New Lights For My Cichlid Tank(with pics)

[portabuddy]

thing is its not hard to make a trap... the problem is that i don't want to introduce parasites into the tank, thats the last thing that i want, thanks for the offer but how about i bring the bear and you bring the rubber made container and the butter, if you catch my drift...

I'm really thinking about expanding the tank into a plywood...??? using the existing walls, since there is about 2-4" of space between the tank and the walls. too bad there is a drain pipe running directly behind the tank or i would make it a lot deeper...

 

[Nic]

nice job looks really good

 

[Epic Fabrications]

I just snagged two 250w 13v halogens for $.80 at an unclaimed freight store... that would be pretty good for a tank, would it not? considering a overhead projecter is only 150w-250w and you go blind looking at those! I would need an inverter, though...

 

[arowpeak]

wow! thats a magnificent set up, all the planning and getting of materials are so organised, even you have step by step photos of your works, its truly a very pro job and great improvisation! fantastic! marvellous tank creation! nice fishes too!!!

 

[portabuddy]

thanks, and can you belive i was going on NO sleap for two days, i was so ampedup that i couldnt go to sleap. Im not shy when it comes to taking pictures... at the time i was taking them for a friend but i decided to make a tutorial out of it. the goal was to show that you realy dont have to buy the alsolute best to get a decent result, i just wish i had a bit more ambition to finish the hundrids of jobs left... like the pond, the stand, the stand for the 150 on the floor, the rest of the house, the guarage... i could go on...

but heres the plan, marry a ritch girl, get her and her familys money make it look like a acident and retire at 30, so this plan gives me about 8 years, thats doable.

 

[asnatlas]

How are your plants doing under the new light setup, better, worse, or the same ??

 

[jkruger83]

nice job, i would add a couple metal halides then you'll really be cooking! How many total watts are u pumping out? looks really bright!

 

[portabuddy]

the plants love the light, they are better, but i have a small co2 system on it so i cant realy grow much, i think its about 240watts, roughly, it i wanted to i could over drive them to a total of 400-500 watts, but wht, i wanted the colour and intensity.

Im going to convert this into a SW setup, with this tank as the sump with LR and the cavity that its in lined in acrylic that would make it a 120 gallon, like a plywood tank, and thease guys will be going into a 300-400gallon setup., but thats in a couple months.


I plan on adding two MH's and two more blues, later though... the best part about this is if i want to add more light i just epoxy more mounts to the rail, and another ballest to the bunch... poof another 80 watts right there.


the main reason for the addition is not to grow plants but to take good pictures and i like the blue "salt water like" thint that it gives off, i have the floresent lights turning on first at 7:00 am then the CF light at 11:00 and turning off around 8:00 and the floresent around 10:00...

sems to work well, now that i killed all of the algea.

the sowrd that i have in there SHOT up and it drapes the top of the water, i have a plant that looks like parsly and its huge, but i cant grow grasses and i put in three pinapple plants and they didn't do well...

 

[Burtess]

Looks great!!!

Couple questions though... how did you ground the ballasts?
I looked at Home Depot today at the ballasts and they have the white and black leads to attach to hot and neutral, and it says the ballast has to be grounded to the enclosure. Since you can't ground to wood, did you ground the ballasts to the ground prong of the plug?

Do you see alot of light bleeding out of the canopy since the bulbs are mounted on the upper inside surface? I have an All-Glass light that sits directly on the glass lids so no light bleeds out. My home made canopy is open at the back, would I have to close that up?

Burt

 

[portabuddy]

The ballasts are all grounded together and grunded to the receprical box, which then goes to the main circut, i ran a fresh 15A line from my box just for this tank. I didnt need to but why not the besement isnt finished. the blue is not used in my setup, which is why you can see it coiled up, and capped off... the red goes off to one side in of the light and the blue to the other, this ballest can only support one 40 whatt or two 32 whatt bulbs so i had to buy 4 total, which cost me more then i thought but it will last longer and if one blows i will know which one it was... like you can see in the ballast pics the white and black go to the receptical(timer switch) and the red and one blue go down to the lights...

its not shealded all around, so there is quite a bit of light bleeding out, but in time it will all be enclosed and i will put more mylar on the walls to bounce it around a bit more.

One a side note the timer failed and didnt turn the lights on so i got a new timer and gave this one bach in that ones package... I love homedeopts return pollicy, it broke... umm ok do you want cash back?