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Remember these fish?

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♫ Aggressively smooth jazz ♫

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I’ve kept a fish tank for the last 3 or

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4 years, and got this one just over a year
ago.

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I haven’t really done anything with this
tank aside from populate it with 2 angelfish,

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4 tetras with sadly only 2 remaining, and
2 plecos or plecos (depending on how you want

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to pronounce that) for algae maintenance.

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One of the easiest ways to obtain a fish tank
is to buy a tank and stand combo, which you

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can get on sale for a very reasonable price.

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I think this was about two hundred dollars
for the tank, stand, and hood, which I’d

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consider a pretty good price for a 38 gallon
bowfront.

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But, these tanks always come with absolutely
terrible lighting.

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The light that this came with is a simple
fluorescent fixture that locks into the hood here.

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It’s not bad, but the tube it came with
was a weirdly neutral color that made it look

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like the fish are living in an office.

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Anyway, aside from making the fish look like
they should be getting back to work, the light

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output is also poor.

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I’d like to be able to grow plants in here,
but that’s not gonna happen with this single tube.

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I do have two plants in here that are tolerating
what little sunlight they get through the

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west-facing window in this room, but in the
dead of winter they’re starting to look

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a little sad.

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So, time to upgrade the lighting.

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And I’m gonna do it using some 10 watt LED
chips, drivers, and heat sinks.

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Why do it this way?

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Well, in the aquarium world, there is often
a desire to use point sources of light rather

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than a linear source like LED tape or a fluorescent
tube.

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See a linear light source doesn’t produce
many shadows, and it also makes a very flat light.

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You’ve likely noticed this in a pool--when
you’re underwater, the surface of the water

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bends the light rays of the sun and creates
a distinctive shimmer on the bottom.

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But with overcast skies, that shimmer goes
away.

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To reproduce that effect in a fish tank requires
point light sources.

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Metal halide light fixtures are common for
this effect, but these would be total overkill

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for a tank this small.

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But the LED chips are small enough that they
might reproduce this effect.

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Let’s find out.

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Thanks to the wondrous thing called ebay you
can buy, straight from China, LED chips and

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drivers of dubious quality.

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These 10 watt chips and drivers for use on
12 volts can be had for about $2 a pair assuming

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you buy 5 at a time.

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And thanks to an idea I’m pretty sure I
got from Julian Ilett (sorry if I’m mispronouncing

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your name) these can be attached to small
fan assisted heat sinks also from China.

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Those also go for about $2 apiece, though
you usually have to by 10 or so.

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Links are down below.

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Firstly the LEDs need to be attached to their
heat sinks.

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The most correct way to do this would be to
drill small holes in the heat sink, tap them,

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and then screw the chip onto the heat sink
with a bit of thermal compound in between.

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But the fan can make that tricky with clearance
issues, and combined with my laziness, I sought

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alternate options.

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I have two which seem to work fine.

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First is thermal glue.

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Essentially heat sink compound mixed into
a bonding adhesive.

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This works fine but is annoying to apply with
my specific heat sinks because you need to

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clamp the LED chip in place while the glue
dries which takes quite a while, and to clamp

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it without damaging it requires removing the
fan, which then makes it weird to clamp to.

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So for my next trick, I tried thermal adhesive
tape.

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The smart viewers will note that this is totally
not optimal and I’m probably shortening

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the life of the chips.

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I completely agree!

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But as I am not bothered by this given the
low cost of the chips, ehh.

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Consider me a guinea pig.

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I did perform an array of wildly non-scientific
tests, such as running the chips without the

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fan to see how hot the heat sink gets

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--very--

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and placing my fingers on the chip whilst

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running to gauge how hot the chip’s surface
got

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--hardly--

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and decided, good enough.

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After removing the fluorescent tube, its holder,
and ballast, I needed to find a way to hold

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these components in with reasonable security.

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I ended up using long toggle bolts spanning
the distance, and using cable ties to secure

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the heat sinks to the bolts at their corners.

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For extra strength, and to prevent vibration
from moving them about overtime, I used some

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epoxy resin.

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Each of these modules needs both an unregulated
12v supply to drive the fans as well as the

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output from a driver to run the LED.

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I decided to mount the drivers remotely, using
epoxy resin to secure them to one of these

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extra tiles I inherited from the previous
owner of my home.

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Hopefully this helps remove heat from the
drivers.

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Lastly this needed to be hooked up to a suitable
power supply.

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12 volt power bricks are getting cheap and
common thanks to LED tape and I have a few

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extras lying around.

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This 5 amp unit should be capable of driving
these just fine.

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And that’s it!

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Here’s the finished product.

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This is a great upgrade for any aquarium and
only cost about thirty dollars (assuming you

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have some parts lying around).

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It’s much much cheaper than buying a dedicated
LED lighting solution.

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Plus, many dedicated LED lights use a linear
arrangement of smaller chips, which diminishes

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the shimmer you see.

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I should be able to grow modest plants in
here with the light output of these chips.

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And most importantly, the tank is a much more
pleasant sight.

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The only significant downside is that the
fans do add some noise.

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This is the tank running without the fan
lights.

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[Noise of aquarium filter and air pump]

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And now with the lights.

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[Sound of computer fans added to filter and pump]

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But that’s a small price to pay, I think,
for a very nice effect.

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Lastly, for those who might be inspired to
start a fish tank, I thought I’d be Mr. Responsible

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and chime in about that process.

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Starting a fish tank takes weeks.

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You cannot rush it.

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A responsible pet store will tell you that,
but the big-box stores... they won’t.

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They just want to sell you fish.

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The tank needs to go through a process called
cycling, which builds the bacteria that can process

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the ammonia the fish excrete as waste.

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If you just buy a tank and throw some fish
in it, they will almost certainly die within

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a week because their waste ammonia builds
up fast.

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I’ve put a pretty good guide to tank cycling
in the description.

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A fish tank is pretty easy to maintain, but
you have to be patient when starting it.

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Rushing the process is not good.

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Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this
video, the first video falling under

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Technology Connections Projects.

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I’m limited on time this week so I couldn’t
make one of my more in-depth videos.

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Next week we’ll finally be looking at the
rise of DVD and the fall of Laserdisc.

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So stay tuned for that!

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As always, I also need to thank my supporters
on Patreon.

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Patrons of this channel are keeping it possible
through voluntary contributions.

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If you’d like to help out, check out my
Patreon page through the link on your screen

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or down below in the description.

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Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll
see you next time!

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♫ Aggressively smooth jazz resumes ♫