10 gallon AIO rock wall
 

hello everyone.

while im setting up my 29 gallon,i thought i would set up a 5.5 gallon AIO. Its mostly set up for an emergency QT tank (the things inside will be transferred to the 29 gallons sump), and also because they are cool.

So far the plan is that it will be light by only LEDs from besthongkong.com

livestock plans so far are:

corals:
-zoas
-frogspawn
-rics
-macro algaes (i know its not a coral ;p)

fish
either

-1 eviota goby
-or-
-1 yellow clown goby
-or-
-1 red hi fin goby (maybe with pistol shrimp)

inverts
-maybe sexy shrimp(depends on fish choice)
-pom pom crab(s)
-snails
-dwarf hermits if i can find some


thats it so far. this will be a slow build, so sit back and enjoy.

Sounds interesting, can you give us more details on your plans for LED lighting?

haha, that would be a good idea, wouldnt it...

well i'll be using these.

2 white strips, and 2 blue strips. maybe 1 purple.

i'll be making..what you would call..trim? out of black acrylic, so the lights will be in the lid part. the lights are plug and play, so i guess unless i can find some way to link 2 strips together, i'll be needing alot of timers :lol:

Those LED's are 12v so plicing the wires is easy. I have them as moonlights on most my tanks, as well as regular lighting for my betta tank

kool!

how do you like the lights?

They make great moonlights. Not sure if they will be intense enough for regular lighting to grow corals with though

hmmm. well it'll be 96 wats of LED on a 5 gallon. and im not keeping SPS or anything. if it doesnt work out, i guess its only 40 or so dollars spent on moonlights :lol:

You must be mistaken, 96W of LED?? maybe 9.6 but that even sounds high for 5 of those led arrays.

hmm...im not sure sphelps. it says 24W on the page, unless thats just a code. its 96 LED bulbs, so i guess i just have to find out the wattage and lumen of each bulb..

EDIT: haha, i was wrong. its only 9.6 watts of LED, but 480 lumens in all. is that any good?

haha, so i kinda changed my mind.. but just a lil.

it will still be AIO LED, but i want to do it like this:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1375191

now ive been using some paper to just make examples of my built in fuge (im quite tactile :P) and thats been working out not bad for planning.
but when i look at it and think about how much room i'll have with the foam added, its like,"how does this guy on RC make his tank look SOO big?"

so i'm still thinking about it, but i might be doing the 'ol switcheroo :wink:

you see, my desk right now is crappy and wouldn't be able to hold up a 10 gallon, and also the way i want to put it it wouldn't fit a 10 gallon. so i would have to get a new desk (which i want).

now heres the devious part. i want a new 5.5 because the one i have right now isnt in the best shape..so im going to tell my mom and step dad im getting a new one AFTER i get my desk, and then go with my actual dad and get a 10 gallon, take off the stickers, and then replace it.

now your wondering,"wont they notice? are karazy's parents really that slow?"
That's where the new desk comes in. its pretty easy to just say"it looks different because of the new desk." if that doesn't work, i'll just either say i got the wrong one.

now, i am not lying. it would look different, and it would have been the wrong one.:lol:

haha, i feel devious now :twised:

Ohh, I'm glad your not my kid, sounds like you can cause some headache's LOL

haha, im usualy a good kid, so its not too bad. its only like an extra 5 gallons anyway, it should be fine

if i was a parent i wouldnt want to go after me. im well trained in taekwondo, wrestling, and parkour :P

I'm gonna follow this thread, that idea looks so awesome. I can't wait to see how yours turns out. It actually makes me want to do a tank up like that now too.

thankyou very much!

Yeah, im really exited for it. im not sure where to find that black plastic sheet though. if i cant find it i guess i will settle for eggcrate or something close to that.

Try the craft store. It looks a lot like what some crafters use for some types of needle work. I know it's sold in white so I'm assuming it can come in more than one color.

thanks for the tip! i will check at michaels or something.

i wish setting up 2 reefs on a budget of allowances went faster :p

Found it, it's called mesh plastic canvas sheet

KOOL!

thankyou so much for finding that./ its much appreciated.

