Aquarium overheating
The addition of phosphorus to the water brought good results. The leaves of the plants stopped turning black and the algae bloom in general, ceased. The algae removal using the magnetic cleaner is easier. It is only necessary to manually remove the algae at the bottom near the gravel – I do it using my nail.
The problem I was worried, was the aquarium overheating. The water temperature rose towards 30 °C. The aluminum profiles the LEDs are fitted on, were very hot. I decided to install a 12-volt processor cooler fan (50 x 50 mm) to the aperture in the aquarium hood. I found an old Nokia phone charger which supplies 5 V and almost 1 A. The 12-volt fan running on 5 V does not spin so fast and is not so noisy.
First, I fit it in order to blow the air inside. But it rippled the water surface and the water got evaporated faster. Then, I inverted it to suck the air out of the aquarium. I would say,it had a good result because the water temperature didn’t rise so high. As the aperture in the hood corresponds to a 60 x 60 mm fan, I ordered a more proper one on eBay. The price of it was about US$ 2. When I received it, I only created a rubber pad and drilled holes into the aquarium hood to fit it the fan by screws. I connected the 5-volt power supply that feeds it, to a time-controlled outlet. So, the fan only runs during a certain light intensity when it is necessary to cool.
Moreover, I tried to fit tiny 25 x 25 mm fans on one end of the aluminum LED profiles. The fans blow the air through the profiles and they got cooled down so. The Nokia power supply manages to run four additional fans. The problem is that the profile size is 40 x 20 mm, thus it is not possible to fit the fans inside the profiles. That’s why they were a little bit noisy like a fridge compressor. Later, I removed them. On eBay, I found a 15 x 15 mm fan for about US$ 7. It really serves for a tiny integrated circuit. I tried to order one for testing.
I changed the water in the tank after four weeks again, on 10/9. It was remarkable that the phosphorus really helped the plants. I measured the level of iron and it was on the right level.I didn’t apply any fertilizer to supplement iron (Bioflor or Colour Fe+) nor the Tetra Crypto-Dunge tablets. The phosphorus level was still below the optimum level, so I added 60 ml of the Maktron fertilizer and 40 ml of the Mangan+ fertilizer.
Since the time I put the new fish, an Anglefish (smokey) has disappeared. I can’t explain that.
