GU10 Led light bulbs and other cool things/thoughts

[Bennettp]

I have been doing tons of research the last few days and one of the things that has totally intrigued me is the Chinese GU10 socket Led light bulbs. They make them in 3-9 watts and from around 3400k-7000k, plus regular blue spectrum. They run only about $4-$10 off ebay with free shipping. Many people have been getting really good coral growth out of the bulbs and they are extremely easy to diy. Just wire all the light sockets to an extension cord and you have a high powered led light with around 50,000 hours. I even found cree led bulbs. I'm thinking to order a whole bunch of them in different spectrum's to play around with. I'm also planning to start a Freshwater planted tank. I like the Iwagumi freshwater planted tanks almost as much as saltwater and they are way easier and cheaper to maintain, so i'm going to try my hands at a 12 gallon long rimless tank: Mr. Aqua Rectangle Frameless Glass Aquarium Tank to ultimately decide which hobby I want to focus more on. I have been thinking to condense my current 58 gallon tank into a smaller 25 or 33 gallon cube rimless tank. I'm not happy with the noise of my skimmer or the amount of salt I need to use to do water changes. I'm thinking that I'm just better suited for nano sized tank since the cost of salt/lighting/livestock pumps etc is just so much cheaper to maintain. I'm obsessed with these rimless aquariums though. So far I have found ADA Cube Garden, Green Leaf Aquariums, and Mr. Aqua to have the best rimless tanks in that order. My hope is to create and extremely minimalistic/modern looking tank with suspended led lighting. Those Chinese GU10 led bulbs have very narrow optics which allows them to be positioned way above the tank. I really like this look and It would allow me to just stick my hand in the tank to feed or work on things. Here is my all time favorite Reef aquarium I would absolutely love to emulate some day:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0OxBzg2el4
I want to start to be able to enjoy this hobby. My mandarin died after several days of being in my tank, and my six line wrasse disappeared. Water parameters were great, not sure what the problem was. I was actually very excited because my mandarin started to come out of hiding and was being very active. I showed him to my friends and parents and was marveling at how cool he was. About 20 minutes later I went back to my tank and he was twitching and lying upside down. I let him do his thing, until he just died. About that time, I noticed I hadn't seen my six line wrasse. He still hasn't appeared after several days so he must have died. This hobby has put me through a bit of a roller coaster in the few months I've been back into it. My ultimate fear is to be one of those people who has put thousands into their livestock and then just starts to watch them die hopelessly. For this reason, I'm thinking to just keep it simple and reduce my tank size and expenses on the hobby. And on the side, I will be trying my hands at some bonsai looking fresh water stuff.

 

[dsmhero]

Dont let it discourage you! Mandarins are very hard to keep in the first place without an established tank, was he eating? I know you bought some live rock from sarmo, how did you transport it? There may have been some die off.

I have seen that volcano tank before, very neat. Keep us updated. I haven't really done much research on those leds so not much to say there yet.

 

[Bennettp]

I transported the live rock in a large cooler submersed in water, so I dont think there was any die off. I did cut a few rocks so that they would stand up, which could have caused some die off though. My water parameters are good according to my API kit so I haven't really done any water changes, which could also be part of my problem. I will be receiving my mr. Aqua 12 gallon long tank tommorow. I'm still undecided on what I want to do with it. I want to order a nice rimless tank for my main display, but im scared to drill the glass and void the warranty. I also have a stand that im working on but the dimensions are for a 24x24 cube tank, so I can't use it. Im also tossing around the idea of a macro planted saltwater aquarium with many varietys of algae and seaweed. Very few people are doing it, but there are some very cool tanks out there.

 

[LostCreekReefer]

.....Many people have been getting really good coral growth out of the bulbs and they are extremely easy to diy.

I'm also planning to start a Freshwater planted tank. I like the Iwagumi freshwater planted tanks almost as much as saltwater and they are way easier and cheaper to maintain, so i'm going to try my hands at a 12 gallon long rimless tank.

I'm thinking that I'm just better suited for nano sized tank since the cost of salt/lighting/livestock pumps etc is just so much cheaper to maintain.

Here is my all time favorite Reef aquarium I would absolutely love to emulate some day.

My mandarin died after several days of being in my tank, and my six line wrasse disappeared.... He still hasn't appeared after several days so he must have died. This hobby has put me through a bit of a roller coaster in the few months I've been back into it. My ultimate fear is to be one of those people who has put thousands into their livestock and then just starts to watch them die hopelessly. For this reason, I'm thinking to just keep it simple and reduce my tank size and expenses on the hobby. And on the side, I will be trying my hands at some bonsai looking fresh water stuff.

Hi Bennettp-from your post, looks like you're sort of thinking out loud?
LEDs: I don't think many of us have much (any??) experience with them in our reef aquariums, lots of metal halides, & T5s though, it will be interesting to see if you like them if you go for it!

