Recent content by MartinBlank

Here are what 4 of the 10w LED spots look like on my 75 freshwater. Just added them yesterday I do have some concerns about if it will be enough light for my plants but for a 70 dollar investment I figured it was worth a go. But as far as lighting the tank I am certainly satisfied! My...

I know I am being pretty specific, but anybody from the SE part of the Twin City area? I am thinking Eagan, Apple Valley, Farmington, Rosemount, Burnsville... probably Savage and maybe Shakopee. Basically south of the river :) I wanted to talk to somebody about the water actually. Being so...

I think what I will do is have them sit right on the glass toppers at first, and if that is to much light (i.e. Algae Mania) I can either attach them to the canopy (or other solution to raise them a bit) or make the jump to CO2 / high light. The more I think about this, the more I am wondering...

It's a 75 gallon tank. So that is around 21-22 inches deep I think? I don't want to mount the lights to the canopy itself. I don't have the canopy on a raise / lower system (and don't want to install one :P). I actually take it off and lay it on the floor when I clean and do water changes...

So I am going back and forth on this one. It appears that four 10w fixtures might actually be cheaper than two 20w fixtures. But a bit concerned that a 10w will penetrate all the way to the bottom of my tank. The other option is trying to figure out a good way to mount the lamps above my tank...

I have tried that a couple times, to varying degrees of success, but nothing to the point that it is as reliable as I would like. I am wondering if one of the sockets itself is the issue. I am using this as an excuse to probably try a DIY LED lighting system using the water proof floods that...

One more idiotic question: It appears that most of the lights (that I am seeing at least) are configured to be wired directly, i.e. not with a plug for a wall socket... is that correct? How difficult is it to convert them to use a plug?

75 gallon planted (currently medium light with lower light plants). Would you recommend 10W or 20W lights to replicate a "medium" light in a 75 gallon? I am trying to avoid making the jump to high light and the algae / CO2 needs that can create. Thanks.. great thread!

So it's a 75 gallon planted tank with mainly low light plants. I have T5 HO dual bulb fixture at 54w apiece, so most charts would consider that a medium level of light. Lately, not every time, but the lights are not coming on in my fixture when the timer supplies power to the fixture. If I...

I am actually a bit on the fence as far as CO2 injection right at this moment. It started out because I am struggling with a case of black brush algae. I am treating that with Excel at the moment. But since BBA is usually caused by a low amount of CO2 in the water (the fact that I tend to...

eeek, you just brought up something that I should have thought of a long time ago. So used to HOB filters that it never occurred to me. So my filters output wand is on the far left side of the aquarium, pushing the flow out down the length of the tank, placed towards the top (like 2-3 inches...

One thing that I want to point out is that I don't have a ton of water movement in my tank. I have an eheim canister (2217) with a wand output in the tank on one end. So some current but not a ton. So, 75 gallon with not a ton of water flow. Will any of the diffusers that don't hook into the...

Thanks a lot. I kinda dig the bubbles, so no worries about bubbles in the tank. :) I will do some checking on the different devices.

I would like to run what I think I understand past you guys and you can let me know how far off base I am in my assumptions :) First some background. This is a 75 gallon community tank. Light are 48" Dual Bulb T5 HO fixture with 2 54w bulbs. The water from my tap is very high on both the kH...

Oh. When I first switched this tank over from a fish only to a planted tank, I was dosing with Flourish (not Excel, just Flourish) once per week. Then I stopped a while back. More to see just how low tech I could go and see if the plants would be ok. The plants continued to do ok. But now I...