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01/07/07
Today I spent some more time working on the canopy that will hold my lighting and ballasts and timers. I got pretty far, but left a few items at work, namely my Weld-On so I couldn't finish what I wanted to, but I got a good start at least...
Here's a picture of the door. I did the same beveled routing pattern as on the stand. It'll all be the same color pattern too. The paint is drying as I type. I didn't take any pictures of it after I painted though. I'm going to put another coat on and then some clear poly. I should be able to get the mechanism done for the light mover too once I get my acrylic work done.
http://ericfeige.com/gallery/albums/...01/canopy1.jpg
Here's a picture of the top framing for the canopy. This will be bolted to the drywall. Unfortunately my office walls are made with metal framing, and we haven't had much luck driving screws into them and making them sturdy for shelving and stuff on other walls. Anyone have any idea if you can get different fasteners that work better on metal studs?
http://ericfeige.com/gallery/albums/...01/canopy2.jpg
Here's what the canopy looks like with the 3 corners bolted together. The lower front section will be open to allow access to the tank. The lighting will flip-up to provide more access to the tank when needed.
http://ericfeige.com/gallery/albums/...01/canopy3.jpg
I put the "legs" on with hinges where the T5 lighting and the rail for the halide will be mounted. It's another one of my famous designs where I have no plan and just start cutting wood until I reach my desired goal. lol Here's a picture of that...
http://ericfeige.com/gallery/albums/...y4%7E0.jpg
And here's a similar picture except the "legs" are flipped up. There is no top to the canopy because it will be above eye level. I figured that combined with a small fan or two (if needed) will allow for adequate cooling of the lighting.
http://ericfeige.com/gallery/albums/...anopy5%7E0.jpg
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Yeah it should be easy to have a nice lighting set-up when you own a lighting store!!!
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I had to buy 4 bulbs and 4 reflectors the rest of the stuff I had laying around. :) To be honest, I didn't even buy the bulbs from my supplier. I have to buy a case at a time, so I ended up getting them from Custom Aquatic just like everyone else. :)
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01/08/07
Did my first water test today..
Nitrite: 0.1
Nitrate: 2.5
Ammonia: 0
pH: 8.3
The water is looking really clear now, so that's cool. Still need some more rocks... I'll probably try to bring in my live rock rubble this week and put it into the refuge as well as try to make some pod piles out of the rubble in the display behind the main rocks.
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looks like there a photo missing of the clear tank,,,,lol
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01/09/07
Ok, I decided to work on some pictures of the stuff that I did last night. I spent about 5 hours in the garage working on the lighting. I got the acrylic bracket made to join the light mover motor to the Regent halide pendant. I also got the rail for the light mover mounted onto the canopy flip-up frame.
On to the pictures!
Here's a picture of my ugly acrylic work. This is the piece that joins the light rail motor assembly to the Regent metal halide pendant itself. The pendant houses a 14,000K Hamilton 150W HQI bulb. For grins, I decided to mount a couple fans on the bracket blowing down for a bit of cooling of the halide pendant and the T5 bulbs. The fans are 24VDC fans and I'm going to run them at either 12V or 20V depending on which power supply I go with.
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...t1%7E0.jpg
Here's some pictures of the acrylic bracket, the light mover motor and the pendant all put together. This equipment comes in at almost exactly 5 pounds. (I'm trying to keep this as light as possible due to the way the canopy is mounted on the wall)
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...01/halide1.jpg
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...01/halide2.jpg
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...01/halide3.jpg
Here's some pictures of the rail that the light mover rides on. I thought that drilling some holes in it would lighten it up some, but it didn't make that much of a difference. The rail itself is almost spot-on 5 pounds, and I drilled the holes on one side and it only took about 4 ounces from the weight and for the amount of work that I put in drilling the one side, I didn't feel the work was worth the weight reduction.
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...0001/rail1.jpg
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...0001/rail2.jpg
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...0001/rail3.jpg
Getting closer now! I'm hoping to get the lighting up this week. I need to pick up some solid wire so that I can wire up the T5 lighting. Looks like I need to make a list of stuff to get from the hardware store!
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Pretty cool little bracket. What kind of distance will the light move once installed?
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looks great totaly pro.. like....you...are....good!!!!!!
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I haven't figured out the distance yet, it'll probably depend on my aquascaping. I figure that it will move about 24-26 inches total. I probably won't need it to move any farther than that. This light mover thing is more of an experiment so I'll know how well them work on future tanks. Not the cheapest experiment by any stretch though. :)
Eric
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01/11/07
Ok, I brought the canopy to work today, but I can't find the freakin' $3 hinges I bought, so I have to run to the hardware store at lunch and grab some more so I can get the lighting installed today.
Here's an overview picture of one side of the canopy. You can see the ballasts are all mounted on the back support to keep the weight near the wall. The T5 ballasts are all wired and tested with solid copper wire. 18 gauge was the biggest solid wire that they had at Ace Hardware that I figured would fit into the ballasts. I think I've also used 20 gauge in the past and that's worked fine, but it's a little thin.
Also on the flip-up bracket you can see where the light rail bar will fit into the notch. Below that notch on both sides I drilled some 3" holes just in case I wanted to install some more cooling fans. I don't have any fans for it right now though. We'll see how the heat is.
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...01/canopy8.jpg
Here's a closeup of the end of one of the T5 ballasts with some of the wiring...
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...01/canopy9.jpg
I also ran the wiring though a terminal block strip to make things easier for me. It also allows me to easily transition between stranded and solid copper wire for getting power to the ballasts.
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...1/canopy10.jpg
And here is the halide ballast for the 150W halide.
http://www.ericfeige.com/gallery/alb...1/canopy11.jpg
I suppose I should update some costs here...
40B tank for the sump: $25
T5 reflectors, Phoenix 150W 14,000K bulb, misc. hardware costs: $125
Wood and some other stuff to build the canopy: $0 (Home Depot gift card for Christmas :) )
I'm sure I'm forgetting some costs. I'll add them when I can...
Running total: $310.77