Nano Smart Aquarium

A nano aquarium is 30 gallons or smaller , in my case its a 10 gallon. These are considered very difficult to manage because due to the size they are more sensitive.

So the pump is in and functional , biopellets and carbon reactors are running now So I added about 10 pounds of live sand which causes a large murky cloud. The ezb is already ordered for this one so I will start making everything. Next step is excellent lighting in both actinic and warm daylight.

Here are the leds I planned on using , both a bright and warm 10 watt led and a blue actinic 10 watt.

Because these are very high power they need a heatsink and maybe a fan. I believe they run on 11 volts. Here is the case that is a old cable modem which could look good as a project box either for ezb or the lights themselves.

ok, you are in beast mode.

Beast mode? Lol , that sounds very aggressive , I like it!

Ok serious updates , I will post all the pics and then commentary. .

Ok so the three 10 watt leds produce tons of heat and a heatsink is a must , I tore apart an old power supply for the large aluminum heat sink plates. After cleaning off any corrosion and thermal paste I used ca glue on th edges of each led. I used brass standoffs and drilled mounting holes so it can be taken apart at any time. The cable modem case I gutted has a nice pattern of small holes as seenn n previous pictures. I picked out a drill bit double the size and widened every hole in the case and also added 4 more rows by hand in the same pattern. It turned out great like it was suposed to look that way. I also used a 5mm bit to drill out holes in the bottom to mount leds. Both blue leds for night light and uv/purple for dusk and dawn. I cut a window off the bottom and added in a 40mm slim vga 12v fan to help keep air moving past the large heatsink. Because we didn't have a good 12v 5amp or higher regulated supply we hsd to stop the project for tonight. I was really hoping to have a light on tonight :/ its ok though they ae by a window. So they will have some light anyways. The case I gutted for the. Heatsink is going to house the ezb and the switching transistors to turn each led on and off , the actinic 10w , bright white 10w , warm daylight 10w , 5mm led blue , and 5mm uv/purple. So I sm repurposing the case. The 60mm fan will cool everything and I will probably paint it black as well.

Im trying to hunt down a used pc power supply I can use to power ezb and these monster leds. The two extras i had were both cooked. I need at least 50 watts RMS for the leds and ezb. I emailed some one on craigslist , im crossing my fingers that he hooks me up. Otherwise I will either need to buy a 5 amp power supply or buy a pc power supply for like 40 dollars just to modify for power. Hmmm

I am not fond of failures but sometimes they happen. I wired the high power leds and they looked great.

You can see the 40mm fan in the top of the case. In testing it worked but failed a few minutes after powering the lights o . After a while I noticed the color started rapidly changing and poof of magic smoke started escaping , I took. A deep breath and looked inside. The first thing I noticed was the fan was not spinning. Without airflow in the case the leds eventually overheated. While the fan was working I did take some pictures though

Without light most the fish just huddled behind the pump. They were not brave enough to explore the rocks in the dark. So anyways I was bummed out but it happens , cant get everything right! Lol - Josh Starnes

where did you get the leds from

I purchased them on ebay , search 10w led. When I do this again I will use a much larger heat sink.

Two quotes from Thomas Edison inspired me today

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

"A genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."

Ok after finding a way Not to light the tank lol , I tried agian with some lower power. Im not sure of total output but these are not producing the crazy heat the last ones were. I estimate about 12 watts total output.

Whats nice is that because the light is very intense and originating from a small point the light shimmers on the bed of the tank just like in the ocean or a pool on a bright sunny day. :)

The case I made I will still use. It will house uv leds and blue leds. The. Uv are night lighting and blue will give the tank a actinic ocean look. The white leds pictured , blue leds and uv night light will all be controlled by ezb I already ordered the ezb for this project but due to timing it may be delayed by chinese holidays.

