Ira

Sold the tank/stand/lights for $200.

I was switching it on and off with a Sonoff smart switch. Still using that, But I sold the tank and lights a couple months ago, got a new tank that I've put a couple cheapish LED pendants off trademe over until I get around to DIYing something or getting a high end pendant. Or more likely I'll just stay with these for ages. Most of my plants didn't survive the move to the new tank and the severum kills anything I put in it.

No. I don't know of any good locally available RO/DI, but there are many off Aliexpress and similar. Someone else will have to point you towards one.

I've got a small hydroponic setup too. You can try to look it up information, but good luck wading through 10,000 results on how to grow weed.

Be interesting to see what it looks like in another 25 weeks, about my normal maintenance interval on my filters.

SHouldn't you reverse the order of the sponges and filter wool? THe filter wool would clog up in a day or two while the sponges would still be nice and clean?

Cees...Hmmm...That name sounds vaguely familiar....:)

What fish are in your tank? I'd probably go with something like a Jebao RW-4 and set it somewhere around the middle of the power range if I had fish that like a bit of current. But, I like my tanks to have heaps of current.

I wouldn't worry about heat too much It probably will only cool a few degrees over a whole day, nothing to worry about. But you can throw some blankets over them if really worried. I'd be more worried about the filters. Probably give them a quick clean and drop the media in the tank would be the easiest to keep the media alive. Stir up the water every once ina while like livingart says.

They're specced for AC100-240V 50/60Hz So, yes. Basically anywhere in the world they'll work.

You also should probably have a small powerhead or two in the main tank for circulation in addition to the return pump.

It's an HP DPS-460BB. I've used some arctic silver and a zip tie to the hot side, the sides of the psu that aren't covered by the heat sink are a lot cooler. Good thing I keep all this junk laying around.

Wrapping it around a tube like that would seem to defeat one of the major advantages of the LEDs, that they're relatively directional so not much else needed to be done.

Have you tried telling it to mind its own business?

I had a thought just now while doing a water change. They do get pretty warm, which at the very least probably doesn't help the strips stick down. You could probably use something like a sheet of aluminium, stick the strips to that. They might stick better, and it will help by heat sinking them a bit. Then maybe space it from the lid a little with a few 5-10mm thick spacers for some airflow under it. I say you because I can't be bothered.

Odd, the link to the ones I bought above redirects back to this thread. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D83BGVS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Try copy and pasting. Part of the problem is you can't really trust you're going to get the exact same thing each time, or the quality. Like, I bought two orders of 3 rolls. The second order was different. BUT! They're cheap enough it's not really a disaster if they're not exactly matched. Try aliexpress or bang good for SMD 5630s, might be cheaper than Amazon

If it's that powerful of a green laser it's probably just painfully bright. I've just retested, my severums run from opposite sides of the tank as soon as I shine my green laser in the tank. Then my gay gold males sometimes get distracted and chase the green severum away from the dot.

They look just like tanks that use ASW.

Wow, just over a year later I got around to putting more strips in to bump the power up. My good camera's battery is flat and I figured if I waited for it to charge it would be another year until I got around to this sooo.... You get potato pics with my phone. Of course, as expected when buying from china, the LED strips weren't actually the same as the first batch! They're a higher color temp. And looks like higher output. Not really a problem though. I cut up a bunch of the strips to length, soldered wires on just like before. I was lucky, I could slip the new wires right into the chocolate block alongside the old ones. Awesome! And nicely laid down in place. The adhesive on these ones seems a little better, but I think I'm going to put some lines of hot glue across them just to hold them in place. The new strips have the leds arranged vertically, the old strips horizontal. And it works!...Wait, one led is burned out. Oh well. Time to do the rear set of lights...Except I can't slip the new wires into the chocolate block like before...For any of them! It's the SAME WIRES, SAME EVERYTHING! WTH is wrong with you wires?!?! Ok, I gave up and put them along the bottom, I have a couple more strips with thinner, stiffer solid core wire that I might be able to slip in more easily I'll try eventually. You can see they're crooked because I was too annoyed to care by then... Power draw is up from 60 watts at 12.5 volts to 160. I'm also using a modified server power supply for power, not much to see here. The PSU is rated at 450 watts, but there's a part of it that's getting hotter than I like, I don't think my hacked on fan is blowing as much air through it as it is designed for. But I'm running it at 1/3rd its rated capacity, I think I'll see if I have a heatsink laying around I can stick on the side.

Yep, I've done that too. Cats, fish, dogs, parrots, wild birds, even young crotchfruit will chase it.

Yeah, my tank is probably in the region of 20 years old too. Interesting to think my tank was probably built half my life ago. But...from the sounds of it, you're not really getting anything out of the tank. If you're not enjoying it anymore, give it and the livestock up to someone who will.

But...You had a tank with a filter full of media? I found the most effective thing when I had similar was to rubber band a big wad of filter wool around the filter intake. It will clog up very quickly so you'll need to rinse it out in the sink every few hours but should filter out the algae in a few days.

Prefers a planted aquarium....Only because they like eating the plants.

Good to hear a shop refusing to sell fish if they don't think you can house them properly. I think Wellington tap water is fine, but I've never used it.

Too artificial? It doesn't get much less artificial than rain water. I use a very complicated process to deal with my rain water. 1. Connect hose to kitchen tap. 2. Put other end in tank. 3. Turn water on and adjust temp. I do put a few handfuls of coral fingers and rock in my filters because it helps keep the PH from dropping. But I haven't actually checked the PH in years.