With the changes in my life, come changes in where I can keep my furniture. I had put my plant stand in the sliding glass window, as I always kept the shades open. Now, it was deamed too annoying to fight closing and opening the blinds around the planter. It had to be moved.
I moved the plant stand in front of the window in the extra bedroom – the ‘project room’. The 45 gallon tank got set up in there. You can see that it has LED lights on the tank. I think this works pretty well. It’s not very bright, but for around 20 watts, on a 4 foot long tank, it’s not to bad. I have 2 aluminum gutters sitting on top of the tank I think I will be setting them up for hydroponics/aquaponics. One will be a raft system, the other ebb and flow I think.
I think I can make an automatic fill/flush system where I fill the raft unit, let it overflow into a temporary tank, when the temporary tank fills full, it starts a siphon, which rapidly fills the ebb&flow unit. The ebb/flow system will then have the fill -> flush siphon built into it as well, so once it fills, it will rapidly drain. If I size and balance things right, it should just automatically work passivly on a single, continuously running pump.
I am playing around with the different grow lights to augment what little natural light comes in my north window. I have tried the $10 stick florescent tubes from Walmart which don’t work so well and burn out bulbs like you wouldn’t believe. Then I put in a nice t12 florescent fixture that I really do like a lot. I am also playing with LED lighting as well. These plants are going to be set up to be watered out of the fish tank on an automatic timer. I had to move the tubing around to the other side and yet have to set it back up.
The boxes the African Violets are sitting on are LED light boxes. I know, the red LED light box would probably help the violets flower better, but, I need to cast a little light into the taller section that the Aloe Vera are in, so I thought I would give it a try. It’s interesting to play around with this stuff at least.
Here you can see my LED lit 45 gallon tank with a single Molly in the tank to cycle the tank. I think the Jack Dempsey will go into this tank, as she will like the lower light level from the LED lights. The Molly has been in the tank for 3 weeks to a month now. Patience is a virtue that is often overlooked in setting up aquariums. Many people buy a tank and the fish rush home, set everything up and wonder why all their many fish died in a day or two, keep buying lots of fish repeatedly and still wonder why the keep dieing.