So I descided to start making my own zero water. Thats water that is filtered from organic contaminates , chlorine , and heavy metal. These are things that build up and settle in fish tanks and also increase corrosion on electric equipment in proximity to contaminated water that is evaporating. Here is a before and after test with a parts per million water tester... 072 PPM BEFORE water treatment 000 PPM After the water treatment

I am using a pitcher type filter at the moment to try out this ionic exchange filter element. If this works well then I will use a couple small pumps so ezb can control scheduled water changes to make the least impact to the Marine environment.

The fish appreciate the new lighting and have left their hiding places to look for food. This is a good sign they are okay with the lighting and not stressed out.

I added more rock and moved in additional marine life. A pencil sea urchin , red king damsel, two percula clown fish, horse shoe crab , spotted green puffer fish, long tentacle pink tip anemone.

The small white leds are ok but I need to get the large light back working. Im planning on dropping the voltage down to 10.1 volts instead of 12 volts to bring heat to a manageable temperature and adding two 40mm fans since the first one kicked the bucket. I will use a buck step down converter to drop the voltage to the ten volts. One led is damaged but if this tests well I will just buy a replacement and swap it out. No big deal as the single color ten watts are about 8 bucks.

More rock , I think the anemone ate something while I was down stairs lol , well it happens.

I did add a few more pieces but I will probably wait for that update when the main light is back of running at 10 volts..

Initial cycling is doing great , I will post a update once I fix the main actinic light https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PgMUmfpe4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Ok tiny update , I used a step down converter to lower the voltage to the leds , now the heat is low enough to touch but I still would love to run them between 11 volts and 12 volts to get max brightness. Total wattage will be about 32 watta between all daylight leds. Thats a huge savings over 40 watts worth of flouresent lighting.... well ok not huge but it looks good lol. I will test with a meter to check later , here is a before and after pic with additional leds. Before After

Im considering moving all the leds into the one center pod which will maximize shimmer effect but all the light will come from a 6 x6" square. With these two 60mm 12 volt fans they really push a great deal of air through the box. Im considering running it at 12 volt and see if my home made heatsink and fan combo can keep these crazy bright leds cool. Just one additional volt makes a huge difference in light ouput.... (and heat)

Ok so I moved all the lights together onto the one module and now they are running 12 volts instead of 11 and are running like a champ. The additional side vents made with pattern drilling increased airflow and im using two fans in case one burns out I still have a backup keeping all the leds cool. It is low power , still less than an average single standard marine aquarium bulb.

I still need to wire 6 to 12 more blue 1/4 watt leds , three more whites , and a couple uv leds. I will be ready for another update picture then. ;)

, tiny update - smaller wave makers are in the mail and I hope to have them by the weekend. Due to the smaller size of this tank I don't think alternating current would be effective so only one is really needed.

I guess you got the 250gph BIOCUBE ,i got it for $12 and a few 750gph

The ones I got were 950 gph

i was wrong it was 950gph i got for a bigger tank, the 250 gph i got was for a smaller tank

On the package of the 250gph biocube it says it for 30 gallons or under ,so a 20 gallon is perfect for it

found them on amazon 950gph was $18.92 and the 250gph was $12.14 all with free shipping i think i bought the last 2 at that price on 250gph

WOW price went up on both of them now,$18.12 for 250 gph free shipping and about $25 for 950 gph

also idea i am looking to get for my tank is glow in the dark sand,but be good for you too,give it a very cool effect

Yea , I bought the last 950 gph for $ 18 after shipping!

my credit rating is so very high with amazon its my favorate place to buy almost everything EVEN they increased my amazon card to $3000 limit now,but i always pay off so no interest or use promotions like 6 months or a year no interest,plus free shipping ,no tax

New puffer for nano tank

I used a net gear router... Well three of them and cut the top off two so I could stack them and glue them together to use as one case. I received blue LEDs and I'm on my way to pick them up now...;)

I thought you left the forum ,since havent heard from you in awhile

Glad to see you working on your projects,in about one week going on my last trip to china for work then get retire and only work on my robots.

