# DIY ADA stand, tank, lights, conduit!!! PIC heavy



## flashbang009

Hey everyone,

So over the last few months i've been embarking on a fun but time consuming project. The project started out after I realized that i'll be in college in a year, and the only aquarium i can bring is a 10 gallon. I decided that I wanted the nicest, sleekest looking equipment and stand. The best and most enjoyable way for me to do this was DIY!!

The stand ideas came from looking at Jason Baliban's work, and other ADA stands. I liked the sleek look without the handles and so off I went. I didn't take as many pictures of the stand in progress as I would've hoped, but you'll get the general idea. The stand was made from MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) and was painted with Valspar Primer and Valspar Satin Enamel. Yes you just read that right, i PAINTED with PRIMER. This was because it was the only spraypaint I could find that resembled the ADA color. Both the primer and enamel were in a spray can and proved to be quite the challenge. The primer's spray mechanism absolutely sucked and only further complicated things. In the end, the final coats looked great and matched the ADA color closely. I used Euro hinges and the joints were simple butt joints with glue and finish nails (it's a 10 gallon stand...). The only problem i've had is stability, being a 10 gallon size and on carpet, but it'll work.














































The tank was simply a 10g that I de-rimmed per directions HERE and had a DIY thread HERE. It went relatively smoothly with only two hiccups. The first being that I leaned too hard on the first tank i tried and broke the side pane. No biggie, it was an old tank. The second hiccup was that on the new tank when i removed part of the back rim on the top, it took a little slice of glass with it. Lessons learned for next time i suppose. I trimmed up the silicone all over, even in the corners to give it a sleek "rimless" look.









Tank's dirty but you get the idea.

The conduit was pretty easy, used 1/2" EMT conduit from home depot ($1.50 for 10 feet or something ridiculous). I borrowed a pipe bender from my girlfriend's family and went to work. Took a few tries to get the pipe the way i wanted it, and actually a complete change in plans by the end of the bending. I had initially wanted an upside-down "U" over the tank, but decided on a partial curve over the top (you can see in the pictures). The conduit will be mounted on the left side of the tank with conduit holders. The light (which i'll get to next) will be mounted via an eyebolt in the conduit, to chain, to an eye bolt in the top of the light.










The light. Possibly the most exciting part for me, just came in. I ordered from Dealexreme.com, as their prices are the cheapest and they have the best selection. I went with THIS driver to power the LED's, CREE X-RE Q2 LED's as seen HERE, and a few cheap fans to help with circulation. I got a heatsink from heatsinksusa.com for about $35 and the order from deal extreme cost me $50. The shipping was free from DX but took a month.









Q2's









Unpacking the box!










I will be adding on to the light progress as i build it with detailed pictures and possibly step by step directions.

The tank is cycling right now with Aquasoil and soon some Seiryu stone will be added.


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## bamboosharkbark

Bravo, well done on that!
So the satin Enamel is what gives it the gray look? Also could you please add some instructions or a link on how to actually build the cabinet?
Good on you for choosing LEDs I'm collecting all the parts for my new setup now and will be using them too! 9 cool white xpgs and 9 xre warm white. I'm also gonna add 1 blue and one red for appearances. My tank will be a 25 gallon cube, and ill use a dimmable driver. Any plans for an arduino to control the lights or is that a non-dimmable driver you have there?
Looking forward to seeing more!

kind regards,
Sven

EDIT: oh and I found my leds here: http://www.rapidled.com/servlet/StoreFront


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## flashbang009

Thanks bamboosharkbark! The primer was gray, which gave it that look. The enamel simply gave it a satin finish as opposed to the flat finish of the primer.

The cabinet was a pretty simple design, just measure out how tall you want it and figure out what edges you want showing where. You can't see any edges on the side of my design because the side panels go from the top to bottom. The doors are mounted with Euro hinges and other than that you've got the top, sides, bottom and doors. Here's Jason Baliban's design for his. It's more complicated and in depth than mine, but some may like that better.

