Ian086's 29g Planted Tank Build

[Ian086]

Hey everyone. I just thought I'd start a thread for my new 29g planted tank, that I'm getting started on in the next few days. I have some of the equipment purchased, others in the post and everything else I have a fair idea of what I want/need.....
Please feel free to join in and offer ANY advice on any aspect of the build. Although I have an idea in my head of what I want to achieve, I am open to all suggestions. My aim is to have a planted tank that i can be really proud of and maybe inspire others to take the plunge, just like I've been inspired by many beautiful tanks I have seen on our forum. I am pretty new to all this planted stuff, although I have a 15g planted, set-up up about 4 months, which is doing quite well and I am pretty happy with. If you think I am doing something wrong or have any suggestions on how to do it better, let me know. I have a tough skin and don't get offended easily, so please don't hold back....haha
It will be a relatively slow build, as some of you may know(I've said it enough!) the choice of equipment and stock on this side of the pond is not great. I usually have to import stuff from the US. I do have the 'main' tools I need to get started but may incur some delays because of the above reasons. Please bare with me, I really appreciate EVERYONES input. The more help/advice I get, the better the end result will be....
Even if you are not knowledgeable in plants, this thread is open to everyone, if you have a comment on anything in the thread...equipment, scaping, plants, stock, anything at all, please join in....
As you can see or know already, I like to waffle on, so I hope I don't bore people too much with this thread...haha
Also bear in mind the time zone difference, I am at least 6hrs ahead of most of the American AA members, so may not get to reply straight away!!.
As I said I have the guts of the tank sorted, tank, light, filter(s), heater, and substrate. The main stars, the plants, I have an idea on but again, I am completely open to suggestions/change on these......
It's late over here, so tomorrow, i'll give a more detailed list of what I have/am getting for the tank.
Please join in, I want this to be an informative thread but also an enjoyable one, for everyone, novices/experts and everyone inbetween. I don't take myself too seriously and hopefully we can have a bit of craic(if the Mods/Admins let us) along the way.....Ian

 

[Old Scales]

I'm 10-10 and listening in. Following and excited you are finally getting things ready to start. OS.

 

[Old Scales]

Yeah, as jwh said LOTS of pictures!

 

[jwh0818]

Best advice well let's see. Don't over stock, don't forget to do your wc, don't forget to add prime and don't forget to turn your heater off during a wc!!!

 

[Ian086]

I'm 10-10 and listening in. Following and excited you are finally getting things ready to start. OS.

Great to have you aboard Cara, brookster and jwh too!!

Yeah, as jwh said LOTS of pictures!

Maybe even a video

 

[Old Scales]

Can you use your cell phone? I thought you had a camera. ??? I'm cornfused here. OS.

 

[Ian086]

Can you use your cell phone? I thought you had a camera. ??? I'm cornfused here. OS.

My cell phone camera is rubbish. I do have a camera. I'm charging the battery and clearing all the pictures of Jess off the memory card!!!

 

[shellyx]

I'm following along Ian!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Ian086]

I'm following along Ian!

Hi shellyx. Great to have you along. Hello and welcome to all the other AA members now following along.....

 

[Ndefil]

Ian it will be exciting to follow your build thread! Thank you for all the help with mine! Best of luck and show those pictures!

 

[Ian086]

Right guys/gals. Here is what I have/getting/want!!....
Light: (Purchased)
Build My Led
Dutch Planted 6300K - XB Series
Length; 36"
Beam Angle; 90 Degree
PAR; Not sure, will try and get some numbers but this light is definitely high light. It is labelled as Ultra High Light on BML's site.