I put my male and female gecko's together,so soon with see my babies hatch,i guess i will be another daddy

OK more work on the lighting system. Ideally it will be dimmable to simulate change in lighting through the day much like the larger tank but now with all the other colors.

These are 6 10 watt blue actinic LEDs. They are super bright and I should have no problem frowning very pretty corals with these. Take in mind this is double the previous output and they are all blue not split with white.

There are also 6 tiny surface mount LEDs that are morning and evening lighting. Late night they will be off completely so I can sleep given the success of keeping a anemone in this tank with less lighting on the test setup I believe this will really be the icing on the cake.

I hope you post another video soon, I love your fish. I hope to eventually do this with my own tanks, so I'm definitely watching this progress.

Alright I'm epoxying down the buck stepdown converter . with a load I could maintain 9.5 volts from a lead acid battery. I will test load voltage again in a few minutes from the 12v regulated power supply I made from a PC power supply for it.

HEY that looks like my stepdown converter ,LOL BECARE YOU DONT have your burner on doing that,or forget its on

My new GLASS RANGE was on and i couldnt tell ,since not red and it almost melted my lid

OK I'm waiting for the paint to dry well while I go pick up my car then when I get back I will crimp the ends on the power wires and test the voltage to the LEDs while on the big power supply. As long as its below 11 volts I will reassemble the case and be done ;)

The light looks great! So now I fed some of my anemone specimens. It appears the two colors that the anemone takes to the best are green , yellow and red. Blue is not nearly effective in direct comparison. I did find that flouresent colors/ pigments show through the anemones skin. Next I will look into adding a glowing pigment that charges from light absorbed and glows for a few hours in darkness.

Man, that looks great! I love the colors. I gotta get my aquarium back running again.

Update: I ended up removing the step down converter and now I'm connected directly to 12v from the computer power supply. I tested the voltage with 7 amps of load and my meter read 11.4 volts and these leds are rated 10.1 to 11 volts so I am not worried. The heatsink and fans are working well.

@Dch thanks! If I can raise lots of anemone in different colors I will start selling them. I love these guys.

I didn't know those things moved.

Certain species can walk around with their pedal ( the foot) and change locations. Just yesterday two decided to walk right up next to the pump intake ( sometimes they will seek flow when hungry) they will also inflate and become bouyant to move as well. It is their way of swimming.

Do you have videos on YouTube? Your user name?

MY female gecko does that when i come near her cage,and she waves her hand when i do it plus always watching what i do in my house,she never bites also,even when i give her fruit off my finger

Yes I do a variety of YouTube videos for both robot stuff and the updates on the marine life... User name is machinepsychology , I will do more videos soon as I have been raising custom anemones from pink tip long tentacles and making the green , purple , red and even yellow.

ANEMONES i also have there are very easy to take care of also.

And i see 7 amps at about 12 volts thats a lot of power

They need a lot of tender loving care. Because these kind of anemone are more active they need more nutrition. Light alone is not enough to get them to grown. They need a meaty diet which means hand feeding. If your lucky enough a clown fish will like your anemone and catch food for it and feed it. Here is the maroon clown feeding a purple one. They are very sensitive to environmental changes , flow , light , and they like oxygen so if they want more they will come to the surface of the water. Anyways that's where ezb comes in. Controlling water flow , alternating currents and switching from night to daylight at the correct time.

YES i found that out too having a few. but at the same tiome you dont need a EZB if you go to any pet store they doing fine,and i bet no EZB

But on mine and your design i like using a EZB

JUST awhile back i went to clearwater marine aquarium,thhats where you find the best experts ,since thats all they do ,and got many ideas on how to take of fish tanks ,mostly saltwater

Getting ready to place many many photos of the clearwater marine place,total about 500 or more,from there and busch gardens and tampa zoo in my facebook page SO you can check them out JOSH