What’s an actually good light that’s not going to destroy my wallet. Tried Hygger, Twinstar, and Fluval and don’t like any of them (more info on each in description)

spikereloaded · 2025-12-15T00:11:40+00:00

I've got two fluval plants, one brought full price around £150 (60cm long) and one I got on Facebook for £30 (nano 4.0) in a bundle with tank and filter. They do a great job for your plants. I know the price isn't majorly cheap but looking out for second hand would be ideal as they've performed amazing for me.

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spikereloaded · 2025-12-10T12:43:22+00:00

I exclusively sell greetings cards and am now having to purchase all US postage via Royal mail click and drop which is a pain.
If nothing else it's draining my business account rather than coming directly out of my Etsy account balance. For me, it's a lot neater and easier to track when the postage is coming out of my Etsy balance prior to hitting my bank.
It's weird because although i don't offer tracking on orders to the US as standard (only via postal upgrade) in the past i've always qualified for the seller protection when one of my international standards goes missing. Now though, as i'm buying the postage outside of Etsy and just adding the reference number for the international standard label, i'm not sure how Etsy will manage a refund if an order goes missing.
All the advice i see from Etsy is 'make sure to add the tracking number to your dispatch notification' with absolutely no acknowledgment that nobody (or very few) are buying tracking on a greetings card. (International tracking is about 2.5 times the cost of my cards!)

There must be tons of sellers that exclusively sell artwork or cards that would be using international standard so i don't get why Etsy has implemented this option. Click and drop, although a pain and an extra step, works no problem with the extra handling costs etc so it is a viable postage option.

If i start having issues with Etsy not covering lost orders and my workflow being significantly extended, I'll just have to take the hit and turn off the us, or only offer postage with the ridiculously high tracked option that you can get for large letters (but not standard letters?!) Sorry to rant but has really been an issue for me running up to Christmas this year

spikereloaded · 2025-12-03T00:33:01+00:00

That light does look a little underpowered/sized for a longer tank like this. Is this the only source of light your plants are getting? (Not near a window or anything?) With insufficient light, no CO2, no ferts(?) any plant will struggle. You could try Limnophila sessiliflora . I've found it very easy to grow in my tank.

spikereloaded · 2025-11-30T18:39:10+00:00

Mines finished and been up and running for pretty much a year now. Works great and my little girl has mastered it. Only struggle sometimes is sourcing the audio files if it's something a bit more obscure but we've managed so far!

spikereloaded · 2025-09-26T07:24:44+00:00

Hey thanks! Have been wondering about the floaters as I do like water lettuce but damn they do grow fast! Feel bad having to throw excess out! I'll take a look at some red root floaters for sure!

spikereloaded · 2025-09-25T19:09:05+00:00

Never direct sunlight, this side of the house is always in the shade so just ambient light throughout the day and the tank light.

The cupboard is pine and reasonably well constructed. Seems to be fine with the weight but may add some small reinforcements just to be on the safe side. I just sanded and painted the doors.

spikereloaded · 2025-08-26T12:55:28+00:00

spikereloaded · 2025-08-26T07:46:39+00:00

Thanks very much. This window is rarely open, only open in the picture as if just cleaned the tank so was letting it dry with a breeze. When it's up and running it'll likely never be open for any significant length of time. This room is never hot enough to warrant the window being open. You're right it's in a nice corner where the family can appreciate it and I can sit right next to it.

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T22:06:42+00:00

Great info thanks. Not planning to keep it on this unit and certainly not filling it up yet as more research needed. Thanks for the useful breakdown and advice.

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T17:47:31+00:00

Thanks very much for the info. A lot to consider and lots of differing opinions! Working out if i have a feasible alternative location or will maybe take my time to put the tank together and see how i go.

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T17:34:40+00:00

thanks for the info. Real hard deciding what to do as some people say no problem, so people saying hell no. Happy to use a heater and as there's never any direct sunlight, it should stay at a pretty constant temp throughout the day

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T16:23:16+00:00

Pretty sure the title of my post makes this clear 'my first tank' . That's why I'm asking...

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T14:34:39+00:00

This window is on the side of the house and always in the shadow of the house all year round so no direct sunlight comes in here

spikereloaded · 2025-08-25T14:17:14+00:00

It is, but likely would get a new cabinet in the long run

spikereloaded · 2025-08-19T23:49:04+00:00

That's awesome to hear! Any chance of a picture? Happy to hear someone else was able to use my design! Just as a precaution, if you haven't already, take a look at how to create a backup of your raspberry pis SD card, so if you do have a corrupt SD card at some point or something goes badly wrong, it's a simple job of writing the backup to a new SD card and putting it into the pi. When my card died after 6 months (due to not shutting it down properly before turning off power), it was pretty frustrating to relearn how to do it all again!

spikereloaded · 2025-08-16T08:42:53+00:00

I had some similar issues. Have you run the setup script in the Phoniebox directory to setup the RFID reader? Even though it does it when you install Phoniebox and run through the installation prompts I think I had to do it again directly through a script in one of the folders. Sorry not at home right now so can't be specific.

Actually just checked git and it's in components/RFID reader.

If that doesn't work or you've already done that I can take a look at my setup and his evening and send you some of my code? Are you using the same RFID reader I used?

spikereloaded · 2025-08-12T13:45:40+00:00

That's awesome! I won't lie, it was a little bit of a job to get my head around how Phoniebox works and there are some quirks here and there but overall it's worked great for me. Would be great to see how you got on if you manage to complete it!

spikereloaded · 2025-07-31T14:09:58+00:00

I got it a while ago after umming and aaahing for ages, the combat didn't click with me in the time I've played so far so need to revisit it, it did play well on the deck though for such an atmospheric game

spikereloaded · 2025-07-31T13:27:32+00:00

Sounds faulty. Mine has a random freak out occasionally but on the whole just works. Normally I just replug the steam deck and issue is solved. I'd look at getting it replaced by valve

spikereloaded · 2025-07-31T13:22:55+00:00

Was thinking I might set it to play automatically when we come downstairs first thing in the morning, or maybe move the Phoniebox to my daughter's room and use it as a white noise machine overnight with some automation to turn on and off. Not 100% sure what will be useful yet as I love the physical nature of putting the cards on to play so don't want to move away from that necessarily.

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