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PCS & Stuart M. Grant - Cichlid Preservation Fund - Details here


Leichardti

Member Since 11 Dec 2014
Offline Last Active Oct 24 2023 10:31 AM

#367977 New Tank Journal

Posted by Leichardti on 25 April 2022 - 12:09 AM

Nooo! Such a nice setup, keep it, no one buy it!  :D




#367946 Leichardti's Diy Led Pendants

Posted by Leichardti on 15 November 2021 - 05:32 PM

Its been a while since this one. My last PCB prototype had some problems - short circuits, design flaws etc. I didnt have the $$$ or time to improve and order more, until now. Im setting up a new tank and have redesigned the LED. On Sunday some circuit boards turned up - stay tuned for when the components turn up.
Attached File  F19EEE96-8CEC-4A87-A78A-EFAB352A387B.jpeg   205.6KB   1 downloads


#367513 35Cm Sleepy Cod - ~$50

Posted by Leichardti on 22 September 2019 - 06:44 PM

Selling my 35cm Sleepy Cod as Im downgrading and he sadly wont be very happy in a smaller tank. Would like him gone fairly soon so i can get tank gone and lock in new tank.
Big hungry fish with a big mouth so best kept with similar sized fish. Not particularly aggressive but enjoys having a cave and some personal space - he will bite if disturbed by a hand. Will gladly defend himself against aggressors but generally wont attack other fish.
I have had him since 3cm so would like to see him go to a good home and appropriately sized tank. Located in Butler 6036.
Attached File  570D1F15-FB5F-4255-BF33-96030E8B27C0.jpeg   137.16KB   3 downloads
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#367417 Leichardti's Diy Led Pendants

Posted by Leichardti on 14 July 2019 - 04:13 PM

I decided to try go above and beyond with these lights and try produce something professional. 
It all started here, with this first version: 
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This is where I first started playing with 3D design.  I went and got it all 3d printed and we ended up with V1:
 
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The colours were good, the light was bright and everything remained nice and cool. This light is over my tank today and has grown plants really nicely. 
However, I discovered a few issues:
a) Not great ventilation. The small air ducts annoyingly creates a wooshing noise from the fan which is otherwise silent. 
B) I printed in PLA - This is fine if the fan never fails, however I accidentally unplugged it once. The enclosure basically melted. 
c) The mounting system isn't great - I didn't think about how I was going to mount it when I designed the enclosure and so I had to improvise. The way I ended up mounting it works, but isn't that great.
d) The internal wiring is a mess. 2 channels have recently failed probably partially due to this. 
So keeping these issues in mind I have redesigned the entire light - This time using my own aluminium MCPCB's with custom made drivers and even a wifi card add on if I want that (in future), an open heatsink and a tank mounting design. It is way more compact due to the PCB and a thinner heatsink I can use due to the better ventilation.
Here are some Fusion screengrabs:
 
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I'm sending the PCB's off to be made and assembled pretty soon, as soon as the manufacturers get back to me. Once I recieve those I'll be sending off the 3d files for the enclosure and mounting parts to be printed, likely in ABS this time.
More updates then ;)



#367352 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 03 June 2019 - 03:04 PM

Had some good fun exploring the Capel River early yesterday morning. Freezing cold water made for sore legs and feet but I found a few cool things.
Vallisneria sp (Gigantea?) or Triglochin. Everywhere throughout the river, in small groups about 15m apart.
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Brought a sneaky bit home for the pond.
While I was trying to dig out a small bit I dug this guy up.
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Also got to go checkout the carpetting plant I saw the day before - I took a little bit of this too. Suspected to be Callitriche stagnalis - Possible weed but not sure
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Travelling further up the river I found a few more bunches of Val/Triglochin, some snags etc.
Then I came across this interesting rock face
There were a few moss types around. The smaller one didn’t look too promising but the liverwort / Pellia looking one looked like it could be. I’ve taken a few portions of that to test out.

The rock face was at the bottom of a hill - it was dripping with fresh water.
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It was great to be able to checkout the river - I went home with a few different plants, a catfish and a happy face knowing the area’s healthy and full of life.


#367351 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 01 June 2019 - 06:13 PM

Down in Capel over the weekend at my cousins property that sits right on the river. I’ve been down for a squizz. Found some sort of native carpet plant that I need to grab a bit of:8ee20fd2ec20d63cc07e77a9373e3c8f.jpg
I’ve also caught a Tandanus bostocki. River is full of them apparently so I’m going to bring a few home. Going to be overrun with catfish soon.
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#367346 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 27 May 2019 - 09:21 PM

@ice can’t thank you enough for your generosity mate, was great to meet you too!
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#367344 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 27 May 2019 - 09:04 PM

@Delapool haven’t had PAR tested. Pretty decent I’d imagine though. Version 2 is going to be much thinner with a different spectrum - 99CRI according to Spectra1023, can’t get much more similar to the sun.