I have to thank my good friend Old Scales for this light. He was the one who insisted I get this light. He done research on it, without me asking him too, and organized things from his side of the pond. He just sent me the link to pay....thanks OS!!!. I was annoying him and Brian_Nano12gthumb about LED lights. I was seriously considering a Current Sat Planted+ light, I was/am following Brian_Nano12g thread on the Sat+ light. What actually prevented me from getting one was not being able to get one over here!!. As I said in my first post, equipment in Europe is either pretty bad, hard or impossible to get or extremely expensive. T5's are widely available at a reasonable cost but I REALLY wanted to go LED. I did browse and briefly consider this light but it seemed really expensive. Now it is a big outlay initially but although I haven't got it set up yet, it is worth every single cent. It is built to last, rock solid or as Old Scales says, "You could whip a bear with it and then put it on your tank and it would still work fine".... I love his southern phrases...lol.
I was just getting ready to take some pictures of the light and my GF asked to see it turned on. Now, I got a dimmer(optional extra) with this light to cut it back, if needed. I turned it on to show her and it was at it's lowest setting, 10%. She was sitting about 10ft from me and it nearly blinded her. I turned it up to 40% and she had to turn away....Now I know this is not scientific way of testing a light or indeed recommended for your sight but it gives an idea of the strength of this light. I will take a few pictures now but it won't really show the brightness(camera adjusts the light exposure). It will however give you guys a close up look of the light. A bonus of this light is, if you live outside the US, this light WILL work without any need for an up/down transformer. It will run from 100v up to 277v and either 50 or 60Hz. All you need is a simple travel plug adaptor, a few euro/pounds on Ebay....
The price and extras I got for the light are......
Light fixture; $275
Manual Dimmer; $14.99
Tank Mounts(legs); $14.99
Shipping to Ireland; $50
Pictures to follow......
Pictures to follow..........

 

[Ian086]

Ian it will be exciting to follow your build thread! Thank you for all the help with mine! Best of luck and show those pictures!

Great to have you aboard Ndefil

 

[jwh0818]

Great choice on the light! I would have gone with the buildmyled over the planted+

 

[pittbully13]

Man thats a heck of a light. Ive got to get one. What color did you get black or silver and what size? I have a 29 gal with DIY lights.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Old Scales]

Ian's BML LED

I have the pictures of Ian's BML right before I mailed it to him so he could get excited more about what was coming his way. I'll post these for him to get this started for him. The aluminum housing is very thick and solid and the clear panel is seamless within the housing. One pic shows at little of the inside. Each LED is rectangular, not round and like 1/4" wide by 3/4" long. the LED's are white and RGB units stacked in an order across the fixture. Here's the pictures I have. OS.

 

[Ian086]

I have the pictures of Ian's BML right before I mailed it to him so he could get excited more about what was coming his way. I'll post these for him to get this started for him. The aluminum housing is very thick and solid and the clear panel is seamless within the housing. One pic shows at little of the inside. Each LED is rectangular, not round and like 1/4" wide by 3/4" long. the LED's are white and RGB units stacked in an order across the fixture. Here's the pictures I have. OS.

Thanks OS. You got my back as usual buddy. I have just taken some pictures and currently editing. I'll have them up in 5mins. I tried taking pictures of the light at 10%, 25%, 50% etc but they just washed out. Sure could do with those paps, OS and Brian_Nano12g here to shoot some nice shots of it. I'm going to try a video and see if the brightness shows up better.....

 

[Old Scales]

You could try a homemade neutral density filter. Temporarily tape one eyepiece of a pair of sunglasses over the front of the lens. See if it will auto focus with it on. If so It might dim down the light. LOL Redneck Remedies are my Specialty! Just call me "Bubba Old Scales".

 

[Ian086]

As OS said they are rectangular shaped LED's. They are in 12" sections, repeated every 12 inches. Just to add, you can custom order the colour and arrangement of LED's in this unit, if you know what your doing, at NO extra cost. There are a few different 'set' options including Planted, Display, Marine and also fully customable options. The Co-Owner Nick can also be contacted by phone and will talk you through all the options, step by step and get you the light YOU really want and need. Also each light is built from scratch after you order, they send you progress emails and even an email on the step by step process of the build. Nice touch, particularly for those who like the finer details of the build. They are an American company, based in Texas and every light is built completely from scratch on site......
OS, feel free to copy and paste that email about how they build it, if you still have it.....

 

[Ian086]

Some pictures....

 

[Ian086]

More....