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Thread: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

  1. #11
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    So far, I think the roughed up screen is superior. But you're only the second one I've seen do that. I would not have used carbon, since once it's used up it can leech unwanted compounds back into the water column. I would have used aragonite, and a, extremely light coating, because you don't want to block the light that comes from the other side. i.e. don't fill the holes.

  2. #12
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    I'm sure the surface is rough enough, but it's 1-sided, which will require twice the total wattage to get the same filtering.

  3. #13

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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    I did some thinking and some revising of my plan, I dropped the overflow pipe down to keep things under control, and I got 2 of the Sunblaze strips that Floyd R Turbo mentioned, I had ordered 4 and and was going to get that reflective material I linked in an earlier post, but they only had 2 lights in stock and that company with the reflective material has not replied to any of my E-mails.

    Anyway heres what I currently have going on, these pictures are MUCH darker than reality, even with only 2 of those lights its VERY bright back there:



    Those are 2 full size 10.5" x 13.5" screens, with the water flowing over the length of the screen, so 21" of total width. Eventually I will try to get another 2 lights, some reflective material, and a plexi shield over the pipe and screen, probably 2 thin plexi sheets that bend over the pipe on top and then fall straight down into the sump, so I can lift it off.

    This is my first saltwater tank, and I made a very simple overflow, thinking that this would work for now:


    I was clearly wrong there, this 1.5" overflow pipe does not flow NEARLY enough water, unless it hits a full siphon, then it sucks the tank down a couple inches, flings water everywhere and sounds like the toilet of doom being flushed. So right now I have the sump return pump throttled way back, until I can figure out how to fix it. Sadly this means my water flow over the screens is not nearly enough.

    Any thoughts or suggestions on this setup as a whole or any parts of it are greatly appreciated.

  4. #14
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by joelespinoza
    I was clearly wrong there, this 1.5" overflow pipe does not flow NEARLY enough water, unless it hits a full siphon, then it sucks the tank down a couple inches, flings water everywhere and sounds like the toilet of doom being flushed. So right now I have the sump return pump throttled way back, until I can figure out how to fix it. Sadly this means my water flow over the screens is not nearly enough.

    Any thoughts or suggestions on this setup as a whole or any parts of it are greatly appreciated.

    Buy one of these or make a similar one if you can.

    I had one, worked great.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSYqSeW1mQg


    Here's one running, just like the one I had

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H2WSz3Fd-o


    http://www.glass-holes.com/Super-Nano-O ... cstrfrnt06

  5. #15
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    Or.... you might try pushing a bit of airline down the pipe that you already have and using a little airline valve to control the amount of air that can get sucked into it.

    Not sure that will work for what you have there but if you can get it so it allows just enough air into the pipe (at a level a few inches lower than the water intake, you might find that the air will displace some of the water in the pipe and slow down the water flow so that only water is taken into the funnel thing you have there and cuts down or eliminates the slurping.

    Not 100% convinced that'll work for what you have but it's worth a try for the cost of a bit of airline.

  6. #16

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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    The airline does seem to help with the flushing action, so that helped. I cant run it at max compacity of the pump, but at least I can run more without it waking me up every 5 minutes.

    I am not a master of flow dynamics, however I dont see how that type of overflow could flow more than mine through the same sized pipe.


    Here is a video of my overflow, hopefully it makes clear my point. Maybe this is just how much a 1.5" overflow is capable of handling? On another forum I was told 1400 GPH was about max for a 1.5" overflow, but perhaps they were just wrong.


    Click the image to play the video

  7. #17
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    You are going to need to do a lot of work on the lights. All the light is being lost to the sides, and, it's too far from the screen. Try to stack the bulbs every 1.5 inches, with individual reflectors around each bulb (not one big one behind it). Since those are normal output T5, they will need all the reflecting they can get in order to power the screen.

    Actually, it looks like you have enough room to hang a CFL...


  8. #18

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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    Are you sure they are not T5HO? They say that, but they may be lying.

    There is 8.5" from the wall to the tank stand, and I do plan on adding at least 2 more lights and reflectors, I could certainly move the lights closer to the screen but I am somewhat worried about overspray, especially once the flow gets cranked up.

    As much help as my lighting needs, I dont think the lighting is my biggest issue right now. The low flow is my primary concern at the moment, at a rough estimate I am probably getting 400-500 GPH flow right now, if it is 450 GPH that equates to about 21 GPH per inch of screen. I think if I get the lighting cranked up before I fix the flow I will just burn the algae. Also keep in mind I currently dont have any livestock in this tank and my display lighting is (temporarily) a crappy t-8 shoplight. So for the moment it does not have a ton of nurtients to get rid of, and the screen algae does not have much competition from the display tank lighting.


  9. #19
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by joelespinoza

    Here is a video of my overflow, hopefully it makes clear my point. Maybe this is just how much a 1.5" overflow is capable of handling? On another forum I was told 1400 GPH was about max for a 1.5" overflow, but perhaps they were just wrong.

    Your sump is quite large. With that in mind what you might try is to take off the funnel thing & add a 90 degree bend but have it pointing downwards. Then remove some water, reducing the level in the sump so that when the return pump is off the sump has room for the water which drops from the display tank to the sump (ie, so the sump doesn't overflow).

    This could mean that you'd have a syphon effect all the time and would give you a lot more flow.

    You'd need to have some find of strainer over the inlet to stop any small fish or snails from going up there though.

    You'd also need to drill a hole in the top of the 90 degree bend just large enough to tightly fit your length of airline into it so that you don't get an airlock causing a flood when your pump comes back on again. If you fit the airline with a little valve you'll also be able to fine tune the flow so you don't get any slurping (or at least reduce it).


    Personally though I'd go for one of the glass-holes overflow boxes. As I said, I've had one & they do work very well.

  10. #20
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    Re: 26.5"x26" cheap lighting ideas?

    Those are T5HO Fixtures and if the lamps are 24W then they are T5HO lamps. Usually the ones that come with those are 5000K or 6500K IIRC. You want 2700-3000K aghydroponics.com PlantMax Red/Bloom lamps is what I use. I'm personally very concerned with your overflow system. That's an accident waiting to happen. If it were me, I'd take the tank down and re-work the whole overflow system before worrying about the scrubber, but that's just me.

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