I don't believe my driver is dimmable, and frankly i plan on using the fixture height as the control for brightness. As for timers and what not, it'll just be on a single timer like any fluorescent light.

I should start assembling the LED's tomorrow, including tapping and applying thermal compound. I'll post some pictures of my progress.


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## WeedCali

wow looks nice! cant wait to see it come along more!


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## fishingkid1

This is looking great Jason. May have to come check this stuff out sometime over the next week if your free. Also, I now have money to buy that 75G canopy off of you...so when you get a chance. 

BTW his stand looks even better in person. Very nice job on it, minus the AWFUL paint smell when I first saw it...hehe.

Can't wait to see these LED's in action, how are you setting them up on the heat sink?


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## AquaBarren

Looks great. Nice work.


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## niko

The stand looks nice, absolutely. But I personally think that this design is obsolete. My reason to say that is a local artist that designs and makes aquarium stands herself. KimCadmus here on APC. Think fine European design using metal, wood, and glass. No spartan looking block of a stand like ADA's created somewhere in the late 90's I think. 

The LED light is what excites me most too. One improvement of the looks of the ADA way of haning the light is to not use any wires to suspend the light fixture. You just attach the light fixture to the conduit. There is a way to make the conduit completely invisible behind the tank - you just position it right behind the side glass. Aligned with the back corner of the tank. The pipe becomes completely invisible when you look through the tank. And when you look from the outside you can't see it either unless you look directly from the side of the tank. 

I've done that with a 2' long tank that had pretty thin glass and it worked amazingly well. I put an additional bend to the conduit so it can screw to the back of the light fixture. Now, I was using a T5HO bulb. But with LED there maybe a problem with the heat transferring from the heatsink to the conduit.

And for the light I have another idea worth exploring. I can't say it will work but you will all agree it is a good idea at least in theory. If it does work in real life we can do away with the heatsink and have only the LEDs and the conduit over the tank. Pretty slick IF it actually works. It is simple - you attach the LEDs to the conduit itself with the Arctic paste. Or use a thin heatsink wide enough to accomodate the LEDs so all of the LED surface is in direct contact with the skinny heatsink. Active cooling is done with a fan at the base of the conduit. The fan constantly blows air through the conduit. Will that air be enough to cool the LEDs I can't say. And in case the fan fails there needs to be an automatic switch that shuts off the LED's. Maybe something like that will work with only a few LEDs, but not with 12.

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Thanks for the comments everyone. They're greatly appreciated. 

Niko: I too thought a lot about the design of the stand, but i really wanted the stand to be just that. When you add other things and don't make it a simple box/stand, I think it takes away from the overall feel of the tank, especially if you're going with the rimless look. Just a personal opinion.

I had the exact same thoughts about the conduit as you did. I tried to think about ways to hide it, but in the end i think the way i have it is the best way to hide it. Being a 10 gallon, and since i'll be going with a minimalist approach to the aquascape, having the conduit attach on the back of the stand but on the side would still show through the tank. I don't plan on having a background on the tank either. Another problem i ran into is that my conduit bender makes close to 6" bends. On a 10 gallon tank this makes it impossible to get the bends in a place that i can still make use of the conduit for hanging lights off of.

My design for the lights was going to be very very similar to the ADA Solar I. The exterior design hopefully will look almost exactly like ADA's only with LED's under the hood. I simply liked the look of ADA's Solar I and wanted to replicate it. 

As for your idea of mounting the LED's directly on the conduit, I think that's a feasibly idea, but I think the cooling might not be adequate. Plus i'm not sure how aesthetically pleasing it would be. Sure you're eliminating the common "fixture" and wires but...

Back to the fixture, I was going to be hanging it with wire but I'm still torn between that and you're designs of attaching the fixture directly to the conduit. Now with my current idea of the Solar I replica, I think wires would look the best. However if I were going with a standard T5 fixture, I'd certainly go with your design. 

