Bought a few tanks after a long departure...

I did two huge water changes the last 2 days and have brought the measurements back into the high numbers instead of crazy high. I also bought some Seachem Stability to try and get the nitrite down.

I'll do some measurements again tomorrow and then most likely another water change.

 

In the meantime I started on some light fixtures for the 3 foot tank. I'm using GU10 LED bulbs while I wait on my COB LED's from china to get through SAPO so these might change in future.

Heres the sketchup of what I want to build:


Next I cut some aluminium:



Then put in 2 bends:


We have our bent pieces:


I then wet sanded them to get a "brushed" look:



Next I started printing the plastic bits:



Its about 3 hours of printing per light as they are solid prints so its going to be a while to do all of them.

Once the printing is done I'll start putting them together and put them on the tank for some photo's.

 

Very cool! Gu10s are great!

I'm a bit cheaper than you

 

Looks good.

I'm just trying to take my mind off not being able to add fish to my tanks I'm not the most patient person when it comes to these things.

 

Know the feeling! How expensive is it to make those light fixtures?

 

The aluminium was R190 but I'll be able to make 3 fixtures for the 3 foot and 2 for the 4 foot with it. The 40mm was also about R80 cheaper instead of the 50mm and will work just as well.

So roughly:
Aluminium R38
To print the parts +- R20 each light
GU10 fitting R13
LED R37
So R108 each

The COB LEDs are much cheaper and have higher power than the GU10's though. So would have worked out less if they did not take so long to arive or I had more patience.

 

R58 without the lights, that's pretty good actually! To be honest if postage didn't cost more than the fitting I would order one. Would you take orders?

Edit: Mind posting a link to the LED's you mentioned? I've had great success with Gu10 lights so far

 

Its not that hard to make. If you clamp the aluminium between a vice or two bits of wood or steel on the end of a work bench you don't need a press to bend it. For the plastic bits you can use wood or perspex as well. Perspex bends quite easily if heated and clear epoxy to glue pieces together.
Its not really worthwhile to sell something like this as the time it takes to make is way more than the product can sell for.

I bought various forms of these in 12v/220v cool/warm white 9 and 10 watt:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hig...32849177154.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.wCoOLb




The plan is to fit them 2 at a time to each holder giving me 60 watt over the 3foot.

 

Yeah - I use bangood ...


longest was 63 days ... shortest before this round was 31 days.

Allie only one I ever got was 84 days with one MIA ..

Those COBs are cool but they need some serious heat sinks.

- Nice fab shop you have ... so glad I am stuck in lego land or everything would be printed and bent.

Later Ferie

 

I have ordered quite a bit from banggood as well. I'd say it's easier from them as its just one shop. With AliExpress you need to make sure you group things nicely otherwise you end up getting a lot of small packages all with a R37 +VAT + Duties charge.
From the shipping side it takes about the same time for me. Mostly the package is at SA customs within 2-3 weeks but from there it takes 1-2 months through SAPO. My average is just short of 3 months from ordering till I have it in my hands. The buyer's protection and price on AliExpress is what makes me use them.(they are also happy to refund non delivered packages)

I'm hoping I can get away with the 50mm flat bar as the heat sink if I turn down the LED's to 11v but otherwise I'll fit a proper heat sink to the flat bar as well to help with the cooling.

My "shop" is just my garage but I enjoy making stuff so don't mind getting the tools to make something instead of buying it. The printer was also designed and built by me in stages. The first one was just some wood and wire for the frame which I then used to print the next one etc. Its one of my most used tools these days and a pretty cool hobby. If you enjoy designing and building stuff it's a must have.

 

Water readings this morning:

3ft tank:
NO3: 50
NO2: 5
GH:5
KH:7
PH:+-7.3

4ft tank:
NO3: 25
NO2: 2
GH:5
KH:7
PH:+-7.3

The two water changes made a big difference but I'm still a ways off so another water change today and tomorrow should sort out the nitrates then I need to get the nitrites down. The seachem stability did not seem to change much but I'll keep adding it with the hopes it will make a difference and speed up cycling. I also planted the plants so once I have the lights going later today they should start helping too.

 

Lights are running:

 

Only did a few things this weekend... Finished the lights, wired in a timer, added some wood to the 3ft, did a small water change. Water parameters aren't quite there yet so I'll have to wait a bit longer, hopefully I'm close.

The lights are a bit harsh without any shielding. Need to start on the woodwork side of things as soon as I have a bit of time:

 

@Beachless looking very nice. Excellent work

 

These lights can be tough on the eyes, a shrouding definitely helps. Otherwise looking amazing!

 

I like the colour contrast in the bottom tank of the two different colour rocks on either side. Almost like 2 different tanks.

 

Thanks, its getting there although I want to change a lot already

I wonder what the cichlids will think. If they will all want to be on one side or naturaly gravitate to a specific side.
I put in a warm white led on the left and cool on the right to add to the contrast.

 

I guess it's due to a good angle on the LEDs. Shouldn't be a problem after I incased everything in the wood though.
I still have a lot to order to finish the build including the wood, glass for the "shrimp tank", etc so I might put a temporary fix on in the meantime.
Thanks.

 

Looking great, well done!

 

I've made some slow progress over the last few weeks and there still plenty to do. Christiaan helped me get some rainbowfish and I got a few cichlid this saterday. The plants have grown quite well and I built the small tank for the shrimp.
Currently theres 5 red neon rainbowfish in the small tank and some plants Christiaan donated to the cause. The 3ft has 10 fork tail rainbowfish, a few shrimp and a bristlenose pleco that will move to the 3ft once its bigger. The 4ft has 6 yellow labs and 6 yellowtail acei.

The pics are not so great and I'm still finding it hard to take even half decent photos but here they are...