Just one more...5.5G with built in fuge

[KDris]

Updated Pics (Not taken in the best light but best I could do for now..)

 

-FTS

 

-Yuma/Red/Purple Shroom

 

-Both Ricordea splitting =)

 

-Kenya tree growth

 

-Finger leather growth

 

-Baby yumas

 

-Gorganian frag forming base

 

-Mushroom or Yuma? Came as about a 1/4" speck as hitchhiker, has bumps on mouth but not sure yet..

 

-Scarlet reef

 

-Glass shrimp chillin

[KDris]

-some more detailed pics of hood (1x2s held with screws and gorilla glue) (I'm no carpenter lol I'm only 17)

 

 

 

[BeesGoneWild]

Looks good

[c est ma]

Love the tank shots! Nice growth on everything, and how cool to get a shroom/yuma hitchhiker!

 

--Diane

[KDris]

Ya is that a yuma? or just a shroom?

[ununknown]

I want to try this lighting fixture out when i set up my 5.5g. So i just want to know, did it come as a kit? or did you have to purchase the Cold Cathode tubes and the ballasts separately? If it came as a kit, how many ballasts did you have to fit in the project box in total? Also, did the ballasts look like these blue ones:

 

 

Also, did you have to make any modifications to it in order for it to be plugged into a wall outlet plug thingy? Or was it just a plug n' play sort of thing? If you're not sure what im trying to say, i could repeat my questions in pictures. but please answer as many questions as possible. Thanks!

[KDris]

I want to try this lighting fixture out when i set up my 5.5g. So i just want to know, did it come as a kit? or did you have to purchase the Cold Cathode tubes and the ballasts separately? If it came as a kit, how many ballasts did you have to fit in the project box in total? Also, did the ballasts look like these blue ones:

 

 

Also, did you have to make any modifications to it in order for it to be plugged into a wall outlet plug thingy? Or was it just a plug n' play sort of thing? If you're not sure what im trying to say, i could repeat my questions in pictures. but please answer as many questions as possible. Thanks!

 

-Ya they were in kits like that, each ballast can run 2 bulbs, so I have 3 kits(total of 6 bulbs and three ballasts) for my main lighting

 

-Mine are powered on a computer power supply. However to make the PSU think its connected to a computer you must jump the "on" pin (usually green) to a ground (black). If you could find a 12V wall wart with enough power you could do it that way as well.

 

-However the switches and molex connectors made everything too bulky so I cut the off and wired them directly.

 

-You have to remember that on a computer PSU the red wire is a 5V line and the yellow wire is a 12V line

 

-Therefore you connect the red wire coming from the ballast to the yellow wire from the molex connector/PSU (not red to red as you would think) and then connect the corresponding black grounds from the ballast/PSU.

 

-However none of this is tried and true at all,for all I know the bulb spectrum could shift/lose power significantly in the next few months. I haven't been doing this for years and neither has anyone else to my knowledge, so there is a bit of risk involved. Honestly its probably equivalent to an 18-36watt pc but I'm glad I did it as a proof of concept. HTH

[c est ma]

^^^I think we're all pretty impressed, and glad you're doing the experiment. I know I am.

 

Ya is that a yuma? or just a shroom?

 

Well, I'd say some sort of Discosoma shroom, but I'm not 100% sure. There are tons of fancy disco species...I think a yuma would have more of a ring of short tents around the edge...Either way, tho, it's a very nice specimen.

 

--Diane

[KDris]

Thanks! I wasn't sure, your probably right, that shroom is still a keeper tho =)

[ununknown]

Where can I get a "PSU" that connects to the kit? I really have NO electronical background knowledge, so if theres a product that you can direct me to for the PSU, I would really appreciate it. I really want to try this lighting fixture ( but i plan on using like 8 bulbs) so i really want to try this out...and...yeah so. Thanks.

[KDris]

-Sorry by "PSU" I was referring to "Power Supply Unit"

 

-I am using a power supply built to run a computer similar to this:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817182001

 

-However, these power supplies aren't really anything to play with...some provide fairly high amperage, enough to kill

 

-In order to get the power supply to think its plugged into a computer you need to jump (make a connection) between the "on" green wire, and a ground, black wire.

 

-However this method is usually only used to test a PSU to see if its working, and its not really meant to run while being jumped..

 

-If you don't know what your doing it can be dangerous..

 

-*For a safer more permanent solution*

 

-2 12" cold cathodes on a single inverter draw about .5A@12V

 

-So for 8 you would need at least 2A, more like 3-5A though so something like this:

 

http://www.powersupplydepot.com/productvie...roduct=16001+PS

 

-Without a basic understanding of wiring I wouldn't suggest it tho..

[ununknown]

i guess ill have to just stick to basic lighting from some website.. darnit.

 

Oh yeah, why did you choose to not put in sand? Also, you know that pic of your glass shrimp just sitting on a white coral? Well, I dont know you mentioned it but whats it called? And is it hard to take care of? And special requirements? High/low water flow? Placement? Thanks

[KDris]

i guess ill have to just stick to basic lighting from some website.. darnit.

