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John's 75-gallon tank journal and LED build

4K views 17 replies 7 participants last post by  PrimeObsession 
#1 ·
Hello, I am setting up a 75 gallon high-tech tank, and I will be documenting the process here in this thread!

Originally, I bought this tank for mbuna African cichlids, but I wasn't really digging the tank full of rocks:)



I still wanna keep mbuna, just not in this tank. My next project will be a 30-40 gallon species-tank with either Pseudotropheus demasoni or Pseudotropheus saulosi.

I have not decided what I will be keeping in this tank, but it will be one of the following: Asian theme (Asian plants, barbs, loaches, maybe cheat with some rainbow fish), West Africa theme (African plants, kribs, congo tetras, etc), South American theme (you get the idea). These will not be strict biotopes.

Anyways, for me half the fun is in setting up the tank, so this will be a long term project. I am building the light and the co2 regulator, and that's basically it for this summer. If all goes well, then I should be planting in the fall!

For now this thread will mostly cover the LED light build, then the co2 regulator. Both items will be controlled by a chipKit Max32 development board (similar to an Arduino). More to come!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I will now cover the plans for light build!

Here's the LED hardware I will be using:

White: 2 Vero 18 5600k, 2 Vero 13 4000k, 2 Vero 13 2700k
Color: 4 Hyper Violet, 4 Royal Blue, 4 Cool Blue, 4 Cyan, 4 Lime, 4 Deep Red

That's about 120 watts of white and 52 watts of color for those of you who what to a use that as a measurement.



I made a mistake, and bought the wrong power supply, so yea, that's not included in the pictures:\

Before I can do anything with the LEDs, I must build a heatsink. I got some aluminum from a local metal supplier, then I'm going to JB Weld it all together. The idea is to use a strong clamping force and as little JB Weld as possible.





It'll be trimmed down to 36 inches when complete. The channels on the bottom will hold a piece of plexi-glass, then I'll make end caps from the excess aluminum bar.



I plan to mount the drivers like this. I don't know if they generate too much heat to do so though.

The light will have 5 channels. Cool whites, whites, red, blue, green.

Each channel will be controlled from a chipKit Max32. This is a really nice piece of hardware. Right off the bat, here are some advantages over the Arduino. First, the PWM outputs are run off 16-bit timers, so implementing > 8 bit resolution is a matter programming the micro-controller directly to do so. I have already created a 12-bit resolution with the proper frequency for the Meanwell drivers, which is what I will use for this project.

The set-up will be simple. I will run the chipKit as a HTML server (code available online, minimal work for me). A HTML interface will allow me to adjust the PWM values and timer schedules. PWM values will be stored via memory card, then an interrupt based task scheduler will maintain the actual PWM transitions and turn the any hardware on or off at my choosing. I will be using the Clipper Mouse solenoid for co2 control... but more on that later.

Unfortunately, I believe the standard Arduino units are too slow for this application. Also, a lot of the code will be very specific to the PIC32 micro-controller. Anyone who wants to use any of it will likely need this specific hardware:



Finally, I found this online:) An early start to the next part of the project:



John
 
#7 ·
Please show the steps in building the light k? Would love to see the steps.
That's the plan:)

What brand is the regulator?
It's marked Air Gas, but I don't believe this company actually manufactures their regulators. It's a dual stage regulator with a stainless steel diaphragm, and Air Gas recommends this model for use with co2.

What kind of rock is that in the 1st pic?
The rock is called Table Mesa Brown, and it's really common type of rock to see at landscaping places here in Phoenix. I really like the look, so I may end up using some of it in the second iteration of this tank;)

I'm really glad to see people interest in the build... You all will definitely motivate me to finish faster and do better work:)
 
#8 ·
Very interested to see your light build. I used a similar heatsink process. I drilled, tapped and screwed everything together with stainless screws. I used thermal paste between everything. I wasn't sure jb weld would transfer the heat as efficiently.

 
#9 ·
Haha, nice to see your heatsink! Originally, I was going to do it just like you with thermal paste and screws (drill and tap). I decided to use JB Weld so when its done, I can sand everything down (maybe add a little bondo to the seams:hihi:), paint it black, and it should look pretty seamless.

Unfortunately, it won't be as efficient as a solid piece of aluminum, but it'll cost at least half as much as a piece of heatsink the same size. I was a able to find a website that lists the thermal conductivity of JB Weld at .59 W/(m.K) (if its accurate, seems reason reasonable). For comparison, a good thermal adhesive is is the 9-10 W/(m.K) range. However, these adhesives are designed to be applied to electronic parts with little or no clamping force. I didn't want to use a thermal adhesive alone because they seem to be more semi-permanent than permanent.

Anyway, if this doesn't work, then I'll redo it like you did it. The only way to know is to try and see! I'm hoping that I do not need to add fans, but if I do, then I think this set-up should offer more than enough cooling.

I do have some questions if you don't mind. Did you end up using a fan with your yours? Also, how many watts of LED did you use and what we're you final dimensions of the heatsink?
 
#11 ·
Heatsink is 5" wide and 48" long. I'm trying out some 10w epileds COB LED's. 10 cool white 6500k. 10 warm white 3000k. 4 deep red 660nm. 2 yellow 580nm. 4 Blue 450nm and 2 UV 360nm. A total of 32 led at 10 watts at full power. So at max 320 watts. I installed 4 fans to run based on heatsink temperature. At full brightness all four run. I'm finding it to be a little to yellow so I may swap out some of the 3000k for 10000k. Total build time took around 6 months.

