My spring break experiment
- Thread starter Chelsey
- Start date
trottman
New member
you could have let go a little bit and waited... slept... party.... whale watch..... feed your fish.....
but hey thats cool! next time you drill holes i reccomend you draw a grid on there and drill them out that way. then you would have an even spread of holes. keep up with the project, i am interested in this!
good luck (dont forget to sleep)
but hey thats cool! next time you drill holes i reccomend you draw a grid on there and drill them out that way. then you would have an even spread of holes. keep up with the project, i am interested in this!
good luck (dont forget to sleep)
I drew a grid with a silver permanent marker (can't see it now). The grid was square inches. I had to fit 8 LEDs per sq inch, so if you do the math that doesn't come out evenly. On top of that I had to worry about the width of the LEDs and trying to prevent the checkerboard effect. My MJ400 came today...forgot to tell you that earlier.
Here are the updated pics for tonight:
(sorry about the fingerprints)
I don't know if you can tell by the pics, but this stuff REALLY reflects. I have an LED flashlight that I used to test its reflectiveness, and I think it'll work great. Kinda ghetto I know, but whatever works, right? The reflector stuff is waterproofing tape used in roofing I believe. I just went to the paint section of Wal Mart and this stuff caught my eye. I'm going to polyurethane over it, but it's supposed to be waterproof.
(sorry about the fingerprints)
I don't know if you can tell by the pics, but this stuff REALLY reflects. I have an LED flashlight that I used to test its reflectiveness, and I think it'll work great. Kinda ghetto I know, but whatever works, right? The reflector stuff is waterproofing tape used in roofing I believe. I just went to the paint section of Wal Mart and this stuff caught my eye. I'm going to polyurethane over it, but it's supposed to be waterproof.
jwalters103
Active member
you can get some more decent info on the subject here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=804410
there are some links in that thread that lead to some pretty good info
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=804410
there are some links in that thread that lead to some pretty good info
Houston, we have updates!
Houston, we have updates!
I got quite a bit done today! I went shopping at CPE and Gateway (my first visit) and got a bunch of cool new stuff, and I got my rock wall finished! I finally found some eggcrate at Lowes. Here's my wall:
(sorry about the fingerprints)
I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing about the remaining exposed eggcrate. I might leave it and hope that it gets covered in coralline or I might cover it with something.
While I'm at it, here's my new zoo frag that I got from Gateway:
It was nice meeting you Letmegrow!
And a FTS of my 24 gallon NC DX:
My blue LEDs came today too! I was complaining to Letmegrow about the slowness of the LED companies and when I got home they were waiting for me. The white LEDs won't be here for a while, so I can't start wiring, but at least they're here! Once the sillicon dries I'm going to put water in the tank along with my live rock and sand...I'm ready to get this party started!
Houston, we have updates!
I got quite a bit done today! I went shopping at CPE and Gateway (my first visit) and got a bunch of cool new stuff, and I got my rock wall finished! I finally found some eggcrate at Lowes. Here's my wall:
(sorry about the fingerprints)
I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing about the remaining exposed eggcrate. I might leave it and hope that it gets covered in coralline or I might cover it with something.
While I'm at it, here's my new zoo frag that I got from Gateway:
It was nice meeting you Letmegrow!
And a FTS of my 24 gallon NC DX:
My blue LEDs came today too! I was complaining to Letmegrow about the slowness of the LED companies and when I got home they were waiting for me. The white LEDs won't be here for a while, so I can't start wiring, but at least they're here! Once the sillicon dries I'm going to put water in the tank along with my live rock and sand...I'm ready to get this party started!
