www.powergate...wer-supply.html and for the Whites I purchased: http://www.powergate...wer-supply.html Here I spent about $155 with shipping.. In total I'm out about $260 for LEDs... When they get here, I get to put them together. Stay posted.

That looks pretty cool... I think I have decided on a warty frog fish and a dwarf golden eel.. That way I can try and keep some sort of coral in there.. maybe some zoas and shrooms..

Still avail?

+1 for petco.... haha Good one Drew..

That is pretty wild..

Cool thanks for the info.

hrmm... what about a frog fish... with a dwarf eel?

yeah.. decided against it with the 1.5yr old in the house..

peacocks are soo much prettier though... Hrmm... decisions decisions...

I've got a little zebra eel for sale that would be great for your tank. Zebra eels will only eat your inverts and not your fish, mine ate all inverts in the tank except a coral banded shrimp. Eels are really fun, especially to feed em. That eel will outgrow this tank... I'd rather something I will not have to re-home later.

aiy... so they are glass..... I did some research on Octopi... They don't live very long and are super fragile to water specifications... Think a mantis will crack the glass?

No, it is acrylic..

I'm wanting to go with a predator setup in my new 29Gal Biocube.. Anyone have any suggestions? Octopus, Mantis, Angler/Frog fish.. Eel would have to be a small one... -Jake

No problem. I just wanted an extra to be able to take my homebrew places..

Hey chad.. let WYSIWYG have it.. I don't have to have it.. it would be an extra for me.. Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

Dibbs on the tank..

This little guy here?? http://www.marinedepot.com/Needle_Valve_For_CO2_Regulator_CO2_Regulator_Replacement_Parts-House_Brand_(CO2)-CO3151-FICORERP-vi.html

C02

I'm looking to purchase a needle valve for my calcium reactor setup.. Any recommendations on brand and where to purchase? Thanks, -Jake

I wouldn't trust ebay... It may be counterfeit.. Your best prices will be from Amazon.. Probably B&H photo out of NY.. or look on Craigslist.. always find out where the camera was first purchased and research that company.. There is a ton of Canon stuff being counterfeited.. Not sure on other brands. -Jake

Can't get a DSLR for $200... At least not new.. You would be looking at an average Point and Shoot at that price.. Check out Craigslist in the photo section. -Jake