I ordered these lights and they arrived today. It says plug n' play but they're not. Did you get yours yet? I have no clue what to do with them now.

nice thread...
I use a 18w CF on my 5.5
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/pc...t+Fixture.html

It fits PERFECTLY on a stock 5.5 if you take the top trim off.
evap was a concern at first but then a 2L coke bottle set at a slow drip as an ATO fixed that pretty quick.
Works great, have zoas, shrooms and some softies...

Bet yours winds up being prettier though.
following along.

i think this thread needs more pictures. cant wait to see.

haha, there really isnt anything to take pictures of yet...

noirsphynx, what do they look like? is there wires so that you could hook them up to an adapter?
pics would be much apreciated.
oh, and no i havent ordered the lights yet. savin my money cuz im gonna spend what i got on a RK2 for my 29 gallon reef

Yes, there's wires. I'm going to hook them up to a 12 volt power supply that I forgot I had.

I bought a few of the 12cm size
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...&pictureid=308

PS - They come in an envelope, no extra packing so damage could easily happen in the mail, especially coming all the way from Hong Kong.

okay, well then it shouldn't be too bad.
i might hook 2 or 3 up to one higher power adapter.
i think i might ask the supplier before i order that if i flip him like an extra 10 bucks he could package them in atleast a large envelope with foam peanuts, more preferably a box. the envelope is probably because of the free shipping.

make sure to get some pics up when you get those badboys hooked up, plz plz plz

Hey just noticed this... may have come across it before...

What kind of LEDs are these? If you are planning on growing ANYTHING with LEDs they will have to be 1. run on an LED (constant current) driver, and 2. definitely high power LEDs, specially in a tank that deep. I doubt these LEDs will work for anything other than a FOWLR, for sure if run directly off of your power supply. They are likely 25mA LEDs, but it would be best if you could figure out what the current rating is on each LED and how the array is connected (likely in series).

There are some great threads on NR about this, PM me if you are interested further in this... though I thought you had another tank thread around somewhere so this project may have been sidelined?:sleeping:

yup, it's a side project.

i found out earlier in this thread that 4 of the 24 bulb LEDS equals 480 lumens.
not sure bout PAR. but since ill now be using the 48 bulb fixtures i think it should work.

Noirsphynx used two 12 bulb fixtures on his..i think 10 gallon, and he used them as moonlights and from pictures they look plenty bright.

I might try this out as an experiment at the shop if colby lets me(buy 2 strips, put them over a few zoanthids or something, or put the corals in a tank and only use the LEDs, and see the reaction)

Who knows, i might have to end up going the super DIY way like people have been on nanoreef. We'll see

5.5 Gallon LED
 

Noirsphynx,
You need to use a power supply and reverse the wires...Honkong stuff. I use these for moonlight as well.

Cool cool, I'm building 3 high power pendants... wish I could find the parts I need in Canada, it won't be overly expensive but I might get slammed on duty and stuff when it gets here. For the savings in energy and heat over my pico, I'll pay a few extra bucks... you can't put a 150W MH over a 6 gallon tank :wink: Hope this works out for you, I'm sure you won't have any problem keeping (and growing) the low light guys like zoas :biggrin: people have had really good luck with them from what I've seen.

You will not be able to keep corals with those LEDs. Forget the wattage or lumen ratings they quote. The PAR will be insufficient. I am planning a 2 gallon pico and even for that I will be using 8 or 9 Luxeon Rebel LEDs. The LEDs alone will cost me about USD $55 plus shipping. If you are on a budget go with one of the compact flourecsent fixtures mentioned. If you want LEDs for a 5.5 gallon that will actually work for anything but FOWLR then it will probably cost you at least $150 by the time you buy the LEDs, power supply, constant current drivers, heat sink, fan etc.

Those LED strips are a waste of money for anything other than moonlights or accent lighting. They will not work as a main source of PAR in your tank.

blueabyss, how do you plan on making these so called "pendants"?
and where are you buying all your LED supplies from?

so i think i might end up doing the whole "super DIY" like the people on nanoreef have been doing with the heat sink and LED drivers,ect.

and guys, please remember im not going for super high power metal halide type lights. I just want to keep zoas,rics, and some of the easier LPS.

oops, i guess i shud change my title. im using a 10 gallon :p

The lighting forum on nano-reef.com has some great DIY LED projects running. I would say everything you need to know is in that forum or the people there can answer for you if you take the time to search first.

