Aquagreen

[ian]

Its a separate controller, i got it cheaper than normal off the Bay. It also imitates thunderstorms! It's a nice feature of the LED's though.

 

[DrRob]

Out of curiosity (been looking at LED's for a while in the DIY area and lighting intensity is my biggest concern), how big/deep is that tank for, what looks like, 2 gro-beams and how high tech does it seem to be running? I'm trying to work out how to scale it for my 36x24x18.

 

[ian]

TMC claim that grobeams are the equiv to 1x 24w T5 per beam. This tank is 45cm deep...i don't have a PAR meter, but i can tell it's doing its job.

 

[DrRob]

To be honest, I'm more interested in the fact that it works than in the numbers a meter is chucking out.

Mine will probably be closer to the surface than yours and the tank is 60cm deep.

I'm going to guess that I'll need the equivalent of about 4 of those.

 

[ian]

you could have a look at the LED tiles as well. If you have the skills though, go down the DIY route...but on reflection is isn't that expensive for a TMC light unit, when you look at the price of the ADA's or Arcadia units.

 

[lljdma06]

thanks llj, the glosso has since been trimmed.

Probably the best thing i have bought in a while...I had embarrassingly dirty lily's.

This made me lol...

the cleanest lily pipes in the land

thank you JBL!

This made me lol even harder...

 

[ian]

theres nowt like clean Lily's...

the weeping moss i added a few weeks ago is trying to escape!


aquagreen weeping moss1 by Ian Holdich, on Flickr

 

[Andy Vox]

Tank looks beautiful!

Quick question:
It might have been covered before but what LED unit are you using?
I was considering some of SMD flood lights on ebay for my 80l tank, can't decide how much output I'd need.
Now wattage doesn't seem to mean anything I can base estimations on, nor does lumens. I know the best measure would be PAR but they don't tell me what PAR they are. I was hoping you might be able to help.

 

[ian]

thanks Andy, i'm using 2x TMC grobeams on this tank. They are equivalent to 2x 24w T5's, so enough light for me. As for PAR, i don't have access to a PAR meter, as they are really expensive. With good distribution, C02 and ferts in the tank and this should grow really. I can only go on growth and the glosso is carpeting well, the red plants are as red as i have ever grown them, things aren't growing to quickly, nor are they growing to slow. LED's in my opinion are great, they give a really natural look over the tank as well.

Just be aware i'm not a person who likes to shove loads of light over my tanks, i see no point as you're leaving a smaller gap for mistakes, and most mistakes lead to algae in this hobby. I'm no expert when it comes to those floodlights as i haven't seen them used anywhere, but i expect you'd be going down the real high light road with those.

 

[DrRob]

Ian, you'd be amazed how little those things actually chuck out. When it's dark you don't need much light to make things visible, which is what most domestic floodlights are trying to do. Clear vision is a different thing and requires a lot of light from them, which is where the commercial ones appear.

 

[ian]

really, i thought they'd be quite powerful, they say the equiv is around 100w of normal light. As i say i don't know a lot about those floodlights, they normally come with the MH bulbs, which are high light.

 

[DrRob]

Aye, but 100w from a normal light is very little actual output. I was playing with one of the LED ones and considering cannibalising it for a lighting rig, but in the end decided I'd need too many to make a sensible set up for it to be worthwhile. Probably depends on which one you get, but generally I wasn't all that impressed with it.

 

[Andy Vox]

Cheers DrRob thats exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

The floodlights contain one SMD chip in the middle, looked like they could have worked but maybe not.

It seems the only LED/SMD's worth anything are the CREE ones which are used in the Globeams.
Looks like I might need to go down the DIY route using CREE SMD's then rather than using the floodlights.

Thanks Ian that's actually really helped because now I know I'll need a similar wattage in CREE SMD's to attain something similar to you. Costly exercise but fun none the less!
Sorry for hi-jacking, I've just realised this was discussed with DrRob on the last page!

EDIT: Again its just more interesting that LEDs work than anything.

 

[pablothebetta]

Absolutely stunning tank - I wish I could design and grow aquascapes like that.

Just a few Qs about glosso if you could help me out a bit. I'm thinking of getting some for my tank, though I'm not dosing CO2 or ferts at the moment (I use the liquid stuff for both) as I need to get some of that TNC Complete you've got, though there are some tabs in the sand. The lighting isn't incredible, but seems fairly strong. Do you think it'd manage in there? I was thinking about getting a 1-2 Grow pot of the stuff. Also, does it need trimming regularly to help it grow "across" rather than upwards? Thanks

 

[ian]

Thanks Pablo, the Glosso will benefit from the carbon addition and the TNC complete. The trick is getting enough flow around the substrate...you will read countless posts that aquatic plants will grow upwards due to light being to low. This is an untrue statement, aquatic plants grow upwards for only one reason and thats upward growth and increased inter-nodal distances occur in response to hormones in the plant. The particular hormone responsible for this behavior happens to be a gas called Ethylene. Good flow ensures that this gas can be dispersed and the plant will grow the right way. If the light is low the glosso will just grow slower.

I would get the one to grow stuff if i was gonna use glosso again, it's more smaller and compact than the normal potted stuff. You won't need as many pots either.