I'm going to work on the sketchup of the fixture to post here for comments, and possibly start assembling today.


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## flashbang009

Went and bought a 6-32 tap for the holes i need and some other general supplies. I wanted to test out an LED so i hooked up the driver to an led and plugged it in. POP............ Lost an LED. Driver isn't meant to drive 1 LED. Put 36W into one poor LED. Tested another one with three AA batteries, and DANGGGGGGG these things are bright. I don't think i'll miss the blown one. Time to start tapping!


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## flashbang009

Running tally:

Holes drilled and tapped: 5
Holes not yet drilled: 17
Broken taps @ $5: 3
Blood pressure: 210/80 jk.

UPDATE: Got all of the holes drilled and tapped, only broke 4 total taps.....

LED's have been tested and thermal compound applied and screwed down to the heatsink. Next step is soldering all the wiring together, attaching fans. Tomorrow i have to cut the fixture pieces and assemble!

UPDATE NUMERO DOS: SUCCESSSSSSSSSS!!!! Blew another LED, but had an extra. Light is bright. Got a pic with it over the tank, and it's the perfect amount of light. I'll probably order some lenses soon. Will post step by step pictures tomorrow.


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## flashbang009

Here's some pics with some instructions:









Here's the underside of the heatsink with all the holes drilled and tapped for screws. If you see more than 2 screws or holes for an LED, its because i broke a tap on one of the holes. Or multiple holes....









Here's how much thermal compound i used. I chose the compound over thermal adhesive because it allows the LED's to be removable if I ever need to replace them. Had i used the adhesive, I wouldn't have needed to drill and tap (would have saved me hours of work).









Here's an LED with the thermal compound under it, and screwed down. (blurry but you get the point) I may have screwed the LED down too tight, you can see the compound squeezing out but oh well.









LED's pre-solder i believe. Looks the same after solder. I wired in series, which is + to -, + to -.









VIOLA!!!









Holding LED's over tank (much brighter now that tank cleared).

In summary:

1.) Drill/tap heatsink. I believe a heatsink is necessary with these LED's because they need proper cooling in order to get the maximum life. Fans are not necessary with this setup because it simply doesn't get hot enough to need them. At most the heatsink now gets slightly warm. 
2.) Apply thermal compound. I used Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound from Radio shack. It's expensive but I want to get the max life out of these LED's.
3.) Put LED in place, spinning it as you place it to allow the thermal compound to spread out evenly. 
4.) Place screws in tapped holes to hold LED down. 
5.) Cut wires to size between LED's. 
6.) Tin wires with solder, solder wire to LED. These LED's are mounted on a 'star' which has solder pads on it. Simply touch soldering iron to top of wire while it's on top of the solder pad. Solder will melt and join.
7.) Tin and solder driver wire and attach + wire to - on LED, and - wire to + on LED.
8.) DO NOT TOUCH ANY WIRE FROM DRIVER ON HEATSINK OR LED WHILE PLUGGED IN. I did this when i went to test it (one wire was soldered on, the other I held) and accidentally touched the free wire to an LED, which shorted out the LED. In total I blew 2 LED's on this project.

I plan on buying 'optics' for these LED's to direct as much light as possible down to the tank. I spent $50 on the LEDs, $30 on the heatsink, and $20 on miscellaneous stuff. Not bad for a light that will last >5 years.

I'll get working on the fixture and will show updated pictures as I go...


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## niko

Say, Jason can you take a picture of the tank when the water clears and save the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and the focal length? Also tell us the distance from lens to tank.

That information is usually stored in the picture file itself.

As you probably know this could give someone an idea of how bright these LEDs are. 

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Will do. I'll also set up a CFL for comparison. I can tell you right now the LED's are muchhh brighter and more natural looking than the CFL. I can hold the LED's up to a 15" above the tank and still have plenty of light. I'll probably mount them about 6" above. 

