Remember these fish?
♫ Aggressively smooth jazz ♫
I’ve kept a fish tank for the last 3 or
4 years, and got this one just over a year ago.
I haven’t really done anything with this tank aside from populate it with 2 angelfish,
4 tetras with sadly only 2 remaining, and 2 plecos or plecos (depending on how you want
to pronounce that) for algae maintenance.
One of the easiest ways to obtain a fish tank is to buy a tank and stand combo, which you
can get on sale for a very reasonable price.
I think this was about two hundred dollars for the tank, stand, and hood, which I’d
consider a pretty good price for a 38 gallon bowfront.
But, these tanks always come with absolutely terrible lighting.
The light that this came with is a simple fluorescent fixture that locks into the hood here.
It’s not bad, but the tube it came with was a weirdly neutral color that made it look
like the fish are living in an office.
Anyway, aside from making the fish look like they should be getting back to work, the light
output is also poor.
I’d like to be able to grow plants in here, but that’s not gonna happen with this single tube.
I do have two plants in here that are tolerating what little sunlight they get through the
west-facing window in this room, but in the dead of winter they’re starting to look
a little sad.
So, time to upgrade the lighting.
And I’m gonna do it using some 10 watt LED chips, drivers, and heat sinks.
Why do it this way?
Well, in the aquarium world, there is often a desire to use point sources of light rather
than a linear source like LED tape or a fluorescent tube.
See a linear light source doesn’t produce many shadows, and it also makes a very flat light.
You’ve likely noticed this in a pool--when you’re underwater, the surface of the water
bends the light rays of the sun and creates a distinctive shimmer on the bottom.
But with overcast skies, that shimmer goes away.
To reproduce that effect in a fish tank requires point light sources.
Metal halide light fixtures are common for this effect, but these would be total overkill
for a tank this small.
But the LED chips are small enough that they might reproduce this effect.
Let’s find out.
Thanks to the wondrous thing called ebay you can buy, straight from China, LED chips and
drivers of dubious quality.
These 10 watt chips and drivers for use on 12 volts can be had for about $2 a pair assuming
you buy 5 at a time.
And thanks to an idea I’m pretty sure I got from Julian Ilett (sorry if I’m mispronouncing
your name) these can be attached to small fan assisted heat sinks also from China.
Those also go for about $2 apiece, though you usually have to by 10 or so.
Links are down below.
Firstly the LEDs need to be attached to their heat sinks.
The most correct way to do this would be to drill small holes in the heat sink, tap them,
and then screw the chip onto the heat sink with a bit of thermal compound in between.
But the fan can make that tricky with clearance issues, and combined with my laziness, I sought
alternate options.
I have two which seem to work fine.
First is thermal glue.
Essentially heat sink compound mixed into a bonding adhesive.
This works fine but is annoying to apply with my specific heat sinks because you need to
clamp the LED chip in place while the glue dries which takes quite a while, and to clamp
it without damaging it requires removing the fan, which then makes it weird to clamp to.
So for my next trick, I tried thermal adhesive tape.
The smart viewers will note that this is totally not optimal and I’m probably shortening
the life of the chips.
I completely agree!
But as I am not bothered by this given the low cost of the chips, ehh.
Consider me a guinea pig.
I did perform an array of wildly non-scientific tests, such as running the chips without the
fan to see how hot the heat sink gets
--very--
and placing my fingers on the chip whilst
running to gauge how hot the chip’s surface got
--hardly--
and decided, good enough.
After removing the fluorescent tube, its holder, and ballast, I needed to find a way to hold
these components in with reasonable security.
I ended up using long toggle bolts spanning the distance, and using cable ties to secure
the heat sinks to the bolts at their corners.
For extra strength, and to prevent vibration from moving them about overtime, I used some
epoxy resin.
Each of these modules needs both an unregulated 12v supply to drive the fans as well as the
output from a driver to run the LED.
I decided to mount the drivers remotely, using epoxy resin to secure them to one of these
extra tiles I inherited from the previous owner of my home.
Hopefully this helps remove heat from the drivers.
Lastly this needed to be hooked up to a suitable power supply.
12 volt power bricks are getting cheap and common thanks to LED tape and I have a few
extras lying around.
This 5 amp unit should be capable of driving these just fine.
And that’s it!
Here’s the finished product.
This is a great upgrade for any aquarium and only cost about thirty dollars (assuming you
have some parts lying around).
It’s much much cheaper than buying a dedicated LED lighting solution.
Plus, many dedicated LED lights use a linear arrangement of smaller chips, which diminishes
the shimmer you see.
I should be able to grow modest plants in here with the light output of these chips.
And most importantly, the tank is a much more pleasant sight.
The only significant downside is that the fans do add some noise.
This is the tank running without the fan lights.
[Noise of aquarium filter and air pump]
And now with the lights.
[Sound of computer fans added to filter and pump]
But that’s a small price to pay, I think, for a very nice effect.
Lastly, for those who might be inspired to start a fish tank, I thought I’d be Mr. Responsible
and chime in about that process.
Starting a fish tank takes weeks.
You cannot rush it.
A responsible pet store will tell you that, but the big-box stores... they won’t.
They just want to sell you fish.
The tank needs to go through a process called cycling, which builds the bacteria that can process
the ammonia the fish excrete as waste.
If you just buy a tank and throw some fish in it, they will almost certainly die within
a week because their waste ammonia builds up fast.
I’ve put a pretty good guide to tank cycling in the description.
A fish tank is pretty easy to maintain, but you have to be patient when starting it.
Rushing the process is not good.
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this video, the first video falling under
Technology Connections Projects.
I’m limited on time this week so I couldn’t make one of my more in-depth videos.
Next week we’ll finally be looking at the rise of DVD and the fall of Laserdisc.
So stay tuned for that!
As always, I also need to thank my supporters on Patreon.
Patrons of this channel are keeping it possible through voluntary contributions.
If you’d like to help out, check out my Patreon page through the link on your screen
or down below in the description.
Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time!
♫ Aggressively smooth jazz resumes ♫