 

Oh yeah, why did you choose to not put in sand? Also, you know that pic of your glass shrimp just sitting on a white coral? Well, I dont know you mentioned it but whats it called? And is it hard to take care of? And special requirements? High/low water flow? Placement? Thanks

 

 

-You can get a 2x18watt power compact fixture for fairly cheap($40-60)

 

-If you look up Sandeep's 5.5G he has a light similar to what I'm talking about. Honestly its probably the same, if not more than the light output I have with the cold cathodes.

 

-Plus you can get replacement bulbs fairly easily

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

-As for the shrimp, its actually a standard freshwater glass shrimp

 

-They are actually brackish water shrimp and can live in fresh or saltwater

 

-I live on an estuary where there are thousands of these so I collected them. In the rainy season the the salinity drops to almost completely freshwater 1.005 or so..and I start seeing freshwater plants growing like anacharis, and occaisionly some water hyacinths, although the state pretty much destroyed them since they are exotic and were choking out everything. During this period I used to collect them and they would live fine in my planted tanks, but I don't have any f/w tanks anymore.

 

-In the winter lack of rain causes the salinity to rise sometimes around 1.018 or so..If I collect the shrimp during this time they are already acclimated to higher salinities so I just drip them for about and hour and they do fine.

 

-My lfs sells them acclimated in freshwater for $1 a dozen as feeders, but it would require some time to get them acclimated to full saltwater. I've actually transferred these as well from fresh/brackish/salt over a period of time with the different tanks I've kept.

 

-So if you have some time to acclimate them you could probably do it, but I have never seen these for sale already acclimated to saltwater. HTH

[KDris]

-Another shrimp that is more available is the pederson shrimp. They have a similar body structure and size but instead of being clear/brown they are clear/bright blue. They usually live with anemones or ricordea and are pretty easy to take care of.

 

EDIT: Or sexy shrimp of course

[ununknown]

oh lolz, sorry, i should of been more specific, what i was talking about was what the shrimp was sitting on. Thats what i was asking the water flow and level placement for.

[KDris]

-Oh...haha my b I should've read more closely... Its a fiji finger leather, I think more specifically a devils finger leather but I'm not sure; It was just labeled "finger leather" at my lfs.

 

-Not too hard to take care of requires med light/medium flow.

[IceTurf]

-Oh...haha my b I should've read more closely... Its a fiji finger leather, I think more specifically a devils finger leather but I'm not sure; It was just labeled "finger leather" at my lfs.

 

-Not too hard to take care of requires med light/medium flow.

I found a website that shows some higher level Cold cathode lights, just not always in the wanted kelvin

6500K

and or

blue

 

Lumen output at high level 90Ma (not sure about how many volts): ranging from around 1000/m2 to 1300/m2 (not too bad, ran some calculations so thats around 1.181lumen/cm2 or with reflectors in a 5.5-

1181/240=4.9lumen/cm2 and SPS corals require around 15-25? (i forget if its 1.5 -2.5 but i think it makes sense that it is 15-25lumens/cm2) So wire up a bunch of these and you can handle just about anything

CRI=85+ (just on the lower end of what is needed for photosynthesis)

 

http://www.cathodelightingsystems.com

but gl finding out where they sell these lights

 

-edit- nice looking tank, it will be interesting to see how well the corals do over the next few months

[KDris]

Thanks for the link, one of the white bulbs seems to be dimming, but other than that still having good growth. Both ricordea florida split so now there are 4. We'll see how long they last I think if they all of a sudden start burning out I'll just get a 2x18watt retro and stuff it in there.

[rnewhou]

What are you doing to care for the gorganian? I love them because they remind me of diving in Florida and Mexico where they dominated the reef systems. But I heard they were difficult to keep and died after 6 months on everyone who kept them. Maybe the ones I'm thinking are a different species or something, but I still figured I'd ask what you were doing, if anything.

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Robert

[KDris]

What are you doing to care for the gorganian? I love them because they remind me of diving in Florida and Mexico where they dominated the reef systems. But I heard they were difficult to keep and died after 6 months on everyone who kept them. Maybe the ones I'm thinking are a different species or something, but I still figured I'd ask what you were doing, if anything.

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Robert

 

-Only the non-photosynthetic ones are particularly hard to keep.

 

-These are frags from about a 12" mother colony that I've had for about a year.

 

-I don't do anything special, just light and moderate/high flow. Occasionaly I dose phyto in the main tank

 

-There are several photosynthetic varities, this one is called a "purple plume gorgonian"

 

-I bought it from ken at sealifeinc.net

[KDris]

This is another idea I've been cooking up based off a 5.5...guess what it is?

 

 

[Sandeep]

That curve looks sweet! It will be interesting to see what it looks like if you build it.

 

Would the curve be a piece of acrylic? How do you shape it?

[KDris]

Ya its called a pseudokreisel, basically a rectangular tank adapted to have circular flow to house jellyfish. Considering doing this to a 5.5 and having a trio of comb jellies. The curve will most likely be made with 1/8" acrylic and bent with the heat from a propane torch (crazing and minimal bubbling won't matter because they don't support anything and will be painted)

[KDris]

quick picture update:

 

left side:

 

right side:

[KDris]

Update: Wired up 9 white Cree XR-E LEDs and am running them at 330mA. So far corals have responded well to the increased light. I still need to add the blue/actinic LEDs; I'll probably add them after Christmas.