15 Gallon Vertical Build

[MikeM670]

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I had my glass cut at Lowe's for this build and its only 1/8 inch thickness.
I may have to check out the glass at ACE like John suggests since I would love to have went with 3/16 inch but it wasn't available at Lowe's with the free cutting service.

The 1/8 in OK but the cut edges are not as nice as when I had glass cut from a regular glass shop but it was probably 1/4 the price too.

I've had glass cut at Lowe's too. They only cut the 1/8th thick sheets. Anything else is cut off site. The glass I use for the tops is 3/16 and has nice clean edges. Cost much more but I'm happy with it. That glass is cut by my local glass shop.

I've cut my own but have not always been successful in getting clean edges.

[DonLisk]

Finished off this build today with the exception of the possible addition of a Flukers Bendable vine and some frogs.
I will also be thinking about upgrading lighting to the AAAFrogs LED Lighting.

The additions today are:
Tiger Boston Fern
Cotton Candy Fern








Don

[MikeM670]

Don,

Just love the look of this build. It really looks fantastic!!

[DonLisk]

Don,

Just love the look of this build. It really looks fantastic!!

Thanks Mike. I hope the plants take and after looking this over for a bit I'm thinking the top left Bromeliad needs to be spun 180 to allow access by a frog.... you think?

Don

[MikeM670]

Thanks Mike. I hope the plants take and after looking this over for a bit I'm thinking the top left Bromeliad needs to be spun 180 to allow access by a frog.... you think?

Don

Yea you might be right on turning the Bromeliad a bit for better frog access.

[John]

I will also be thinking about upgrading lighting to the AAAFrogs LED Lighting.

I'm skeptical on this right now. It simply doesn't seem as bright to my eyes. If you try it, please let us know how your plants do.

[DonLisk]

I'm skeptical on this right now. It simply doesn't seem as bright to my eyes. If you try it, please let us know how your plants do.

I'm hoping to hear some comments on the LEDs too since I think Cheri purchased some or was going too.

[MikeM670]

I'm skeptical on this right now. It simply doesn't seem as bright to my eyes. If you try it, please let us know how your plants do.

I know LED is the future. It is really starting to take off in the aquarium world so it is really just a matter of time to arrive here in large numbers.

It really would be a fantastic to do a project involving LED Lighting and what we are doing here. Unfortunately the cost of LED Lighting is simply too high at the moment to play with all the commercially available system. Then there is the possibility of building your own systems. I have seen many build articles on doing this for the saltwater reef systems.

[DonLisk]

I know LED is the future. It is really starting to take off in the aquarium world so it is really just a matter of time to arrive here in large numbers.

It really would be a fantastic to do a project involving LED Lighting and what we are doing here. Unfortunately the cost of LED Lighting is simply too high at the moment to play with all the commercially available system. Then there is the possibility of building your own systems. I have seen many build articles on doing this for the saltwater reef systems.

Local Saltwater shop has a 24 inch LED system for salt tanks which sells for 139.00 USD and then a 36 inch system for 399.00. Didn't grab the name off the packaging though.

AAAFrog's system for a 20 Long done vertical is only 79.00 plus shipping I believe.

I haven't seen one set up on a saltwater tank and am interested to see how well the lights can reach the bottom since Corals and live rock need tons of light and the metal halides I ran to do this were not cheap.

[MikeM670]

Think I will do some surfing and see whats out there. I don't know if Arron has uploaded any new videos on his LED lights yet.

[John]

The problem is that all the photos and videos I've seen so far are auto adjusted for the amount of light they're receiving, so it's impossible to tell truly what the difference is in the amount of light emitted by the LED systems versus fluorescent.