My NEW DIY hood

[rDr4g0n]

welp its not built YET, but i will be building it tomorrow. I was planning on having the metal portion of the hood fabricated out of stainless steel, but taht hasnt worked out yet. since im impatient, i found an alternative.

at walmart i found an $8 shop light. its a 48inch flourescent light fixture. the ballast is rated at 70 watts. not bad for a cheap $8 fixture and ballast. Im going to cut that fixture down to 36inch. the 36 inch will be larger than my tank, but will accomadate the 96w 34inch compact flourescent bulb and ballast that i have already.

so im going to end up packing in 2 normal output actinics, and the 96w compact flourescent 12000k bulb. the ballast i got on ebay for $21 shipped, the bulb i got for $10, the walmart light for $8 and my local petco has some 36inch actinics on clearance for $5 each. i have some computer fans sitting around that i can use to cool the thing. thats a total of 150watts of light

Total cost for this hood: $49

i think thats pretty spiffy. i should be able to keep just about anything except anemones and acroporas with this setup (my tank is 29 gallons, so thats 5watts per gallon). ill post pics once its done tomorrow. the only thing that may need tweaking would be creating a reflector of some sort. the inside of the fixture is bright shiny white, but im sure the lighting would be brighter with a good reflector.

 

[sasquatch]

Hail John! Master Tinker and all around "Specially Spiffy" (new title?) guy. That is great stuff, will be looking for pics!! NOTE! crazy glue is an acceptable substitute for bandages in extreme situations lol.

 

[woolfe]

Not bad at all. That a boy... reefing on a budget. If I had done more of that I wouldn't be so broke right now.

 

[rDr4g0n]

ive wasted my share of cash on things i didnt need in the hobby. if i were to build a whole new system right now, i could save TONS of cash because i know EXACTLY what i need.

anyways, im off to home depot to get some screws and stuff. ill be working on it this morning and ill post some pics.

 

[rDr4g0n]

ok heres the specs on teh box of the hood.

i found some 30 watt actinics at petco on sale for $5 each, so im pretty sure they will work on this.

this is the hood itself there was a metal strip in the middle to hide the wiring. i may put it back in later and hide the ballasts in the center as well... the metal itself is kinda flimsy without the strip.

this is the endcap. i just popped it off the end. i need to cut on that blurry black line, and put the endcap back on. then it will be a 36inch hood.

i should have enough room to put my CF in between the 2 NO bulbs.

 

[mps9506]

Just an FYI. I used a similar lighting setup when I first got into the hobby. It lasted about a month before rust started showing up all over it. Also the lack of water proof endcaps proved to become troublesome as the pins on the bulbs became corroded from the moisture.
I ended up trashing everything and going with a pendant system designed for use over marine tanks and have been happy ever since.
You may want to consider throwing a few coats of rustoleum over it before using it. and maybe seing about switching out endcaps.

 

[sasquatch]

How did you figure out that ballast will run shorter bulbs?

 

[lcstorc]

Interresting project.
Please don't hurt yourself too badly. We like you here in one piece and know your reputation for injuries. j/k
Good luck. I can't wait to see the final product.

 

[flricordia]

ive wasted my share of cash on things i didnt need in the hobby. if i were to build a whole new system right now, i could save TONS of cash because i know EXACTLY what i need.

anyways, im off to home depot to get some screws and stuff. ill be working on it this morning and ill post some pics.

I thought I was the only one. I have wasted so much, especially on DIY projects, that it gives me a headache thinking about it. I think I have finally learned to just go ahead and spend the extra for a product and have a warrenty. My worst habit is to take good reef products and try to mod them into a better product and in the end have a product that is totally worthless.
So, is the lighting project finished?

 

[rDr4g0n]

double post?

 

[rDr4g0n]

ok so i got the on clearance $5 bulbs and...

