A Sense Of Space

[Steve GT]

awesome work mate real progress made here

 

[loraxchick]

Looks GREAT! I love it!
thanks for sharing!
cheers

 

[ian]

great Steve, you're turning into a rather good scaper aren't you!

very Oliviera looking tank.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Thanks for the kind comments guys, ian, rather good scaper? I am not worthy lol

 

[JenCliBee]

Never really been that interested in pico's but that is really nice mate, cant wait to see it fill in a bit.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Hi guys weekly update, the moss is spreading and getting nice and bushy and the HC is spreading now, still only getting daylight, had a slight GDA outbreak on the glass from overdosing but a clean up and two days of no Excel or TPN+ and it's all gone.

The filter is working at full tilt still and getting good circulation. The flow of this little thing is awesome and adding a small piece of tube to the outlet the other day gave it some more umf.

The LED lighting is nearly finished, all I need is some thermal paste to complete it and a tiny pipette to measure a 50th of a ml in for my dosing lol.

So wish there was a pico comp I'm so proud of this.

Pics coming soon.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Right guys, here's the update.

Pico led lighting finished, stand for the tank finished so thought I'd do a write up for the DIY section.

Good place to buy your parts from, they do sets (1 led, 1 driver, 1 lens & 1 heat sink) - http/myworld.ebay.co.uk/led-world2007/&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2754

I used solid oak 3/4 inch thick flooring which I had left over from doing our bedroom but you can use which ever wood you want.
First I mitered at 45 degree angles a small box for the led's, make sure when doing this that you leave enough depth and height to fit the led's, lenses, drivers and heat sinks once together. This was also made to the exact length and width of the tank, mine being 1 litre was 8cm x 12cm.

Next was building the stand, I used the same wood and built like a C shaped piece as shown below. I found some old brackets in my tool box which I used to hold the fixture and bolted them in place as shown below.

Next I sourced a PSU (power supply unit) from one of my old routers, it is 12volt and the drivers are 12-24volt so was fine, also when doing this that you have around 1 amp to play with as you dont want to under power these.

I used a piece of tongue and groove I had to fill the hole in the middle of the lighting box and cut 2 x 22mm holes for the lenses and using a hot glue gun, glued the wood and lenses on place. I hung the box on the brackets low to start with so I could feed the cable through a hole in the back of the stand, into the lighting box and connect everything while still having enough space to do so. Once finished I put two screws on the inside of the box and hooked them over the brackets so the angle can be adjusted still. The connections for the led's are as follows, each of these drivers has two metal pins. These are your power inputs, I took mine off using a soldering iron and soldered my cables straight to the PCB (printed circuit board). It doesn't matter which way round you get these there is no + or - on the PCB. Then from the other end of the driver you'll find a white and pink cable, white - pink +. I soldered these to the led's on the terminals that have the solder already on them as it makes life easier, on each led there will be 3 terminals to solder too so you have a choice and all are marked with a tiny + or -. When connecting the led's to the heat sinks I ran out of patience and used superglue on the edges with a dab of thermal paste on the under side just to make sure, you can buy this on ebay very cheaply too. Once this is done its a simple case of putting everything on top of the lenses and making sure your drivers dont touch inside the box, I glued mine to the sides to keep safe.

Next if you have a pico external filter like mine (there's a write up on here somewhere) I'll try and get it put in my sig, then next I cut two small holes big enough for the inlet and outlet pipes inn the back of the stand at the correct heights so the filter can sit behind the stand out of view and pushed the pipes through.

Next I put the tank in place, primed my filter, and plugged everything in. Here's some pic's of the finished product & a vid.

[b[/b]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty5ZPSKwxqo[/media]

 

[coldcazzie]

That's great, steve, I love it. They're really striking together like that...

 

[SuperColey1]

love the little Pico. very well done on that.

Think you're going a bit OTT with the light though. Thatis a huge amount of light there I am using 3 x 3W over my 23 litre I'll put up some pics in the Lallana Point journal on that soon Love the tree mate

Andy

 

[ian]

I LOVE THIS!

This is competition worthy Steve, get some decent pics of it mate!


well done mate!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Thanks guys, I know it's a lot of light lol but I thought I'd give it a go with very high light and see how I get on, hopefully once the HC has spread and I have a nice carpet I'll pull the rocks a little higher up into view and get some good pics. It's actually spreading quite fast.

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

 

[JenCliBee]

Loving the light mate and that tree is really coming along.... single word is.. 'superb'

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Loving the light mate and that tree is really coming along.... single word is.. 'superb'

Thanks mate, the tree is growing faster than the HC at the moment lol, it also has a couple of RCS in there now as its around 20 degrees and they don't seem to mind it.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Quick update, took a pic while sorting Eden out to compare the HC colour and growth after 3 days and it look like its liking the new lighting.

I know I need a water change and slight hoover of the sand lol.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Weekly update again lol, after the last few weeks the Christmas Moss on the tree was huge, growing up to the water surface and covering 3/4 of the tiny tank, gave it a trim yesterday and it now looks like a ball lol but I only done this to allow the HC a little more much needed light which is spreading nicely, here's some pic's. As this moss grows upwards so well and being Christmas Moss I may have to shape it into a Christmas tree in a months time .