Today's update:
I put a few more tiny pieces of rock in places where the eggcrate was exposed and put a little more silicon in places where the rock was loose. My sand came today too. Tomorrow, after the silicon has a chance to dry, I'll put the sand in and live rock and officially start the tank
I put a few more tiny pieces of rock in places where the eggcrate was exposed and put a little more silicon in places where the rock was loose. My sand came today too. Tomorrow, after the silicon has a chance to dry, I'll put the sand in and live rock and officially start the tank
I don't know if this is such a good idea, but here's my running total so far:
500 13000mcd 5mm White LEDs = $60.00
150 x New BLUE 5mm 6000mcd LED LAMP Super Bright LEDS = $14.88
Estes Black Sand 5 lb bag = $12.00
Marineland Maxi-jet 400 Submersible Pump/Powerhead = $19.15
2.5 Gallon glass aquarium = ~$10.00
Eggcrate = ~$11.00
Live rock = ~ $20.00
Silicon = ~$5.00
Running Total: $152.03
A lot of you guys that are thinking about doing this could probably shave some of the cost by using your own live rock, sand, and eggcrate along with whatever else you already have lying around.
Here's what I'm going to add before I'm finished:
-neon goby
-2 snails
-2 hermits
-monti digis and monti caps (already bought one digi, orange with pink polyps - $40)
-maybe a clam? I don't know if I'm going to do that or not, it just depends on what I think the tank and I can handle
500 13000mcd 5mm White LEDs = $60.00
150 x New BLUE 5mm 6000mcd LED LAMP Super Bright LEDS = $14.88
Estes Black Sand 5 lb bag = $12.00
Marineland Maxi-jet 400 Submersible Pump/Powerhead = $19.15
2.5 Gallon glass aquarium = ~$10.00
Eggcrate = ~$11.00
Live rock = ~ $20.00
Silicon = ~$5.00
Running Total: $152.03
A lot of you guys that are thinking about doing this could probably shave some of the cost by using your own live rock, sand, and eggcrate along with whatever else you already have lying around.
Here's what I'm going to add before I'm finished:
-neon goby
-2 snails
-2 hermits
-monti digis and monti caps (already bought one digi, orange with pink polyps - $40)
-maybe a clam? I don't know if I'm going to do that or not, it just depends on what I think the tank and I can handle
I don't know if anyone is interested, but I just put a layer of black sand in my pico tank and I have half the bag left - will cover another 2.5 gallon tank as long as you don't want a DSB (3"+). I'd be willing to give it to someone if they wanted it, or if they had a tiny monti frag to trade that'd be cool too. None of my tanks (with the exception of this one) have black sand, so I can't just dump it elsewhere. You can PM me if you're interested.
Glad you reminded me to update Vishboy!
Glad you reminded me to update Vishboy!
My LEDS are here! All 500 million of them! :lol:
Blue (100 per bag, 2 bags)
White (500)
I was curious how things fit since I didn't have the LEDs when I drilled the holes (I guessed at the drill bit size), so I tried placing a few LEDs in the holes in my acrylic. They fit PERFECTLY! Some people that have tried this before have siliconed the LEDs into place. I may or may not have to do that, we'll see.
The LEDs will be placed in a ratio of 3:1 white to blue to hopefully get the desired color spectrum. Here's a quote from someone on another forum that has LED lighting. They said the following: "Good polyp extension by the LPS & SPS alike"
If I'm lucky I'll get the LEDs into the acrylic today. If I succeed I'll update again
Glad you reminded me to update Vishboy!
My LEDS are here! All 500 million of them! :lol:
Blue (100 per bag, 2 bags)
White (500)
I was curious how things fit since I didn't have the LEDs when I drilled the holes (I guessed at the drill bit size), so I tried placing a few LEDs in the holes in my acrylic. They fit PERFECTLY! Some people that have tried this before have siliconed the LEDs into place. I may or may not have to do that, we'll see.
The LEDs will be placed in a ratio of 3:1 white to blue to hopefully get the desired color spectrum. Here's a quote from someone on another forum that has LED lighting. They said the following: "Good polyp extension by the LPS & SPS alike"
If I'm lucky I'll get the LEDs into the acrylic today. If I succeed I'll update again
shadofax69
In Memoriam
I would sugges using a hot glue gun to get the LED's in place. That is what I used and they work great. Just an idea though.
