Delapool's 150 gallon tank

[Autumnsky]

Cool! Please keep me posted!!!

[Delapool]

OK, so still waiting for a seneye USB power adapter to be shipped so I can get some actual tank readings from seneye light meter. I've tried it in the office connected to desktop and got the pics below and seneye seems to be working.

Hunting around for a laptop. The WiFi adapter would be the ultimate way to send data from tank to computer but that will be next Xmass.

First slide is of the light meter with the office light. It shows (I think) a plant reference (as thick line) and human eye reference (dashed line) against the actual light readings (white/grey line). So it seems to show PAR, LUX and Kelvin (right side in box) plus the actual light spectrum which seems pretty nifty. Er, if that makes sense?? This is all new here.


This is the reading (white/grey line) and PAR/LUX/K from office light only.



This is office light plus torch.



This is of the LED light from the mobile shining right onto the meter.

[Delapool]

Included is further information. The link below gives PAR for different plant types which seemed really useful?

fresh water plant PAR levels - Seneye

For extra details on Seneye light meter:

seneye reef light meter functions - Seneye

What is PAR & PUR ? - Seneye

[Autumnsky]

Very cool concept - hope it works well in application. I am looking at auto everything soon.

[Delapool]

Tank readings for records:

Cu = 0

Kh = 6

Gh = 8

P = 2 to 5ppm (leaning towards 5 so bit higher than normal).

Nitrates - 30ppm I reckon.

[Delapool]

The USB power adapter arrived so the Seneye Reef went into the tank yesterday. It is sitting about two thirds of the way down under the lights for the moment.

All looks good.

Then I hit a snag. To actually get the readings I have to take the device back out of the tank. Unfortunately I ran the USB cable behind the filter outlets to hide them and would have to wait for next water change. Why the readings are not stored in the USB power adapter is behind me.

To cheer myself up I ordered the 15m USB cable extension which is the next cheapest option.

I did try setting up a router from a spare one we had but didn't seem to work.

Also contacted Seneye about their wifi power adapter which I think sends readings to the cloud and you can view on mobile. My concern was that mobile phone coverage is really poor under our tin roof but we do have house wifi if that can be used. This was their reply which seemed promising.

"If you have strong Wi-Fi in the house then the seneye web server (Wi-Fi) will be fine on that."

It would be cheaper to buy a really cheap laptop here though and connect that up.

[Delapool]

I can't remember if we were discussing using multiple drop checkers here or elsewhere(?) but thought this might be of interest. Last night I got readings off the ph pen over the tank. For info the tank is 4ft x 2ft x 2.5ft (high).

On the back right corner, the reading was 6.7. This matched the PH probe on the CO2 injection. I do wonder if a little low but has been calibrated recently.

Front centre of tank either side of centre brace (about a foot apart) came back at 6.5 for both readings.

The back left corner of tank above the CO2 reactor came back at 6.2 or 6.3. Was moving around.

The water flow had just switched off for feeding. I'll have to try it on next time.

[Autumnsky]

Well that is quite the amount of work. I wonder that that system would be too complicated for me!

[Delapool]

And expensive! I don't think there are many FW users of it here.

Hopefully this cable does the job and that's the last purchase (but I'm not betting on anything).

[Timi.moma]

Wow, makes my tanks look so small and dull lol! Absolutely beautiful Dellapool!!!!

[Caliban07]

I find the par lighting levels for different plant species very interesting. Tom Barr states that 40 par uniformly spread across the substrate is enough lights for all levels from beginner to experienced. This table doesn't seem to argue.


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[Delapool]

That is interesting. I have never really researched something like that. It sounds good news. I was going to float the light meter but thought to put it deeper to where the plants are growing from. Hopefully I can test it in a few locations.

If I get keen tomorrow I'll take the meter out and see what the readings are. Fingers crossed it has been doing something apart from complain about the low ph.

[Delapool]

Included the link on PAR plant preference again just for reference.
fresh water plant PAR levels - Seneye

I did pull the meter out today and it uploaded a bunch of readings to the seneye server. Was mostly plug and play but a few tricks. Once loaded there are various graphs which can be adjusted by time and a few other settings. Fairly quick to get something usable.

I'll post the others on LUX and Kelvin later but below is PAR. I measured where the meter sits and it is actually half way down the tank. Assuming all is working ok, I seem to have a low PAR problem.

The graph on the left is my tank readings, the coloured chart on the right is plant preference (I think, I must check that).

The seneye reef meter only comes on when the lights come on so it looks like I'm getting a PAR of 30 to 40 halfway down the tank. Ignore the squiggle at the end of the graph, I think it was recording while connected to the computer.


PAR - todays readings.



PAR - yesterdays readings.



PAR - 3 days readings.



PAR - month of readings.

[Caliban07]

That's interesting. What fixture are you using. What par is it supposed to give out? Are those submerged readings did you say?


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[Delapool]

Originally Posted by Caliban07

That's interesting. What fixture are you using. What par is it supposed to give out? Are those submerged readings did you say?


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Hopefully it's going to be useful. Once the 15m extension cable arrives next week I can hopefully connect it up to the computer for live readings and start testing stuff 😀

The ammonia, ph and other stuff are also working. I'm getting temp warnings so need to learn how to reset them to freshwater.

I guess I still think of it as the poor cousin to the apogee. But still very excited. It could I guess maybe explain why so many plants I had under the LEDs have now failed under this light setup (although the lack of algae is brilliant!).

This is for a submerged tank, normal setup. The light now is a quad t5ho but probably just a low quality one as single reflector. It sits 3 inches above the tank. Covers on the tank are glass strut/Perspex lids.

I think I've got some links to check par for t5's but if anyone has any that would be great 😀

Will dig up how old the bulbs are and what type.

[Caliban07]

Is this chart any good?


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[Delapool]

It is - that's great. Gee, it really drops off a cliff by depth.

Well I can't figure it out. At say 15 inches down I should have heaps of light with a quad t5ho?

Maybe this week I'll try taking tank Perspex covers off if the extension cable turns up (and works lol). I think the bulbs are 7months old. Been stuck filling out reports so still to check.

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by Delapool

It is - that's great. Gee, it really drops off a cliff by depth.

Well I can't figure it out. At say 15 inches down I should have heaps of light with a quad t5ho?

Maybe this week I'll try taking tank Perspex covers off if the extension cable turns up (and works lol). I think the bulbs are 7months old. Been stuck filling out reports so still to check.

I don't really get this chart. I've got 2 t5ho with reflectors at about 18 inch so 2 bulbs would take me above high light? If I multiply the par by two?


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[Delapool]

Originally Posted by Caliban07

I don't really get this chart. I've got 2 t5ho with reflectors at about 18 inch so 2 bulbs would take me above high light? If I multiply the par by two?


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That's how it looks to me as well. Er, stumped. Do you know if that was in air or water for the graph?

I did replant some poor performing plants on the weekend that had slow growth and noticed that they had hardly put down any roots at all. Maybe that was why the stems were coming out.

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by Delapool

That's how it looks to me as well. Er, stumped. Do you know if that was in air or water for the graph?

I did replant some poor performing plants on the weekend that had slow growth and noticed that they had hardly put down any roots at all. Maybe that was why the stems were coming out.

Good point. I would imagine air.


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