The fixture is a pain, i'm trying to use flashing to get a similar effect as the ADA Solar I lights. The flashing bows out in the middle on the edge, i'll post some pictures later.


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## Mr Who

After building my own LED light very similar to this one thing I would suggest is don't bother drilling and tapping holes to mount them. 

Instead just drill some holes, and get self tapping screws made for hanging sheet metal.
The aluminum heat sinks are so soft compared to the screws that it's like screwing into wood. So much easier than tapping them all.

Also, when I mounted mine I used very small nylon washers to avoid shorting the LED to the heat sink. 

I was very glad to have mounted mine using screws as I also popped one light.


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## Mr Who

I was going to use flashing for mine as well. 
Then it turns out my father had a piece of 1 inch, U channel steel the PERFECT size to mount my heat sinks into. 
If I had tried to build it to fit, I'm guessing it wouldn't have fit as nicely.

I used slightly smaller heat sinks that I probably should have, so I added some fans, just to ensure long life from the lights.

Here is a link with a photo of my light. 
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/introductions-greets/72882-greetings-mn.html


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## flashbang009

Mr. Who, yours looks great! I hope mine turns out the way I hoped. The idea for the self tapping screws is a genius one. That would've saved me $20 and hours of time haha!

I just contact cemented the flashing onto the fixture, it's a really interesting design as you'll see soon. Once it's done being clamped, i'll paint it, drill the holes for hanging, and we'll (hopefully) be in business!


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## fishingkid1

Yeah, Self tapping screws are helpful. 

Can't wait to see this in person. I've contributed my little bitty half by giving you some aqua-soil


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## niko

Mr. Who,

What do you mean by "used small nylon washers"?

Won't they melt from the heat?

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

That's one thing I thought about Niko. Martin, your assistance with the AS is GREATLY appreciated 

As for the flashing, it went without fault to my surprise. It mounted perfectly, and now all i have to do is paint and mount. Here's a question though: right now the flashing looks just like stainless steel, with the stand the color in the pics above. Do I paint the light satin black, leave it stainless color, or paint it the same color as the stand? I'll make my mind up by the end of the night but need some opinions.


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## niko

Like the stand for sure.

I've made a pendant shaped like the ADA before and although it seemed to look nice as bare metal when I installed it did not match the black stand.

Before you paint you should use a primer. Killz is fine and wipe off the metal with acetone or laquer thinner before hand (do not use paint thinner). 

And do not use paint that will end up looking rough. They call it "textured". It looks very cool, but over time it absorbs fine dust that you can't clean.

Satin finish is best. Gloss looks cheesy.

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Will do Niko. That's what i was leaning towards but I wasn't sure. I'll paint the wood understructure satin black, and any visible flashing the same color as the stand. Any suggestions for the color of the conduit? I'd leave it unpainted but there's that stamp writing on it... The one I planned on using I already painted black, but I've got plenty of extra conduit to make another. Paint should be done by tomorrow, and hopefully the entire light by tomorrow.


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## Mark13

flashbang009 said:


> UPDATE: Got all of the holes drilled and tapped, only broke 4 total taps...


On the broken taps, are you using lubricant as you tap? Do you have the correct tap drill diameter, or are you one size too small? (No amount of lube will help that with small taps).


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## flashbang009

I bought the taps that come with the right size drill bit (or at least they want you to think that? haha) but i didn't start using a lubricant until after I broke the 3rd tap. 

Welcome to APC by the way Mark13.

Niko, great call on the color, I got the first coat on the outer shell and it looks great. Still don't know what color to use for the conduit. Might just stick with the black?


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## TAB

if you are breaking taps, your doing something very wrong... try breaking the chip more often and using a smaller tap handle.


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## flashbang009

Well, when using a tap smaller than an 1/8", it only takes about 4 lbs of torque to snap it. It was really hard to tell what kind of resistance was the 'good', tapping resistance, and what was the "wait your twisting too hard" resistance. Those taps were so darn small....


