Matt's 29g Custom LED

Do they make retrofit kits? For say a 14 gallon biocube?

I've wanted to see one of these over a tank ever since I saw them.

60w UFO

Check everything in this "LED Lighting" section on reefkoi's site. It's all good stuff.

Yuma wrote:Do they make retrofit kits? For say a 14 gallon biocube?

Look up par 38 lighting. Pretty interesting for a small tank. You can even get some from Lowe's but the 14k and 20k you'll have to order online. I used one from Lowes as my fuge lighting for a while but I needed more coverage in a 29 gal. The screw into a regular light socket.

Having some experience in theatre lighting, I'm familiar with the Par 38s. Those UFOs definitely are interesting.

I know of several part 56s that need to find a home.... Lol

Yuma wrote:Having some experience in theatre lighting, I'm familiar with the Par 38s. Those UFOs definitely are interesting.

Just curious, how are par 38's used in theater lighting?

Par 38 is simply a light fixture size. So a par 64 is the typical large theater stage lighting. Par 56's are used for closer stages and par 38's are used in small stages or accent lighting. They're usually used in theater with a typical can light.

Alright... here are some pics with blue's only. For people wanting to skip the "how to take pictures with only blue LEDs on section... skip the next paragraphs and the first two pics.

I can tell you right now that these pictures can look pretty good but they just can't do the actual sight justice. Enjoy looking at the pics and taking the pics but only those who see these tanks lit by blue LEDs have really seen the color come out. But... on to the guide. The most difficult thing about taking pictures with Blue LEDs on is white balance. Auto white balance simply CANNOT get anywhere NEAR decent for blue LED pictures. If you're a professional photographer you can likely figure out the perfect manual setting for white balance... but I'm not... and you're likely not either. So... how? Many cameras have a "correct white balance (WB)" setting in their menu. Here's how it works. You start out and if you have a good camera it takes pictures like this:


That's not AT ALL what my tank looks like. Not even close. So I know my white balance is way off. The easiest way to tell if it's the white balance that's off is to look at the thing that's most white in the picture... in my case my sand. So now I'm going to take a picture of my "most white" item in my pictures. The sand. Comes out looking like this:


After taking that picture I go into the cameras menu and find "Custom WB" and select it. It now sends me to the gallery of pictures that I've taken. I scroll to the picture that I just took of the sand and select it. It just automatically adjusted my white balance for that sand to now appear white. Now my new pictures that I take (with some adjusting of the exposure) look like this:

Everyone else start here and enjoy...
These are SUPERman mushrooms


Yes I broke this frag and superglued it back together. See those edges though... it's growing. A few weeks and those beads of superglue will be all covered up. :-)




Gabe, have you ever seen your frogspawn look like this before?


Finally, the full tank shot.



So... that's as close as my camera can get. In real life... greens are greener, reds are redder and blues are bluer.

Kewl pics. What kind of camera are you using?

Canon 30d.

Every time I look at these pics I realize they are the coolest pics I have taken of the blue LEDs on... but they're just a disappointment after seeing the real deal right here in front of me.

I know. I have tried and tried to get a pic with the blue LED's on with no luck. I think my iPhone does better than the camera.

The tank is lookin great.

Matt
Keep a check on that reactor every now and then. I changed water today and pulled mine out to check it and I could see where water had channeled between the glass and Chemipure bag. Also there was a lot of Chaeto stuck in the pump grill. These pumps are so tiny they don't have a lot of screen, it was still pumping same amout tho. I pull mine up every now and then and check flow but didn't realize it was channeling.

Was just looking over your thread again and admiring the pictures. That really is a great little tank you got going there.

Thanks Yuma.

Yeah Donnie I've been having a pain with mine. I think the 2" is just a touch too small for the bag. I may have to take a little out of the bag. Mine has been stopped up with almost no flow twice now. I'm checking it everyday now that I know it has happened twice in two weeks. It's a pain to pull that all out and stuff it back in again once every week. Then again... maybe it will keep me maintaining it better. lol

I have another part I built to mine where I can run it without the bag, just like a regular reactor, I might try that one day but I have not had a problem with the flow slowing down.

Oh yeah... I remember seeing that! Basically I would put a flat piece of acrylic at the bottom of my pipe that has holes for flow to go through it and then a filter pad on the bottom, correct?

I might try to switch mine up a bit and turn it into that.

Also, new frag pics!





This isn't a new one but the pic turned out so good on it I went ahead and posted it. :-)

Good looking frags! On the reactor, it takes a piece of plastic top and one bottom both with holes and each has to have a piece of foam top of the bottom plastic and bottom of the top plastic. Its got to seal pretty tight against the glass because of the tiny size of the Chemipure Elite or it will get blown into the tank, I got a pic here somewhere I will post it.

New pics.

Gold Maxima - The center and accents that come up near the tips of the mantle are purple. It's a beauty!




First decent image of the pink birdsnest. The camera just can't pick up the pink correctly.


And a couple of full tank shots. Both under the same lighting... just with different white balance settings. I'm playing around with this camera a lot!

Matt
Thats a tiny Maxima, you get it from Petco or where? I'm looking for another little one. Supposed to have one coming in a few days.

Yep. Petco for $25. Was priced differently just like yours. I'm very pleased with it.

Yep, I got my name on the next one, should get it before they even take it out of the bag. That looks like the one I saw yesterday in there but it had sold to Jenny on it.

Lol. Jenny is my wife. That's the exact one. It was her valentines day present to me. What do you think? Good buy?

Na, its just so tiny its gonna have to be fed, they don't develope the ability to feed off light until they are about 2". The one I had was border line but it spent a month or better in Petco soooooo.

When/how will I know if lighting isn't enough? I'd say it's approx 1.5" across.

What and how would you suggest? Phytoplankton and try to cover it, trapping plankton inside for half an hour?