 
#12 ·
Wow! Your enclosure looks great!

I noticed that, for the most part, people who have warm whites run them at much lower levels than their cool whites, so what your saying makes sense. I added some neutral whites in with the warms for this reason, but I don't know what the affect will be.

An update on the heatsink. Yesterday I started to glue the L channel to the aluminum bar. I'm gluing them one at a time, so there's a long down time between each piece making it a long process. So far so good, I'll post some pictures tonight, but nothing exciting.
 
#15 ·
Hello again, and sorry for the lack of updates. The heat sink did not turn out as expected. I will either keep it and make a box like jmelvin's awesome enclosure, or buy a real one. If I buy a heat sink, I want to find one that will allow me to not use fans, so I need to find out whats involved in that.

The good news is I think I know what type of fish I'll be keeping! Recently we picked up a Dario Dario from a LFS and he's been doing really well in a Fluval EDGE. They also stock Badis Badis, a similar, but larger, fish. I talked with one of the workers, and they feed these guys a variety of frozen foods. Our Dario Dario is eating frozen brine shrimp fine right now. Anyways, I want to keep the Badis Badis in the 75, as I think they are a cool alternative to the SA dwarf cichlids (they were once classified as cichlids). They are less picky about water conditions, so I think they will do better in our hard water too. I think a few peaceful barb species, the Badis (6-9), and some Kuhli loaches as a cleanup crew would be nice.
 
#17 ·
Hi everyone- no this build is not dead! I ran into some personal issues and couldn't finish up the light over the summer. Then for the past few months, I've been in school and haven't had time to do anything. That is, until the last few weeks when I had a chance to finish the light. Well almost:)

I wanted to post a review on the LEDs, specifically the Veros, for anyone else considering a similar set-up.

When I stopped updating this thread, I was stuck on what to do about the heatsink. Luckily, MakersLED came out with a slim version of their ready-made heatsink, so I decided to try it out. Overall, the quality is good, but the plastic end caps are pretty cheap and one's badly warped. I will email them to ask for a replacement soon. Also, the bottom of the heatsink has a few scuffs (likely from when they cut it) that I haven't been able to remove. These are minors issues though. It does a good job of keeping the LEDs cool with no fan up to about 50% power. With the white LEDs on full power, the heatsink starts to heat up very quickly, so fans will be needed for that.







Arrangement of the LEDs on the heatsink.



Color layout:
Violet | Red | NW | Red | Violet
Lime | Cyan | CW | Cyan | Lime
Cool Blue | Royal Blue | WW | Royal Blue | Cool Blue



LEDs on low.



Only white LEDs on 25%



Only white LEDs on 100%. This picture didn't turn out well. The light's a lot brighter and a lot whiter than the pictures shows. The light looks like it does in the 25% photo but brighter.



This is only white at 50%. The light you see in the background in also an LED sold as warm white for comparison. Unfortunately, I don't have any more details on the background LED.







Red, Green, Blue. Each color individually at 100%. The green looks a lot more green in person.



This is with the colored LEDs at 20% each and the whites at 50%. In person, this gives the light a nice purplish hue.



Everything the same as above, but with the blues at 100% to cool down the overall color. In person, the light looks a little unnatural with the blues at 100%. In think the ratio of cool blue to royal blue is too high. If I decide to run the blues this high then I will add some more royal blues.

Overall, I'm really happy the light. With the heatsink, the total cost ended up a little higher than the retail option I was considering, but I don't need two lights, which is nice. Also, the LEDs should be of higher quality and if anything breaks, the individual parts are all cheap. Finally, I have the RGB option, which the retail light didn't. With that said, if I could redo it, I would probably leave out the colored LEDs and run just the Veros since the color added a lot of cost. Of course, when get I things set-up and start tweaking the light, this feature might become more valuable.

I still need to find some connectors and some longer wire for a perminant solution to wire the light to the power supply and controller. I will add more about the controller in a future post.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do a write up. TBA, since I didn't build a heatsink, there wasn't much point. Many guides and videos show how to wire up the LEDs. However, if anyone has any questions on anything I did then feel free to ask!

That's all for now!
 
#18 ·
Another update!

Hello!

Last week I had a chance I had a chance to pick-up some topsoil as I will be trying the MTS method for this tank. This stuff was surprisingly hard for me to find.

Here's what I ended up with:






Turned out that like half of my topsoil was just wood chips! That's what you see floating in the water in the last picture. I added about 50 lbs of dirt from my backyard into this mix and let it soak for two days.





This is after 5 days of "drying out." I was hoping someone with experience making MTS could tell me if my dirt looks okay. I will sift out the wood chips when its done.

Also, I will be ordering the stuff to finish the co2 regulator. I wanted to find a good nickel plated needle valve to used for cosmetic reasons, but I'm just gonna go with the brass Fabco valve that's so popular.

Once I have the reg complete (and the dirt finishes), I will have everything I need to finally set-up this tank!!! I still want to keep Badis Badis, but I found out my LFS only stocks males, so getting a good group could be hard.
 
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