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comp build-my first nano


Hatcher2014

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Ok so here we go i would first like to thank burningbaal for letting me join at a later notice but here we go so far i will post pics when i make sure my setup works cause i dont want anyone stealing my idea (whistle).

 

Tank $10

rubber hose $3

acrylic to build mini sump $8

pump $10

 

in the process of designing and drilling holes if i post here in a little bit and tell you i have busted my tank i will be withdrawing so wish me luck if i drill succesfully i will try and post pics up tonight.

 

Also have a question burningbaal i won a thing at Garrets on sunday that i would like to put into my tank if it fits and it is permitted. Please let me know if that is ok.

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Welcome to the comp :) Don't worry I won't steal your designs......... for this set up at least (plotting)(whistle)

 

Its cool your planning a sump. I'm interested to see how you will intergrate it in to such a small system. Fingers crossed on the drilling of the tank. A scary moment for sure (scary)

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Sounds cool to have a sump, seems hard with the one gallon rule, but have fun!

As for the prize, I'm not a set-in-stone decision maker here...seems you should count it's value...just like if you had it sitting in the attic?

JMO

 

Sent using Forum Runner

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Ok thanks burnin baal i will decide at the end if it is worth it or not but drilling didnt go as planned it broke but wife found a different one thats plastic so i dont have to worry about breaking that one and if someone who knows how to add things to my first thread can you put $10 for new bowl on there for me would appreciate it.

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you can click 'edit post' at the bottom of the post and change anything you want in any post you make. A moderator can edit posts, but generally they avoid changing things in people's post unless it violates forum rules. bummer about it breaking, but GL with the plastic one!

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I bought this:

http://www.rapidled.com/2-led-moonlight-kit/

 

it plugs into the wall like normal and drives up to four of their LEDs (the package in the link comes with two low-current blue diodes as moonlights), so I also bought a cool white diode and a UV diode (caution with the UV ones...I'm nervous about burning my corals). so I'll hook up all 4 to the driver and it'll run them at 350mA, which is about 1/2 power for the UV diode and about 1/4 power for the CW one, but that's fine cause I don't need much light for 1/2 gallon of water.

 

you could, in theory, use a wall wart from radio trash (ahem, radio shack), but be careful. the wall warts are 'constant voltage', whereas the rapidled drivers are 'constant current'. the difference is that if you buy a 12v wall wart (theoretically similar to the moonlight driver I have) and put three diodes on it, it'll burn them out crazy fast because of over-driving them (at 4v each) at the given current. so to use these wall warts, you'll probably need to wire in a fairly precise amount of resistors to get the voltage drop (and current) correct. Not to mention that a typical wall wart at radio shack costs $15-20 and the moonlight driver costs $10 (plus shipping, but you're buying diodes from them, so nbd).

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ok i really like that ill probably buy that thing my question is do u think i can tank off one of the moon lights and run to cool blue leds and use the fourth one for my sump to grow the algae. and also did you get the soderless led with that or no just not real familiar with all of the led stuff yet. and do i have to mount it to a heat sink or can i just glue it to the bottom of the lid im using it is metal. thanks for your help

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I wouldn't run the algae with a blue, I'd get a neutral white, but is should (in theory) work. So you could buy the two-moonlight kit, plus a cool white and a neutral white. I would run all four on the driver, but one of them you can run extra long wires to, to stretch to the sump. you won't get much power out of the one over the sump, though. the driver will only push 350mA, so that NW diode will be fairly dim. you might consider getting a meanwell driver (http://www.rapidled.com/mean-well-lpc-35-700-constant-current-driver/) for $16, and you can power up to 14 diodes with it (I'd probably do 2-3 Blues, 1-2 CW, possibly a violet over the DT and 2-4 NW or WW diodes over the sump for a total of 6-10 diodes total. of course, you can't have the sump lights on a different timer than the DT, but that's ok.

I didn't get solderless, but you could.

If the lid is really metal it may move enough heat, but any paint or anything will hinder heat transfer, so it's a bit of a gamble. but you're not going to be running a whole lot of diodes, so there won't be a whole lot of heat to dissipate...not sure on that one.

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Well I emailed rapidled and they said that it could work in theory but they know for sure that it will work if I use wood or metal to do it won't be that hard to make that. my new bowl should he be here next week so hopefully I can get it all put together so you all can see my secret I'm thinking my bowl that I had to replace it with is going to be larger than A gallon by a few ounces so if it is ok with everyone if I glue a piece of acrylic in the bottom to make it regulation size if that is ok cause I searched high and low for a replacement and this was the only thing that I could get that would make my tank keep it's original look

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Ok so i just got off the phone with rapidled and placed my order for my lights so hopefully ill have it by the end of the week.so what i got.

