Aquarium Update

All the fish have been acclimated to the tank and are doing very well. The tanks Ph has balanced out to 7.0 after buying a new stabilizer (The other ph down was defective so do not buy the TopFin line of PH products). I also bought a new gravel cleaner. The EHEIM Quick Vac PRO. I am very impressed and satisfied with the new cleaner because it doent require removing water from the tank or refiltering water (with the old syphen gravel cleaner it removed waste and water which ment i needed to add more water or filter the removed water). The Quick Vac PRO runs on 4 AA batteries and is fully submersable. A motor spins a small fan which sucks up aquarium scum/sludge. Overall this product is outstanding with its ease of use and amazing cleaning power. The one downside is that there is no "fish protector/screen" and i almost sucked up a ghost shrimp... Here are some pictures and a video of the EHEIM and some other photos.

A front view of the tank

A side view of the tank

The disgusting filter after 2 weeks of use (near the top right of the filter there is some weird clear gell like substance...)

The EHEIM logo on the box

The entire assembled EHIME measures about 2 whole feet!

Aquarium Update

Since the last post I have been able to balance out the ph at 7. The tank has cleared up (The previous pictures showed a "foggy" tank....) and I have purchased 4 more fish. 2 Neon Tetras and 2 Zebra fish.

Here is one of the Neons

Heres a blurry photo of a Zebra fish... they are very fast.

The two guppies have become best friends...

I have not come up with names for them but I will very soon. I am also building an LED moonlight (blue Leds for night visibility of the tank) and still seting up the 24/7 Fish Cam. More updates will be posted soon... so stay tuned!

Happy Fishwatching!

A New Addition to The Family

Ever since my hamster Theodore died, I have had a longing for a new pet. After cleaning out the basement and finding a large quantity of fish supplies, I became obsessed with fish. I prepared the 10 gallon tank and made several trips to PetCo to buy additional supplies ( a submersable heater, a bubble tube, fish food, and thermomiter). In the beginning, there were a few problems with the tap water ph, so I went to Petsmart to purchase a ph down solution. I ended up going home with a fake piece of drift wood and 3 Ghost Shrimps, 2 Guppies (male and female) and 1 catfish. After lowering the ph (from 7.8 to 7.0) and acclimating the fish to the new water, I released the fish. They are now happily swimming in my new tank. In the future I plan on upgrading from a 10 gallon tank to a 250 gallon tank (when I have enough money). I also plan on having a 24/7 webcam stream of the tank. I will have an update in a few weeks.

Here are some pictures of the tank and fish.

This is a front view of the tank with the PetSmart fish baggies in the water.

This is a side view of the tank

This is the catfish named George

These are the two male and female guppies named Yuppie (the female) and Guppie (the Male).

Here are the 3 Ghost Shrimps named Sly, Shadow and Sneaky

Project: 57 LED Color Organ

When I first had the idea to build a color organ I was playing with some DJ lights at a nearby electronics store. I said to myself "This would be really cool in my room..." But when I looked at the price tag it was a whopping $350, which was too expensive for my low budget. So I went back home and thought about how to recreate the DJ lights but for a fraction of the cost. I then remembered that I had bought a system very similar to the lights from a store in New York a while back. It was a sound reactive lighting system called LightCast.

Then I decided that I would "mod" the old system by adding more LED's. So, I decended into my basement where my work shop is located. I dissasembled the LightCast system and began to inspect the inner electronics. I decided that I would desolder the LEDs and connect wires leading from the LED PCB board to my perfboard LED pattern. After I had desoldered the original LEDs, I began to layout all the LEDs on the sheet of perfboard.



Next I began to solder all the LEDs to wires on the back of the perfboard. By now I had been in my basement for over 9 hours that day (I had the day off form school...) I decided to finish up for the day after pulling a muscle in my neck from being tensed up in one position.

The next day I resumed work on the wiring by connecting the wires to the original PCB. Finally, all the wires had been sldered from the LEDs to the original PCB board.


(Yes I know that there are alot of wires... I used
22 gauge wire without twising them....)

Now that the basic assembly was finished I went to Radio Shack and purchased a medium sized project inclosure box. Then next day I measured the parimiter of the LED "Triangle of Light" and sketched the shape on the cover of the box. The next part was a bit tricky, so I obtained a hack saw and began to cut out the triangle. After a while my hand became sore so I asked my sister to help me by sanding the sides. Next I began to test the fit of the triangle of light in the cover hole that I had just cut. It was a bit too snug so I sanded some more. By now I was on the verge of success and I started to rush. In the proccess I didnt measure the holes for the sensitivity knob and audio in/out ports, and ended up drilling in the wrong place. But I patched the hole up with some hotglue and modeling cement. Then I placed all the wires and PCBs in the project box and cleaned it up a bit. Finally I screwed on the cover and hoped that it would work. It successfuly responded to the music and after over 15 hours of work and about $100 in parts, I was satisfied with the result.



Now I dont need to rent a DJ or a light show for parties. All I need is a laptop and my Triangle of Light.

First Post!

Well I finally created a blog due to the fact that I was unable to get a website. I hope that this blog will serve its purpose in providing a place to put all my work and ideas. Stay tuned for more posts!