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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Long LED lighting

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05 Jun 2015 15:14 #1 by dodgerooni (David O' Neill)
Hi all,
I currently have two tanks, a discus one (2m long) and a goldfish one (1.75m long). I am thinking of changing them both to LED lighting in order to save on my Electricity bill. Both are planted tanks.
Anyone here know where I could get LED light units for these.
What shops deal in them, could I source them cheaper on the internet?
And finally what sort of money would I be talking about.

Thanks lads and ladies,
All info appreciated.

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05 Jun 2015 15:29 #2 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Long LED lighting
I've just changed 1 of my tanks to a led floodlight, was quite cheap 6500k and i wired it to a plug. For a 2 meter tank I'd say 3 X 30 watt floodlights would do in a custom bracket.

I wouldn't know of any led that would be as good as a t5 light unit for plant growth. Although I have seen the tmc aqua gro tiles and they looked really good.

Also led is quite expensive at the moment so if you were to change over 2 long tanks how much would the new units cost compared to how much your current lights are using.

Marino, Dublin 9

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05 Jun 2015 15:40 #3 by dodgerooni (David O' Neill)
Have you a link to the floodlights you got?
Current lighting is using over 100 watts on each aquarium even though there is only two bulbs working on each.

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05 Jun 2015 16:48 #4 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Trying not to confused matters, and make this into one of those long post about electric costs, if 3x30 watts floodlights were used that wouldn't that be 90 watts in total. If you are running 100 watts worth of T5 bulbs, is it worth changing them for 10 watts?
Now if the bulbs have blown or light unit broken, then yes consider the change. If not I would wait until they have and then upgrade.

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05 Jun 2015 17:34 #5 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Long LED lighting
yes personally i wouldn't change to Led until you really needed to. The only plus is the led will last a lot longer then a t5 tube. I changed to a led floodlight on 1 of my tanks as i wanted it darker and was running 2 x 24 watt t5 where i changed to a 10 watt floodlight as i only have 2 plants in it.

I'm running 216 watts t5 over my 4 foot tank so yours isn't too bad!

Marino, Dublin 9

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05 Jun 2015 17:36 #6 by swai (Simon)
Replied by swai (Simon) on topic Long LED lighting
i know aquatic village were doing the t8 led tubes that fit directly into the original t8 ballast. maybe get onto them and see what options you have. i can't remember the price of them though. i got 6 of the 30 watt floodlights for work from eBay and cost around 100 euro i think.

Marino, Dublin 9

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05 Jun 2015 17:39 #7 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Aqualantis do a 1450mm 72w LED that fits in T5 holder or on top of aquarium they approx €230 as LED should give 3x the light per watt 1 may be enough for the 1.75m tank may not pay for itself in electricity but it probably would in not having to buy T5s every year.

On a related note have you uploaded a pic of the planted goldfish tank I would be interested in seeing it.

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06 Jun 2015 18:28 #8 by dodgerooni (David O' Neill)
Thanks for the advice so far lads. Anyone have experience of using LEDs on such a long planted tank?
Attached is a pic of my goldfish tank. I had it as a discus tank for a year and the plants grew. I Introduced goldfish two weeks ago and no plant problems yet!!! Although as the goldfish grow and settle down, they may get hungrier!!!
Attachments:

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06 Jun 2015 18:29 #9 by dodgerooni (David O' Neill)
As you can see, I have gold barbs in there too and the goldfish are smaller than some of the barbs at the moment, so they really are quite young.

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07 Jun 2015 08:16 #10 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
As the tank is not heavily planted maybe a plant specific LED is not required. A couple of Diversa LED strips may do the job they would save you a lot of watts a 10w 80cm is about €50 you could spotlight the plants aswell if you think they need it

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10 Jun 2015 11:54 #11 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Have you decided what your doing about LEDs?

Be interested as I have lightly planted cold tank I never turn on the current lights as it gets enough daylight but I can't see my WCMMs

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11 Jun 2015 19:13 #12 by dodgerooni (David O' Neill)
I bought some second hand Aquaray grobeams on ebay. Don't really know what they are like, still waiting for them to arrive.

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