Hi - new to forum - my saga below

Hello all - Just a long saga as to how I arrived at this website - I have a 400 gallon marine tank with a fifty gallon sump - I have a large Schuran skimmer - bottled CO2 - a four foot UV system - loads of pumps - 3 cwt of live rock and loads of corals both hard and soft - I have a water treatment system that keeps the tank topped up through a ball valve etc - as I get my water from the sea I do not need salt - I get 200 gallons at a time and pump it into a holding tank outside that has a 7KW heater in it when the correct temperature is reached I pump it into the tank the fish love it - so I change 50% of the water fortnightly - as this water is drawn from the side of the pier (solid stone) I get lots of life in it that the fish soon eat
my problems started when my local LFS ‘top dog’ sold me a sea apple = this he said was OK for my system (which he knew well) all was well for three months then I came down one morning just to watch all my fish struggling (about 80) and floating to the surface dead - heartbreaking - it appears this sea apple ‘threw a wobbler’ and discharged poison into the tank - they never stood a chance - I did try removing some that were still alive into a tank of clean water but they still died - the most noticeable thing was that the white bellies of my blue tangs turned red - I took them all to a specialist marine vet (he had been on TV loads of times) who confirmed poisoning by a sea apple and photographed the lot of them
I had intended to take the LFS to the small claims court and my local OFT were going to back me up because if you cannot trust your LFS who can you trust - anyway I stayed away from the LFS because in the mood I was in I would not have been responsible for my actions - the sea apple was all that was left alive so I bagged it up and took it back -in the meantime the LFS had gone bankrupt but he was on site - he took the sea apple from me and shoved it down a drain - so I kept it alive for six months for nothing - he said you can take me to court but you will get nothing
So in a fit I switched the tank off and left it another six months before I considered re-stocking - a neighbor of mine had a son who specializes in manufacturing LED systems offered to sell me the LED’s and RGB dimmer at cost - he does jobs all over the world - so I snatched his hand off and purchased a roll of white and one of blue - these were 24 volt and were twin rows of led’s - he said I needed to make the frame from 3mm aluminum as it needed a heat-sink - so I ordered an eight foot sheet then payed for it to be cut and bent - 4" x 24" x 4" then cut another two pieces and form into 8" x 3/4" angle - this was for the sides to hold the glass underneath
I then decided that I did not want them wired in series because like xmas tree lights one out all out so I wired them in parallel so I made six blocks from a plastic and ran four rings of 2.5mm wire around the inside of the unit - because of the heat I was ‘supposed’ to get I kept the wires of the led’s off the base and covered their entry through the aluminum with a glue gun both sides of the unit and ran them to their respective rail - so I used the bottom rail as earths second rail for the blues and the top two for the whites (two systems so I split the load)
Using my computers power supply I confirmed all three rings were working properly - I wired it all up nice and neatly with his RGB controller - I got 24 volts onto the rails but no led’s lit up - checked wiring etc nothing out of place -so it appears there was no current - I then purchased a propper led power supply 24 volt 200 watt - plus/minus ½% and wired this in - still nothing would light led’s - so I assumed the rgb driver he sold me was US - a full five meters of this twin led ribbon draws 95 watt and as I had used all the white and under a third of a roll of the blue led’s this should be fine
so now I am looking for a new dimmer/controller that will work as either all on or all off is no good to me
Also as I started this project a year ago LED’s have moved on greatly and I was considering adding some of the newer varieties until I come somewhere near 200 watt
I will add some pics of the unit and the type of controller he supplied - any help would be much appreciated

photographs to follow

 

Welcome to 3reef Dewi,

I am sorry to hear of your unfortunate saga with Sea Apple, hopefully your story will offer insight into the gamble/risk of keeping such and invert.

Sounds like quite the system I look forward to seeing it.

 

the next time I take a fancy to something I know nothong about I will pay for it and leave it where it is until I go home and research it first -

 

Welcome to 3 reef! I share Corailline's sentiments in that I'm sorry for your unfortunate experience. Sounds like you do have quite a system! I wish I could help on the LED's but there are quite a few people on here with a lot of experience and knowledge in this area.

 

I have been in the same exact boat as you but I knew the risks when I went into it. I was going to ask, why didn't you research this before you bought it. There are so many things in this hobby that could go wrong that there is absolutely no reason to go into something like this blindly. By the way, even though many LFS owners are good honest people, you still need to be careful and make informed decisions. We have plenty of technology today and plenty of websites and forums (3reef) to look this stuff up on. With all of that being said, I am so sorry your animals had to suffer through that and can't wait to see your new build. (once again, I know my post sounds harsh and it's not meant to be. I did the same thing as you but I knew the risk. You were ignorant to the situation, I was plain stupid)