Da_monkey

I'm wanting to cut my teeth on Algae culturing. And spirulina seemed like a good start. Thanks for the tip will give it a go when these Tetra drop eggs for me.

Sent you a Txt.

I've only found them on streams running out of reserves I guess there sensitive to chemicals. Also spot lighting at night is far easier than rummaging around during the day even in a tank

I am a bit late too this party but keen. i'm after smaller tanks for raising fry/ culturing daphnia. should be able to pick up this weekend if there are any left.

Does any one have a culture of spirulina going? I am in wellington but willing to pay shipping from anywhere in nz.

They last well enough for the speed i go through fixtures. I do agree if i was going to make something for some one else i would definitely go with Cree or Panasonic(cree wins on price by a lot atm) . though i would go through RS components or digikey rather than some ebay seller. Interesting Fact Cree is actually a start up from a university where they use a different sub strait for there LEDs than the other brands Im planing to eventually use something along the lines of this one http://www.digikey.co.nz/product-detail ... ND/4036264 Its cheap and powerfull though doesn't have a dedicated thermal pad. They other thing is always run LEDS from a constant current supply or stay bellow the rated voltage. heat sinking is not as bigger problem as its made out to be. 1W Leds can run on Ram heat sinks not much bigger than their base and not have much problems. for the really small ones like the example above a chunk of copper or aluminium is needed to spread the heat out before it reaches the heat sink but aluminium is cheap. fans are going to be needed but i'm not too worried as most aquarium hoods have more than enough space. for low profile designs an external power supply can be used allowing the isolation from the LEds to the heat sink/environment to be minimal

that type of thing will do well but thats quite a bit over prices. What size (length /width)is your tank i may be generous enough to put something together for $30 from spares i have around. i can also paint it any colour so long as its black. ill take some photos of the previous ones and put them up. i think i have another thread with photos already though

Diy Leds have never failed me. Aliexpress is the best place for the leds though i have enough spare i can mail you some. if you get the 1w leds just glue them too any scrape pieces of metal that look good enough and your good to go. old baking trays/cake tins from secound hand shops work well. just sand off the non stick stuff. and while your there get a cheap power pack. though aliexpress some time comes in cheaper depending on what your looking for for glue i have proper thermal glue i spend $5 on from deal extreame. that being said CFLs in desk lamps work in a pinch

Its been crazzy went through 2 jobs and am now back at study. unfortunately no luck with the pencil fish i haven''t been keeping up with the live food which i think is a huge problem. but i do now have half a double garage to use. :bggrn: does any one with more experience than me know reliable ways to make supper soft water with out a rodi unit. then again if the rain keeps up i don't think that will be a problem. Basically just here to say i'm still on it and going to bump things up a notch.

Hi guys i have been experimenting with Led lighting for some time and i want to try to make something worth while. I've always wanted to have a computer controlled high powered led light system for my tanks / plants looking around i've found that these are usually really expensive. and even normal led lighting are either expensive or just have red/blue leds. So far I've built my own leds lights with out control but they use off the shelf Laptop chargers which you can get cheap but not if you want the same one twice. here is my latest design using a switch mode power supply for maximum efficiency. Each dome is 4 *3 w leds from aliexpress for 24w over the tank it uses the laptop power supply to get 15V then uses the small green circuit on the back to drive the leds at 666mA or close enough to 700ma they want. they can take a signal from a micro controller to turn them on and off so they can do PWM dimming or by using a set voltage between 0 and 2V the current can be dropped this is a pain in the ass to get so pwm is what im going to do. The shade is a small cake tin also from aliexpress and i got the heat sink to match. A few quick holes and sanding of the base and they screwed together nicely. The LEDs are thermal glued in which was a bit lazy of me but it works I plan to attach these to a TI launch pad i have and use that too act as an interface to a Wifi controller. The wifi module i have is an esp8266 wifi module again from aliexpress. It is $3 so i'm not sure how true the FCC and Other test markings are. but it doesn't matter for me but if i have problems i may have to change to a nordic semiconductor or TI wifi module which is a lot more expensive but they are most definitly ok to use. this will then talk back to a central computer which has the user interface on it. i have the main design laid out but getting the details set out will take some time. I want to be able to put circuit diagrams and some psudocode up some time soon. I already have the LEDs from aliexpress i got 1000 1w leds and 200 3w leds the 1000 1w leds are for a neat circuit for driving them from mains where you bypass the leds as the voltage drops and then add them back in when it goes up. i haven't got a proper plan worked out yet but will get it done tonight. It does have a micro controlling it so will need to get creative with voltage levels but thats part of the fun. It does effectively half the lumin output of the leds but at 3cents each i cant complain(http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shi ... 02403.html they took a while to get here) There's an off the shelf component for it but it only works up to 100ma where i want more as 1w leds use 300mA and 3w 700mA If any one has experience driving large loads from mains advice would be great. i have ideas but this will be my first project that takes mains power directly. If any one is interested i can go through making a 100W led fixture from a laptop power supply and some reasonably cheap components. Please look forward to more updates as i go

Boo hope hes just taking his time. Will pass on your details. Best of luck who ever you use

I am doing a landscape construction course at weltech. The tutor wants projects to get students out and doing real jobs if you pm me your number I can pass it along. They will get in touch and discuss details. It will be a lot cheaper than going through a commercial place i'm not sure his experience with ponds but he has a lot of experience in the industry so should have connections or at least ideas

Picture time. Ill start with the requests Please ignore the copious amount of fish crap they decided to take up residency in the dead spot of my flow and i dont want to suck them out The Father not in mating colours when he wants to he goes fleresint blue its impresive The spawning spot for the apistos. I was under the impresion they where open spawners but the mother really likes just under the rock. And on Too the pencils Heres the Gravid female The set up close up Out far. The dabled light from the window seemed to have gotten them in the mood so i'm Leaving it open until they drop the eggs Turns out the PH is more like 6.5 too 7 according too the test i really should get a proper test pen. I'm thinking the build up of organic matter may have something to do with there sudden urge to spawn as i have feed them live food in the past with not much change. though will need to set up another tank and compare. Bonus picture of my aquaponics system

Wooo :dnc1: saw some spawning today but it seems i only have one gravid female so every male was pushing in and stopping the spawning so i've moved them into a small bowl i have with a prepared sponge filter. Though now i have a whole bunch of wound up males fighting im glad there mouths are small. the largest is trying to spawn with every one. Taken Photos but lost cable to download them. will post them when i find one. And yes that includes photos of the apistos and a very blurry one of some fry

Long time no spawning . Had some apistograma Trifisciata spawn in the same tank so while feeding them micro worms i noticed that some of the pencil fish put on a lot of weight. This is also while doing bi weekly water changed and having a bare bottom tank. unfortunately The current mother claimed the amazon sword i potted up and most of the java fern. Will try to find some nice fake plants to bolster the spawning area.. Will post a PH reading tonight we have very soft water so i imagine its in the 6.0 to 6.5 but i have been avoiding checking it as it would make me want to change it. So current assumptions. They will eat really small things. They need lots of food to get into condition. Apistograma will take the worst place possible to spawn