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
LED Lighting
- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Might get a longer one for the community tank now. He has a huge range of LED lights, just look for the ones with Aquarium in the title.
Daragh
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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can you just conect this unit to our plug our do you need to get a voltage converter first since the voltage is 110V in the US but 240V in Europe?
looks pretty cool. personally I would prefer to have only blue LED rather than the blue/white mix they offer. But that personal taste only.
By the way you can also use cold light cathodes for the same effect
Holger
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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I had heard about cold cathode before and even found them on ebay, but they were never very clear on how to install, power etc. This seller said everything I needed to know. Waterproof, 240v, Power supply included and mentioned aquarium in description. So I went with him.
Fast delivery, but shipping is a bit pricey.
Daragh
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Regards,
Ken.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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There are discussion what is better LEDS or cold light cathodes. Some people are claiming that LEDs are too focused and stress the fish and on the other hand some argue that cold light cathodes will cuase you algae problems.
I have blue LEDs over my tank and none of my fish seem stressed. Sunlight is a lot brighter than a couple of LEDs after all... A friend of mine uses cathodes and has no algae problems.
I think there is a lot of rubbish written about both methods. I couldn't find any scientific research on either.
If you leave your moonlight on all night you might run the risk of running into either problem.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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The light unit on my Aqua-El tank started to smoke the other day so I unplugged it. :shock:
I was going to just take it back but this could be a fun alternative......
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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unfortunately LED lights are no good to use as the main lights on your tank. The colour is wrong and they are not strong enough to get plants to grow.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Thanks Holger but I'm thinking of using it in the small 45l tank.@Didihno,
unfortunately LED lights are no good to use as the main lights on your tank. The colour is wrong and they are not strong enough to get plants to grow.
No real plants in there as they kept dieing on me (not surprised when I found out a 15w bulb wasn't good enough for plants!!!).
Blue LED's might make nice soft lighting in there no?
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- ChrisM (ChrisM)
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@Didihno,
unfortunately LED lights are no good to use as the main lights on your tank. The colour is wrong and they are not strong enough to get plants to grow.
There are High Intensity LEDS that can privide the correct wavelengths and intensities to encourage plant growth.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Really?
@Didihno,
unfortunately LED lights are no good to use as the main lights on your tank. The colour is wrong and they are not strong enough to get plants to grow.
There are High Intensity LEDS that can privide the correct wavelengths and intensities to encourage plant growth.
Well for this tank in particular its going to be a fry tank so I'm not too fussed. Ordinary led's will do me. Think I'll try them out.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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I'd save a small fortune in electricity if I could replace my flourescent bulbs with LEDs. I would imagine that reefkeepers could save even more if they could replace there HQI bulbs with LEDs.
@Chris
do you now where to get daylight-LED spots (about 6400K) in this country? I have seen them on ebay but you get screwed on postage
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- koinonia (koinonia)
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cgi.ebay.co.uk/20-Blue-LED-Beam-Bar-Floo...ZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
I got individual leds for my tank, am only sorry I didnt see this one :wink:
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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I agree, an hour or so with moonlight after the main lights have gone off lookspretty cool. You get to see your nocturnal fish

@Didihno
I'd use cold cathode tubes. Just as cheap to run as LEDs but whereas a LED gives you a spot of light a cold cathode tube will light up a bigger area.
PM ChrisM, he has one installed above one of his fry tanks. He posted it on the forum a while back
Holger
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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cgi.ebay.ie/DUAL-12-inch-COLD-CATHODE-BL...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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