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I am moving this from another forum.. so the time frame might be a bit off



I decided to give some of the cheaper end of the spectrum lights a shot. I wanted to start a thread so i can post the results and everything just in case it ends up looking great. This setup will be solderless and very easy to setup


search ebay for gu10 3w led and you should find them.

I stopped by home depot and picked up a pair of rubber(moisture resistant) e27 screw in light bulb sockets  and a plug outlet. I also orderd 5 GU10 sockets..

all i need now are some wire caps, and to destroy an old extension cable


So Price Recap:
3- 3w (3LED Cool White GU10 Bulbs) $13
2- 3w (2LED Blue e27 bulbs) $17
2- Rubber Sockets for e27 screw in bulbs $3.20
1- Plug end to wire into $1.20
5- GU10 sockets $6.18

Depending on the heat i get from it I might grab a cheap computer fan to install in my canopy


Before Shots:
(1 40w Halogen from an old bioorb tank and 4 blue (420nm 3v) LED powered by a sega genesis ac adapter)








Immediately After Setup:











NEXT TO COME: Pictures with the new LED lights!
The 3 white ones i purchased at 270 lumens each and the blues are about 150 each. should look pretty sweet


(running a Aqua clear 20 on the tank. doing weekly water changes of nearly a gallon. Temp: 78F, Salinity: 1.021-1.024, 15hour light cycle <--lol )

Okay sorry for the huge delay in updating this thread. The wife and I just started or second currently running business and its keeping me busy (lawncare)

Everything arrived and i wired everything up. The only changes i made was removing the optics from the blue bulbs to get a more dispersed blue in the tank.. they had 30degree optics on them and it was looking like laser beams.

Here are the pics   (all i did to them was optimize them for size in PS)
















So i had some time on my hands and was considering the advice of some and desoldering the blues out of the bulbs and swapping around so that i had a more dispersed look. i figured before i tried that I would first try just taking the optics off the bulbs and seeing if I like that look.  After taking off the optics and positioning the lights I really did like it and the color was very uniform.. So.. I started building..

I dremeled out holes for the bulbs on a piece of acrylic and then took an old rubbermaid file box and dremeled the bottom off after measuring it out.  it happened to be the same width that i needed to  make my little hood.


i used the metal file hangers as posts  to hold the plexi in place in the hood so i dont have to worry about the bulbs falling into the water or it ever coming loose.

I had an extra SMD strand of lights from something i was doing to my car the other day and decided to put that in the hood for the moon light. I took out the big sheet of plexi and the blue LED that i had in there before. the angle of the blue LED that were in the tank when i started was too tight  the smd strip is perfect and is 7k so it has a nice coloration to it


I felt that the plexi was kinda old and scuffed so it was limiting my light  and shimmer effect.. its much better now


here are some pics.  *crappy camera phone pics. didnt feel like breaking out the dslr for them






okay .. here is the picture from the underside  with the lights off.  lol LED are freaking bright.. i was playing with it a little today while they were on and took a while for my eyes to adjust lol



if i feel up to it later i will get out my dslr and take a better picture.

all i did was take a piece of plexi and dremel out holes for the lights to slide through. then i attached the lights to the moguls on the other side. I used a little electrical tape (for now) to keep the lights from moving. the sockets, or moguls, keep the lights from falling through what i dremeled out. the tape just keeps them in the right position.

I used the two metal rods from the filing box that i cut the bottom off of and drilled holes to slide the rods through. the plexi then sits on the rods so the possibility of the lights ever falling in the water or slipping is no existent

hope that all makes sense


I took the advice of your question ccxtammy and screwed down the sockets   I decided to tear the tank completely apart today to rearrange the rocks so i could make more room for more corals. I also had a few rogue zoos that i wanted to glue.. so i took all the rock out and redid it.. lol i do this every couple months.. i get sick of the way the rock looks.. or i get more corals and need more room. I ended up with two extra pieces of rock too. I decided to put them outside to dry so that i can bash them into rubble for frags  I also took the lights and wired the whites and blues on seperate plugs So now i can leave the blues on at night.. or at least a little longer than the whites.  I might grab one more blue bulb for the tank to make the colors pop a little more.