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## niko

Less tapping, more pictures, please.



--Nikolay


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## fishyjoe24

yeah more photos, and I wonder when people will try to copy this ada style of stand.

DROOL !!!!!!!!!

can you say better have a nice clean c02 bottle and canister filter.
http://glassbox-design.com/2009/beautiful-glass-cube-aquarium-stand-from-ada/










your led light is looking cool flashbang.


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## Mr Who

Nylon washers work just fine. They do not melt.
After you mount the LED's to the heat sinks with thermal paste, all the heat goes into the heat sink.
Before I put fans on mine, they (LED's and heatsinks) were quite warm to the touch. 
After the fans, I can touch the actual LED's themselves and they are room temp.

I may yet change the fans on my light and instead go with some ultra slim computer case fans. There is just enough room I could mount them inside...though I just setup a new tank with a canopy so I may just leave it. Not sure yet where my LED light is going to end up. Might be going back on the old tank.

Can't wait to see your setup when it's all together! I've very curious what the flashing looks like as I a was initially planning to do the same thing.
-Curtis


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## flashbang009

Well the painting process has been a pain. I wanted a two tone color with the gray from the stand on the flashing, and black on the wood, but the final color scheme has been modified slightly. The final coats of satin enamel are drying now, and i'll take some pictures of the finished painted light soon.

However, to calm the masses, here's some pics of the flashing covered fixture:









This was the 'bones' of the fixture. Two curved peices of wood on the outside, with screws that go into the heatsink from the sides. I drilled holes in the end pieces to allow for air flow. You'll notice the curved wood traveling the length of the heatsink, it was toe molding that was pre-curved.



























The flashing with contact cement on it. I cut the flashing with a framing square and a box cutter. Slice along the framing square a few times and then snap the flashing. Had to cut a few before I got what i wanted.









Flashing wrapped around wooden frame. To apply the flashing, I turned the fixture over, and placed the frame down in the middle of the flashing. I then rolled the frame to one side, and then the other. The contact cement didn't hold the flashing completely, so I put three small brad nails along the end pieces to hold it down. Along the length of the fixture on the molding pieces, I clamped a small board to the flashing and then put a bead of super glue along the inside between the flashing and the molding. The super glue actually worked very well for holding the flashing completely against the molding. Clamped for 30 minutes.









Excuse the flashing in the background. Finished!

In all, the application of the flashing went much smoother than I thought. The clamping and the superglue really did the trick though. Once the last coat of enamel dries I'll get to mounting which may prove to be another challenge.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?


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## niko

Aha nice!

I dislike the wood but what can you do if you can't get the frame made from aluminum or metal?

I assume the heatsink doesn't butt to the wood but there are a few washers between the wood and the heatsink?

After it's painted the wood that bothers me will not matter really.

What about painting it someting exotic? A leopard print maybe? Or at least zebra?



















Joke aside what about not having the side wood pieces at all. Just the heatsink and 2 arcs of metal to hold the top flashing cover? Minimalistic to the max.

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Hahaha, I like the zebra... 

The reason I needed the wood sides was that I had to mount the heatsink to something besides the flashing. Not sure how I'd mount the metal arcs to the heatsink. And if you use flashing, you must have something to attach it to in the middle on the sides like my molding. Otherwise the flashing bows out.

You can't tell really that it's wood now that it's painted, but yes a completely metal/aluminum fixture would be the coolest (haha). The nice thing about the way I did this is that the heatsink can just drop down out of the fixture. Soo... if I come up with another design I like more, then I can swap them out.

And yes there are washers between the wood and heatsink. To tell the truth they were originally installed to allow space for the wire to go from the LED's up to the conduit. Still not sure how far I want to drop the fixture from the conduit. I want about 4" of space from the tank to the LED's and the fixture is about 2.5" tall so...


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## niko

One thing about flashing is that it's very sharp. The edges, the sides - both are a hazard.

