mack165 Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 I am in the process of building a cabinet for my 135 FOWLR. At the moment the tank (6ft long) has a 4 ft coralife 4x65 watt pc light on it. I would like to gut the coralife and build the lights into the canopy, staggered to cover the full 6 ft. Has anyone attempted this sort of thing? Is it possible? Any advise would be welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tedfroop Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 I am in the process of building a cabinet for my 135 FOWLR. At the moment the tank (6ft long) has a 4 ft coralife 4x65 watt pc light on it. I would like to gut the coralife and build the lights into the canopy, staggered to cover the full 6 ft.Has anyone attempted this sort of thing? Is it possible? Any advise would be welcome. If I were doing this I would worry about connections, switches etc the most. Keeping things clean and dry would be the big trick in living a long and electricution free life. I would plan on putting the ballast's outside the hood and a couple fans in the hood on each end - pc lights get pretty warm and when they shut down condensation on the bulb connectors and wire connections would be the biggest worry. Silicone can be used to seal up the incoming wiring but the bulb connectors is another thing. I just did some searching on the web and can not find anything on wet service for pc fixtures. Without a boot to go over the bulb and connector where they meet there is still a huge danger here. (this would be where the output voltage of the ballast comes into play.) For myself the only way I would attempt doing this myself would be building a sealed section in the canopy with the lighting and use a sealed piece of glass or plexi to seperate it from the tank. If you have some coin to drop though there are T12 and T5 HO lights purpose built for what you want - sealed end caps for the tubes and remote ballasts - like this http://www.aquariumguys.com/ballast.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 attach two hallides, one on either side and run the wiring on the back of the canopy. make sure your lids to let too much condensation happen either, also add a fan to either side to suck out the hot air + excess condensation. ive seen it done a few times and has a friend who built it into his 90 gallon lid. looks awesome and is very functional. IMO put a switch on the outside of the canopy preferrably on the side to turn the lights on. itll look good when its done. Quinn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 It's possible - I've done it a few times. I have just mounted them to the canopy (painting the inside of the canopy flat white [yes, flat white reflects better than gloss]); I've used the reflectors from shop lights as well, and just rested the lighting against the glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murminator Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 When you build it make sure your arm can fit in it I double hinged mine so I can get my arm in with taking the top off. It houses 2X250w metal halides and 2 T5 atinics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker85675 Posted February 10, 2008 Report Share Posted February 10, 2008 thats a nice piece ya built there. simple to build, and verry easy on the eyes. and it truly is YOURS. good job! :beer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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