FW planted tanks- I did not know about these until last year (I've had FW-aquariums for over 45 years...ooops, dating myself!) and some of them are so cool looking! Good luck if you try that, post pictures, please.

Nanno aquariums - the small size is alluring (cost-wise), but from what I've been told larger is better, as the larger tanks are more forgiving with water parameters; nanos can go sour very quickly if you do not keep up with the maintenance.

Fish dying- this is a part of of our hobby that nobody likes. You can also apply the thought to corals...sometimes things are fine & then a favorite coral (or corals) bleach out & die, with nothing at all having changed...no explanation, just happens. I bought my set-up (used) a little over 3 years ago (yes, Charlie, it has been that long!); when things would happen I would FREAK OUT!!! I inherited a Mandarin with the tank; the system had been established for only about 9 months when I moved it home & took over ... the Mandarin was a very difficult fish to keep going (introduced way too early for the food supply to be there for him to thrive...in a 270 gallon display). I could not train mine to eat frozen foods, but I did buy copepods & stock the rock pile with them & he finally gained weight & did well. He was one of our favorites. Turns out the Green Brittle Starfish that also came with my aquarium thrived & grew to become a fish killer (well...a highly suspected fish-killer), so I had to off him & now we'll see. I guess I'm trying to say that this all is part of the hobby; try to minimize losses by doing what you do to maintain water quality...sounds like you are...and see what happens...as the llama people are frequently heard saying, 'Spit Happens!'. You don't always like it, but you'll get used to it.
KevinD

 

[Bennettp]

Hi Bennettp-from your post, looks like you're sort of thinking out loud?
LEDs: I don't think many of us have much (any??) experience with them in our reef aquariums, lots of metal halides, & T5s though, it will be interesting to see if you like them if you go for it!

FW planted tanks- I did not know about these until last year (I've had FW-aquariums for over 45 years...ooops, dating myself!) and some of them are so cool looking! Good luck if you try that, post pictures, please.

Nanno aquariums - the small size is alluring (cost-wise), but from what I've been told larger is better, as the larger tanks are more forgiving with water parameters; nanos can go sour very quickly if you do not keep up with the maintenance.

Fish dying- this is a part of of our hobby that nobody likes. You can also apply the thought to corals...sometimes things are fine & then a favorite coral (or corals) bleach out & die, with nothing at all having changed...no explanation, just happens. I bought my set-up (used) a little over 3 years ago (yes, Charlie, it has been that long!); when things would happen I would FREAK OUT!!! I inherited a Mandarin with the tank; the system had been established for only about 9 months when I moved it home & took over ... the Mandarin was a very difficult fish to keep going (introduced way too early for the food supply to be there for him to thrive...in a 270 gallon display). I could not train mine to eat frozen foods, but I did buy copepods & stock the rock pile with them & he finally gained weight & did well. He was one of our favorites. Turns out the Green Brittle Starfish that also came with my aquarium thrived & grew to become a fish killer (well...a highly suspected fish-killer), so I had to off him & now we'll see. I guess I'm trying to say that this all is part of the hobby; try to minimize losses by doing what you do to maintain water quality...sounds like you are...and see what happens...as the llama people are frequently heard saying, 'Spit Happens!'. You don't always like it, but you'll get used to it.
KevinD

Thanks for the kind words. I was basically thinking out loud lol, I think it helps with my process. My tank is actually very gorgeous right now and I don't have much to complain about really except for my very loud protein skimmer. I turned it off this morning and my tank is so much more enjoyable. I have the tank about 2 feet from my tv, and it is annoying to have to crank the tv up to hear it. I think I may just need to find a better protein skimmer. I just unpacked my 12 gallon long, and it is really very shallow, but none the less one of the coolest tanks ever! I ordered an ADA 17 gallon aquarium last night for my fresh water setup which should be even higher quality. The thing that is really pulling me into freshwater is that you don't need RO water, plants grow extremely fast, no protein skimmer and you only need about 1/2 the light of a reef tank. The downside is, plants and fish still die just as easy, and you have to dose even harder than you do for a reef. The dosing thing really gets to me. It's expensive time consuming etc. At least with saltwater, most people are only dosing kalk. I don't think I will ever be pulled away from saltwater though. I get more and more interested every with all the fascinating livestock that can sometimes just appear. Even copods are cool to watch! I'm temped to move some of my main aquarium livestock into the 12 gallon long I just purchased. We will see.

 

[DevonM]

A... yeah, that sounds about right. I think Dan is about the only person that I know that has messed around with LEDs. It seems the technology is advancing so fast it makes me want to just sit back and see where it's going to go. I've have pretty good results with MH and T5 lighting. I do have lunar lights that are LED though that look pretty neat. Be sure to post some photos of your progress.