Also the stuff is very soft - look at it angrily and you will make a dimple. 

Suspended over the tank - there will be no daily handling so it will be ok. But overall that material looks good, it's cheap but it would be best of one used something else. The ADA style pendant I made used flashing too. I reinforced the sides bowing out with aluminum pieces placed on the inside and bolted with tiny bolts.

One material I looked at to replace the flashing was fiberglass. Promising but too much labor involved.

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Yeah I'd like to look at other options, but the task is finally done. I'll take pictures after church tonight. The light looks great, hangs level, the only thing I need to touch up is some black paint on the conduit that got scratched. 

On another note, I either need to replace the impeller on my eheim 2213, or Aquasoil takes FOREVER to clear up. I've done about 4 50% wc's and it's still not clear...


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## niko

And where is our final picture? With the clear tank, sleek light, and a comparison to how dim the same tank looks when lit with 2x96 watts of Compact Fluorescents and so on?

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Hahahahaha, I'll get that tomorrow. Been testing out timers and what not, and tank finally cleared up after 3 water changes (thank goodness it's only a ten gallon). I don't have much to compare it by, except for a CFL lamp. I'll try to get pictures with both. I'm very very happy with the results. I'll let the suspense build until tomorrow X)


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## flashbang009

Here's the pictures. I had a problem with the lighting in the tank, need to change an exposure setting, but for now these will work.





































Enjoy!

I'm not too happy with the rock in the front left, but I'll discuss that in the Aquascaping thread I create soon.


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## fishingkid1

This light is very bright. I'd compare it to looking directly at a t5ho bulb. to be honest it looks much much better in person.

That Eheim is still giving you troubles, huh? Have you tried making the slots on those lily's you have bigger yet?


I said very bright 3? times...whoops.


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## fertortuga

Woww..really nice!


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## niko

FlashBang,

You got to update us on how the plants are doing under these lights. The overall opinion about LED in planted tanks, at least at the moment, is that we don't really know how well they grow plants.

Please keep up with the tank maintenance update us.

--Nikolay


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## flashbang009

Well so far, I've had a little pearling over the last few days but other than that, little progress. I don't expect any growth for about 3 weeks. That's generally how long it takes plants to acclimate for me. I just planted some Eleocharis acicularis today from my 75, and i'll keep an eye on it. 

I'm using an inline diffuser for CO2, and it's not 100% diffusion, so I may work on that a little. Other than that, I moved the tank today in the room with help, and now it's in it's permanent place. I messed with the rock placement a little also, dirtied the tank, and did a 75% wc. I've done 4 50% wc's to date.

Lights are on for 7 hrs. with 1 hour break in the middle. I'll increase light in the next few weeks. Co2 remains high.


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## niko

Thank you for the details!

This is a really good thread because the light and the whole setup look so nice. If there is information of the progress then it will become a great thread indeed.

Thank you again!

--Nikolay


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## niko

FlashBang,

I scanned through this thread and could not find an information about the filtration in that tank.

As you know know as of late I've been pumped up on how important and overlooked filtration is. If anything goes wrong in your tank I will blame it on the filtration. 

And we do not want to get distracted from the main thing - do LED grow plants well or not.

So tell me - what is the filtration setup (filter size - volume, height, diameter, what media is in it) and the actual flow rate?

--Nikolay


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## GitMoe

Great DIY thread. Your design of the light fixture was really good. With using the MDF is that stand insanely heavy? The weight of that stuff really adds up fast...


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## virgo888

nice DIY.


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## flashbang009

Niko, I thought I mentioned it. Guess not. It's a Eheim 2213. Filled 1/2 to 3/4 with lava rock. 116 gph, although I think it's less than that.

GitMoe, thanks for the compliments. I had the same thought about the MDF but after building it it wasn't that bad. Anything lighter in fact and I might be afraid about tipping over.

Thanks Virgo888!

RCS went in last night. They're so funny to watch.


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