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Thread: My gutted refugium waterfall ATS

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    chriswf's Avatar
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    My gutted refugium waterfall ATS

    Okay, through lots of trial and error, and learning A LOT about this...
    I finally put together my first ATS.

    I had a big sump box. I ended up taking out all the built in baffles and walls used to hold bioballs or whatever, and ran the PVC across.

    My original plan was to have my waterfall come out of the refug, and drain into the tank. But now it's built INTO my refug. And I don't regret it, especially since I put black cloroplast underneath the refug and blocked out a LOT of the pink lighting - which otherwise would have been igniting my tank with ultra pink light :P

    I still need to redo my waterfall pipe. I have a 3/16 blade on a table saw, someone said 1/8 (floyd said it I think) would be best. I might try the 3/16 anyway.

    My screen is 16(width)x12(height) inches.

    My water shields are plexiglass/acrylic that I heated into a U type shape, the weight of it keeps it on the LEDs for now. The plexiglass isn't getting wet but it's a safeguard and was fun to mold it into shape simply warming it with my electric open face stove lol.

    If this works, I plan on adding 2 more heat sink panels of the same size, 1 to each side, and doubling up on LEDs.
    Here's some pics:











    My LED timer is set to 19 on 5hrs off, at least until growth starts. Then I think I heard do 17/7 (on/off)
    Input is more than welcome on anything, it's just a trial and I went into this knowing my first won't be perfect.

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    chriswf's Avatar
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    And yes, that's white cloroplast on my tank as a lid until I get some acrylic cut to fit it. The white cloroplast also diffuses it some. But going to allied plastics a.s.a.p. to get some clear lids.

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    I think your screen is way too big for the coverage those LEDs provide. It looks to me like there is an ultra-hot spot in the middle, which will likely get no growth, then the light coverage declines around it quickly. A diffuser will help spread it out a little bit, but I think no matter what you do your screen is just too big for the LEDs to cover adequately. Take some pics without the lights on, maybe I'm not seeing something right.

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    I can adjust the LEDs back to spread out the light? They're like 3 inches off the screen right now.

    And i'm doubling up on LEDs if these work. I'm looking at heatsink options - like old car amplifiers. Some people online were saying they got their amplifier heatsinks for 20$ from car audio shop junk boxes.

    Is a large screen hurting anything for now?

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    Large screen is probably not hurting anything for now, but you will end up only growing algae in the areas where the light is just right, and that will take several weeks, so I would let it run as is.

    I would back off the lights, yes. This will spread it out more and lower the intensity of the hot spot in the middle.

    Car amp heat sinks are perfect. Really anything is if you spread the LEDs out enough - even a flat aluminum plate. You do need convection, whether that be natural/passive or forced (fan)

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    Okay cool. Just a cpu fan? Do I give it a power supply dedicated to fans only or share it off the LED one? I have some PC power supplies I'm not using.

    I also saw people using aluminum tubes and tracks, and pushing air through the tubes... I thought that was a pretty good idea too.

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    LEDs are constant current. Fans are DC voltage. You cannot run them on the same power supply.

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    So what does everyone else use? Is a pc power supply fine?

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    overkill. All you need is a 12V wall wart (plug) with a molex adapter on the end. you can find online and maybe the Shack...

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    this is what it looks like when your leds are too close togeather (hot spots):



    still experimenting with mine as well! Keep updating!

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