A Planted Gu10 Experiment

[RossC]

Hows it going everyone, not been on here much lately due to life getting in the way but I've decided to start an experiment regarding the lighting on my 95L main tank as theres not many people out there who have tried it on planted tanks, the most are reefs that use 100's of the things LOL. Currently its running a pretty poor 18W T8, its kept things alive and growing but I think its time I started getting more light from the watts. After uhmming and arring over making a custom LED bar like PS3Steveo is building for a few of you lucky lot. Unfortunately I don't really have the time and patience to build my own so I've decide to go down the GU10 route. Although not just normal GU10's, LED's, which are pretty bright for such little wattage and of course they last 5000x longer than the old GU10's. So today I've wired up the light fitting with a mains plug and tested with the standard 50W

bulbs and I must say I love the effect it has inside the tank so the LED's which are supposed to be equivalent to 60-70W bulbs will look brilliant, you just can't beat that shimmer effect

. Anyway now I'm just waiting for the LED bulbs to be delivered, managed to get them for £2.49 each as I bought 10 of them which is great value! I've got a pic of the 50W's running and they are higher than they will be fitted so there will be less light lost. I also love the tank being open topped looks lovely. Anyway I'll post once they are LED'ified and mounted.

Standard 50W's:

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Interesting experiment mate, is it a hanging or fixed lamp holder?

 

[RossC]

It on a ceiling fitting that I'll be mounting on the wall above. I'm hopefully going to mount it today so it's ready to go as soon as the bulbs come

 

[RossC]

I've sourced 3 out of 4 LED bulbs from around the house and got them running now, I've also added my CO2 back into the tank and swapped the filter inflow and spray-bar round to get a better circulation. Anyway here's the pics:

 

[RossC]

These lights seem to be a success already! My plants are starting to pearl, they have never ever done that LOL

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Hmmm upping the lighting with algae established in the tank could cause a headache mate.

 

[RossC]

Hmmm upping the lighting with algae established in the tank could cause a headache mate.

Yeah I know but it now allows me to use my pressurized CO2 which will hopefully cut down the algae. I tried the prevention method and reduced the lighting all the way down to 5 hours a day with the old T8 but even though it slowed the algae growth my plants were suffering. I think the lighting was a really bad balance of not enough for CO2 but too much to encourage algae growth. I'm also currently slowly trimming of badly affected areas of plants, its looking miles better already.

 

[SO19Firearms]

Looks bright.
Plenty of CO2, Plenty of N,P,K.

 

[RossC]

Looks bright.
Plenty of CO2, Plenty of N,P,K.

Yep just what the doctor ordered LOL Nitrogen isn't an issue as my fish provide that in ample amounts but I might need to upgrade my weekly normal nutrients. I normally dose the instructed amount of TNC Lite:

Do you think I should maybe start E.I?

 

[SO19Firearms]

EI will always offer better value for money. If you stick with liquids you'll want to swap to the Complete so you get your Phosphate. Dosing at 3x the bottle dose will put you at EI levels too if you wanted to jump to dry at a later date etc.

 

[RossC]

EI will always offer better value for money. If you stick with liquids you'll want to swap to the Complete so you get your Phosphate. Dosing at 3x the bottle dose will put you at EI levels too if you wanted to jump to dry at a later date etc.

The only thing that put me off buying Complete is because it contains Nitrates,now having pretty fully stocked tank with consistently new fry I do large water changes to remain under 40ppm as it is. I don't want to be adding more. I think once my liquid ferts get closer to running out and I know this light setup is to keep for the long run I'll definitely convert to dry

 

[RossC]

Well its all looking good so far, plants are pearling nicely and a lot of the green hair/fuzz algae is gone or going. The black/brown algae has appeared to have stopped spreading I'm now removing the badly infested leaves whenever I see them. So far to anyone who's wants a cheap and efficient light system I'd go LED GU10's all the way!

 

[RossC]

If anyone's interested I've got a two part video journal of using these lights on YouTube:
Part 1 & Part 2

 

[liamhuckle]

Any update rossc?

 

[RossC]

Sorry been busy with university lately I'll do a full update soon