$10 worth of bulbs and an $8 ballast and i gots 60w of actinics lol. now it may not actually be pushing a full 60, or it may be pushing more (70w ballast could have those bulbs going at 35w each). im not an electrician... but you guys know i dont mind screwing stuff up! if there is some catastrophic failure, hopefully the plate glass between the hood and my fishies will protect them.

as you can see in the pic, i havent yet cut down the hood. its still at 48 inches. im gonna go do the cuttin right now.

Just an FYI. I used a similar lighting setup when I first got into the hobby. It lasted about a month before rust started showing up all over it. Also the lack of water proof endcaps proved to become troublesome as the pins on the bulbs became corroded from the moisture.
I ended up trashing everything and going with a pendant system designed for use over marine tanks and have been happy ever since.
You may want to consider throwing a few coats of rustoleum over it before using it. and maybe seing about switching out endcaps.

i agree it is prone to screwing up pretty fast, specially since its made of such flimsy metal. i plan to have a sheet of plate glass covering most of the top of that tank (my gas exchange takes place in my completely open sump). taht should reduce exposure to saltwater. also, it will be sitting about 6 inches over the tank, not right on top of it. i think it will slowly deteriorate anyway, but for an $8 hood? i could just buy like 10 of em and swap em out yearly lol

How did you figure out that ballast will run shorter bulbs?

no EXACT science... just figured. i can tell ya this, it wont run with jsut 1 bulb in. you have to have both, otherwise it shorts the second out in a hurry. anyways, part of my understanding of the function of a ballast is that it determines how much juice to send to the lights. electircal ballasts are more effective at knowing how much to send and when, which is why they save energy over magnetic ballasts (which use a mechanical means instead of electronic). it does this by first charging the lights (ya know probe or pulse ballast) and then based on the electrical return, it adjusts the amount of juice it sends out. thats why ballasts get hot. theyre dissapating wasted energy. anyways, i figure this ballast was smart enough to adjust for teh short bulb length. once again, it was merely a guess, but since it was so inexpensive, if i had been wrong (or am proven wrong in the future) im not out much money.

Interresting project.
Please don't hurt yourself too badly. We like you here in one piece and know your reputation for injuries. j/k
Good luck. I can't wait to see the final product.

so far so good!

 

[sasquatch]

I always thought it was more complex than that, kudo's to you. do you dial 91 then plug it in or what?

 

[rDr4g0n]

almost done. gotta say i didnt do it all. got some help from a friend of mine who does metal work and stuff for a living. thats why it isnt horrible and im not dead yet. lol

 

[vdituri]

Are dead now?
Just checking.
Always look forward to you DIY stuff.

Remember what Steve said. Dial 91 and then plug it in. LOL

 

[rDr4g0n]

yeah im still alive guys. gotta run over to my friends house and get some connectors to finish up the wiring, then we can do a test run. after that, i need to build the feet that will hold it above the tank, and its done! not bad for an afternoons work eh?

 

[Frankie]

Looks good rDr4g0n. I would do as Mike said and paint it well with rustolium.

 

[rDr4g0n]

ill be sure to paint the end caps to. i dont care if the lights dont contact, theyll be rustproof!

 

[rDr4g0n]

wiring up the ballast

homemade cf clip. its 2 wire holder clippy things glued together. gotta test it and make sure it can withstand the heat from the bulb.

all assembled!

its alive!!! i put it over the tank to see how it looks.. its a little too blue, but no biggie. ill just replace one of the actinics with daylight next time i buy bulbs.

welp this is all for today. future updates should include:

1) either hanging the hood, or making legs for it
2) a cooling fan (exhaust)
3) timer / power strip
4) moon lights
5) reflector

 

[rDr4g0n]

turns out the cf gets too hot and melts the glue on the clip. i need to devise a way to keep the clip attached without using glue. i cant screw it in because its attached to the flourescent ballast and putting screws inside there may not be a good idea lol

 

[Frankie]

You can use 2 part Weld-On. Its able to handle heat