Sorry if I sounded overly critical. That wasn't the intent. Just trying to help you avoid wasted money and grief over dead coral. The problem with standard leds is they just don't generate intense enough light to penetrate more than a few inches into water with sufficient par to keep photosynthetic organisms alive. It may look bright to your eye but it won't have enough energy to keep things alive. It won't work, even for zoas or mushrooms etc. You need the high power leds to get light that is intense enough to penetrate down into the tank.

Lighting a 10 gallon with leds will be even more expensive and you are probably looking at something in the USD $250 to $300 range at the minimum for parts to make it work. I would recommend a T5HO fixture for the 10 gallon. I have one on mine from fishneedit.com. It is a 24" 4 bulb 96 watt fixture but it fits on a 10 gallon. It just hangs over the ends of the tank a bit on each end. You should be able to get it, shipping included, for about USD $111. It's a good fixture for the money. The bulbs aren't the best but will work for zoas and softies and you can upgrade to better bulbs in 8 to 12 months when it's time for a bulb change. LEDs have a lot of potential but to do it right at this time is expensive.

it wasn't critical ron :)

i see where you're coming from. I think that im going to look at prices for LED stuffs, and if it ends up being too much, t5 it is

EDIT: holy crap, T5 it is. lookin like LED is gonna be WAY too expensive

Hmm okay, a couple things.

I'll be ordering the LEDs premounted on star boards from www.ledsupply.com... a US company but the only place I've seen that sells this sort of thing online. They actually sell everything I'll need but some of the stuff I'll be using will come from Canada (heatsink, fan, power supply).

I'm planning on growing SPS in 8" of water... my planned array (there will be 3 of them) is 1 - Cree MC-E chip (6.5K) with 4 Cree XR-E Royal Blue chips (~460 nm)... I'll end up with about a 14 - 20K look though this will be adjustable. And the PAR should be more than sufficient for SPS since the water is only 8" deep and the lights will be 1/2" or so from the water surface.

I should note that there will definitely be some spotlighting within the tank. I've planned for this since the goal is to light 'islands' of rock rather than evenly light the whole sandbed, and I think the effect will be cool. This will also leave lower light areas for things like zoas and ricordea, but the focus is keeping (and growing) SPS.

So I guess it all depends on what you want and what you need it to do. For your purposes I would say a 1 - 1 ratio of XR-E cool whites to royal blues would more than do it, and would likely penetrate to the bottom of a 10 gallon without optics (lenses). But it will be expensive if you are planning on lighting the whole tank with this... for localized high intensity light it's fine, but for anything else it's expensive.

The LEDs you have will be fine for general viewing purposes but will likely not produce enough light to grow even zoas unless the zoas are right beneath them in less than a couple inches of water. I would consider using them along with a higher intensity light source... if you're still set on LEDs it can be done modularly. I'll explain more about my idea later, I gotta go to work :lol:

If you buy built LED setup yes FAR to expensive at this time. If your good with a soldering iron you can build a killer LED setup for a comparable price. LED is the future for this hobby no doubt.

How on earth did I miss this thread?!?!

You sound alot like me. When I used to live at home my parents would come downstairs to my "domain" and be all like..."What the ****!!! When did THAT get here?" (Pointing to new, 4x2x2 Ackie tank)
Me: "Oh that, I've had that for a while...dad/mom said I could (depending on who noticed it first)
Them: It has to go
Me: Well it's alot of work to get it out of here...and look how cute this guy is!!!

It still works on the old man...

hehe, thats me Randi.

probably the funniest thing i find is i went from about 1 1/2 years ago telling my mom i ant a goldfish bowl in my room,
now its not 1 but 2 reef aquariums.:lol:

im still pretty set on i wont be able to do the LEDs on a 13 year olds budget, but i'll let you guys know if i find something.

Oh, and also some fish stocking ideas ive been thinking bout are:

-1 P.fridmani
or
-3-5 either trimma or eviota gobies
or
some sort of goby

i kinda want to do some kind of kool active fish for this tank,
and maybe something that not alot of people have.
thats kinda why im looking at the lil school of pygmy gobies.

if anyone has any suggestions about a really cool fish, speak up!

+1 for the Trimma gobies. Watching them interact with one another would be neat

+1 P. fridmani

hehe, you sure do love your fridmani, dont you Snaz?