Custom 150g shallow riparium journal

[the_deeb]

Thanks for the comments.

Since you mentioned siphon do you have to start the siphoning to make the tank to drain work ? say like may be a power outage.

Nope, the siphon start by itself as long as the end of the outlet in the sump isn't too far submerged, in which case the back pressure may be too much to purge the air out of the pipe.

Also, the drains have enough capacity that even if the siphon fails to start they can keep up with all the flow from the pump, it's just noisy.

See this website for a lot more info on this style of overflow: silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system

 

[the_deeb]

The Lighting

This actually turned out to be one of the hardest parts of the build for me because it turns out I have minimal aptitude with wiring and circuits. I tried to keep things pretty simple but I still messed things up a few times, blew my drivers and burnt out a couple of LEDs in the process. With those disclaimers in mind...

I wanted a light that was bright enough to grow plants, have dimmable sunrise and sunset features, tuneable color temperature, low energy consumption and lots of shimmer. A DIY LED fixture was the logical choice to fit those requirements. I decided to build the light in the style of a hanging shoji lantern to match the style of the stand.

I used cross-lap style joints to make a sturdy lattice with 1/4" square dowels inset into a 1X2 poplar frame.

Painted and finished to match the stand

Aluminum C-channel as heatsinks

The guts (all from LEDgroupbuy - highly recommended!)

All solderless LEDs

13 X cool white Cree XT-E
13 X warm white Cree XT-E
2 X 660nm "deep red"
2 X 475nm "deep blue"
2 X 495nm "turquoise"

The white strings are powered by separate Meanwell LDD-1000H drivers and the colored LEDs are run by Meanwell LDD-500H drivers, all of which are independently controlled by the cool little LDD socket/controller combo by O2Surplus.

Note that this is NOT how the drivers are supposed fit into the sockets - they're flipped around 180 degrees so the inputs and outputs are mismatched. This is a good way to fry your drivers as I unfortunately discovered.

I have no aptitude or equipment for soldering so I decided to go full on solderless for this build. LEDs glued to the C-channel with thermal epoxy. Alternating pattern of warm white, cool white, colored, warm white, cool white.

and here they are wired up with the just the warm white string on

The warm white and cool white strings are working nicely now. I'm unfortunately not getting anything from the colored LEDs and I suspect it's because I blew them out while I messed up my driver wiring situation. For now I'm pretty happy with the light from just the white LEDs but I may sub in some colored LEDs in the future.

 

[PDRed302]

Slick setup and professional looking work.

 

[benn371]

wow !! Your DIY seems so like a ready-made one...

 

[jdhuegel1]

Fantastic work.

 

[Redearsunfish]

That is some "top" work. Great stuff!

 

[Inglorious]

Very impressive. Your woodworking skills definitely are much better than your electronic skills.

 

[the_deeb]

Thanks for all the comments

Your woodworking skills definitely are much better than your electronic skills.

Haha, that's definitely true! This was my first attempt at any sort of electronic stuff and it was definitely a revelation in how little I know.

 

[JK47]

There is no such thing as a thread of yours I do not follow. EXCELLENT work as always man.

The way your plumbing is set up is nearly identical to mine. I used quick disconnects (threaded into caps on the top of the elbows) on mine so I can turn a ball valve and adjust any pipe into open channel or full siphon in seconds to match to different pumps. I made my emergency drain high and the farthest from the lowest point of water in the sump so it will be loud enough to hear from other rooms should there ever be a failure.

 

[the_deeb]

Thanks JK

That's a really smart idea with the quick disconnects.