At work the other day (lfs)  i fragged up a TON of corals  and cleaned the tanks. I purchased a couple of the frags  and put them in the tank. While i was doing water changes on the tanks i collected a good 20-25 mini turbos and found a whelk and a cerith snail.  So they all came home with me too


for corals i got:
3 Yellow communal polyps
1 green button polyp
1 tiny favia frag
1 greenish zoo frag
1 small paly rock

I decided to take a picture of the new arrangement and I also took a picture of some neon pink zoos i have and took a picture of the new green ones i just got (keep in mind the water is still cloudy from taking every thing out )

Pink Zoa


New Green zoa


Tank:



so we tested my bright white bulbs today.


i have 5 bright white and 2 blues

3" from the bulb (above surface of water)  1900 par

just below surface  700 par

halfway 200 par

1" from sand 150 par


the bright whites with the optics are super bright. could explain why a couple of my sps bleached out. lol

i have 3 3x1w and 2 1x3w bulbs for the bright whites.

the blues are 3x1w

the whites are 7000k


once the weather cools down a bit i might try a bunch more sps



today i rearranged the tank and upgraded my filter from a AC20 to a Whisper 60 lol. good amount of water exchange and flow now.  Things seemed to be happy  with the change.

Here are some updated Pictures:  Started April 2010  .. so almost 6 months now

The heat this summer took a toll on the tank. I lost ALL my sps corals.  The Zoas did fine in the heat though.  I find with the huge par levels  now that i have the optics on almost all of the lights  that corals take a few more days than normal to open up.. other than that the tank is doing great. I am glad the heat is gone and fall is here  

I added the red mushrooms, and the feather duster the other day




[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036076197/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036076197/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036075591/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036075591/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036076873/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036076873/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr

[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036077715/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036077715/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036078277/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036078277/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036078979/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036078979/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036079597/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036079597/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036698330/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036698330/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr


[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036698994/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036698994/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr

[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036699958/"][/url]
[url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinygiantclothing/5036699958/"]Nano Reef 9/29/10[/url] by [url=http://"http://www.flickr.com/people/tinygiantclothing/"]Tiny Giant Clothing[/url], on Flickr

Specs:
55 Gallon Tank
Koralia K7
200w Ebo Jager Heater

Currently 30w of LED Lighting soon to add another 36w of LED
Soon to add Prizm Skimmer.

Well, I wanted to wait a little to add a yellow tang to my 55G setup.. but we had some nice small very healthy good eating hawaiin yellow tangs at the store i work at and i figured it was time to add something new to the tank. The store tanks have flatworms so i decided to skip acclimating all together and just scoop him out of the bag with my hand and toss him in the tank. One hour later he is already eating granule food .. but not all that adventurous yet. Hoping he will start exploring rather than hanging in the bottom corner of the tank

This username is shared by 2 people, me Jason and my fiance Lianne. We've been in the hobby 2 1/2 years. We started with a 29 gallon, then added a 2nd 29 gallons. Then Merged those 2 29 gallons in a 75 gallon with a 20 gallon sump a year ago. We also have a 10 gallon softie tank with custom LED lights and a 20 gallon frag tank.

Our 75 gallon is sps dominated and is doing awesome. We frag every few weeks so will always have stuff for sale or trade.

Here's the 75



Here's the 10, the glass is a little dirty



and the 20 gallon frag tank

I have a barely used Rio 600 Venturi  and a custom made skimmer that i am looking to sell.  Looking for $50 obo. This skimmer would work very well for any  tank 50gallons or less.  Its done an awesome job in my tank but I am getting a skimmer that is eternal soon.  The skimmer would work best in a sump. Right now i have it zip tied to the center brace on the tank.  you could use it internally in a shorter tank too. I have the whisper bag on the return just to polish the water a little more and catch some of the air bubbles from the water coming out.

The skimmer works great and keeps things nice and clean. The skimate is a great consistency too.  The pump was $30 saturday when i purchased it.

$50 obo would consider $35 and a frag(s) or a live rock.


here are a couple pix