On Sunday I picked up a Neosilurus ater and big Neosilurus hyrtlii from the nice and kind @Ice. Very fat and healthy fish.
Everything in the tank is getting along well, no fighting like I’ve had with Neosilurus species before. They’ve all been following eachother about which is pretty cute.
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Will get some more photos soon :)
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#367339 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 26 May 2019 - 11:39 AM

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#367326 Marine Lights

Posted by Leichardti on 15 May 2019 - 10:24 PM

Don't go cheap on marine lights. The ebay MarsAqua's im assuming you're talking about go okay at first but they're pretty shit after a while and have a pretty short life.

Definitely not something to go cheap on in a marine tank




#367169 Puddle Pirating In Wa

Posted by Leichardti on 24 February 2019 - 12:03 AM

Our waterways and fish can certainly be bizarre. How does one catch a 3cm Mullet all the way up in Bells Rapids? Pesky buggers are everywhere but wasn’t expecting to find a juvie all the way up there.
Peter and Lyndon are very knowledgable fellas.
What type of Gudgeons, you mean Empires still? There was a mud crab caught in the Swan recently..

As for the nightfish, I’m highly inclined to believe Lyndon, I’m sure its possible. Very old fish though. When you think about it Murray Cod are meant to reach 180cm and Tandanus Tandanus 80-90cm once in a while but you never hear about that. Sure he was talking about nightfish not river blackfish though, easy name mixup?
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#367116 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 03 February 2019 - 03:29 PM

I’m waiting to earn some money for fish Jules. Hoping to get myself some Chatareus or Oxeye Herring.

The Pogo is doing well in my tank Delapool. Fish havent touched it, sounds like yours were just keen for a salad


#367100 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 31 January 2019 - 03:52 PM

Plants plants plants!!!!!

Everything about this tank in the last few weeks has been about plants, both good and bad.

For starters:

 

I built a huge reactor, leak proof. Uses a 20 inch water filter housing for the body. Performs very well, no bubbles, nearly silent and I reckon I've got very near 100% absorption of Co2.

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I've obtained another 3x Blyxa aubertii. Very large ones this time, 40cm tall. Very healthy and happy, have been pearling like mad.

I've also bought 4x pots of Pogostemon stellatus and a single pot of Limnophila aromatica. Emersed forms so they are currently transitioning but seem plenty happy. 

 

This photo is from when I was trialling the LED Pendant. Great colours.

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Cleaned out my sump and reorganised it. Going to be utilising filter socks from now on, they are very good at catching detritus, just have to swap them out every few days and pressure wash them. I should probably get my hands on some more biological media but the scoria is doing well and I hardly have a high bioload.

 

Attempted to re-calibrate my pH probe. Broke it in the process so now the tank is in blackout mode until Saturday when I pickup a new one. Plants are fine in the meanwhile, did a giant waterchange to remove my ferts for this period to try avoid any algae issues.

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I've 95% finished the LED Pendant. It is all wired up and looks great over the tank. All that's left now is to build a mounting arm and install a smaller cable gland for the fan.

 

Here's a video of it over the tank. Excellent spread and shimmer.

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Really excited to get this running over the tank full time, then to build a second one. 

And a third and forth. Marine versions   :lol:




#366964 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 10 December 2018 - 09:54 AM

Thanks mate :)
Small update. Nothing much new with the tank other than the reactor popped a leak, again. Will be replacing it with a 20 inch water filter housing.
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Small update with the LED. Making a bit of an enclosure for it. The peice sitting on top of the heatsink is the end of a milo can... happens to be a perfect fit and looks pretty good I think. I have siliconed it onto the fins of the heatsink, may detach it and paint it black.
For the drivers I’m gonna use a drill press to drill out a few gaps in the top part of the heatsink for the drivers to slot into. The cooler is rated to about 250 watts so won’t have a big effect on its cooling ability and keeps things nice and tidy


#366900 Leichardti’S 6X2X2 Bedside Display

Posted by Leichardti on 23 November 2018 - 12:19 AM

Thanks mate, really waiting on everything to start filling out and to get some more plants

The substrate shouldn’t be leaching anything extreme that beneficial bacteria wouldn’t be able to process or that would be detrimental to the fish. 2 toned is well documented, I do a 50% waterchange every Saturday which removes extra nutrients too

If the problem still hangs around after a few weeks / months then I’ll have to consider absolutely everything but pretty confident it’ll disappear with no stress and strong healthy fish

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