2 royal blues. $6.80

2 cool whites. $9.00

Mean Well LPC-35-700 constant current driver $16.00

5 single aluminum heat sinks. $15.00

my dad had some thermal grease out in the shop so didnt have to buy any so dont know what the value is on that.so i believe my total is up to 77.80 so hopefully i can get my tank here soon so i can see if i need a heater hopefully not. (scary)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok everyone sorry i have been so secreative and not telling what my project was cause i wasnt really sure that it was going to work and believe me there has been alot of trial and errors to get were i am at the moment so first off i need to start a new list of what things have cost me cause i ended up not using everything i bought from rapid led so here was my orignal list.

Tank $10

rubber hose $3

acrylic to build mini sump $8

pump $10..

i ended up only using 1 cool white and 3 of the single heat sinks.

so now i have

Tank $10

rubber hose $3

acrylic to build mini sump $8

pump $10

2 royal blues $7.00

1 cool white $4.50

driver $16.00

3 heat sinks $9.00

10" piece of 1/4 pvc or smaller i think just say $2

 

So my total is $59.50

 

I do now know if i will need a heater at this due to the fact that my house is not have A/C and my main big tank in the house adds to that fact so i was wondering if i could just factor in $15 in case i need to buy one around winter time please let me know thanks.

 

I will start a new thread of the description of my build and see if i can figure out how to post pics on here.

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Ok everyone here goes my first nano build idea ever starting from the beginning. I first was reading around online and saw that there was going to be a competition for a nano tank. So kinda of having an idea of what this was i did a little bit more reading and found out that you all were doing it in a gallon or less so this really struck my attention cause i thought hmmmm how hard could this be and i started reading the rules and thought ok this is going to be difficult for someone who first is some what new to the hobby and has never even did a nano tank. So i decided against for like a day and said what the heck sink or swim so i started reading all of your guys ideas and how you were saving lots of money at goodwill and what you were using just how you were making stuff work. So I thought for a couple days on what i could use to be orignal with just the little bit of time i had to come with an idea and how i could make it work. Wasnt coming up with anything at first but i had the great idea of a coffe pot how awesome if i could find a way to get a switch to regulate the heat to keep it a the desired temp and some lights on top and figure out a way to turn the back into a sump/filter and have the water trickle down from the top. But i decided i didnt have enough time so my wife finally asked me what i was doing so much research on and i told here and she gave me this great idea.

[ATTACH]12912[/ATTACH] click here

So I said ok what the heck so we started our search and found one on craigslist for $10 dollars so we headed out and picked it up. my next problem was how am i suppose to not only get lights in this thing how am i going to filter it cause it is pretty much point less if i have to take the lid off and put a hang on the back i wouldnt be keeping the orginal look. So we started scheming. first we gutted it and drilled a single hole in the back for the return and one down the bottom for the overflow. In this process i decided i was going to try and do a sump if im going to try i mine as well go all out so i decided to build a little acrylic box with a baffle in it so i could seperate the pump from the algae and sand believe me this was not easy considering that have to build it to were it fits underneath and still keeps me under the regulation of 1 gal. so after a few pain staking hours and redues and new designs i had my sump. then my next problem was lighting how do i achieve lighting under the lid and for the sump for the algae. so after a few messages with burningbaal and several calls to rapidled i had my plan. orignally i was going to run 2 royal blues and 1 cool white for the display and 1 cool white for the sump. but after a bad design flaw and breaking one of the leds i was forced to run 2 royal blues for the display and the cool white for my sump. So then came the sodering and believe me they need better Youtube videos cause trial and error was how i got it long story short, plugged it in and it worked. so we put it all together fill it full of water and low and behold it looked like crap.... Why you ask cause i never thought of it being round and full of water makes it look like a huge magniflying glass. So back to the drawing boards took it apart and painted the back half of it black so hopefully it wouldnt be as bad but also worked out nice cause it hit the return lines and the wiring for the lights. put it back together and still has the magniflying look to it but the way we have the rock and sand i think it looks pretty cool. We had some miss haps here and there but all in all not to bad. Also if there is one more thing i have to add on here all the desinging stuff for like the sump and wiring came from me but i have to give a huge amount of credit to my wife who put alot of thought and work into this in designing the overflow pipe to making a small filter sock to cut down on microbubbles she was awesome in helping me and i am very thankful and happy i have a wife that loves this hobby more than i do. so now here is some pics of the process i hope everyone enjoys and dont critize me to much.

only the cool blues are working

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my first time sodering

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the bottom with sump and cool white led

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and this is what it currently looks like now we are still figuring out how to take pics of it i promise we will get better.

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