General - DIY Light Hoods

[malawi_man]

does anyone have a relatively easy plan for a DIY light-hood?? on one of my tanks i have one of those black plastic kind of hoods. (look to.....well, black!!) then i have those ones that some people have for lighting workshops or garages. I think pet city in hamilton has these on the roof. I don't really like the technical look and wanted to make sone sort of light hood with a rustic wooden finish, or maybe a sanded varnished look. I want it to be like a wooden box with a tube and reflector underneath.

thanx in advance

[Brianemone]

not that hard to make

i made one out of ply and didnt get around to finishing it cosmeticaly but it worked reall well

[malawi_man]

i would mainly like to know about the electronics.

[critter_guy]

i made my own and done all the elecrical work my self and im only 13!! and it looks pritty good heres a pic

i used tin foil for a refector and spray painted the blubs blue

and it has a 1cm peice thick of perspects

[critter_guy]

i built it with a old door off the kitchen draws i got my dad to cut it up(cos i dont want to cut off my hands) and it was about 6cm's to small so he had to glue a extra piece on

i dont have any plans it was just screw a few bits of wood together and the electrical work you can see in the pic its pritty dodgey

[cees]

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=3880

please.

[malawi_man]

what a coincidence, i'm 13 as well, i was think more along the lines of a flourescent tube though, not a bulb. but thanx anyway.

(thanx Cees )

[Pegasus]

Hi Critter,

Can you please reduce your image size to prevent having to scroll across the screen to read the posts.

Thanks,

Bill.

and the electrical work you can see in the pic its pritty dodgey

You really need to place a connector of this type on the outside of the hood away from the humidity, and even then it would need to be totally enclosed in a waterproof sealed unit.

Good job on the hood BTW

[critter_guy]

you could always put a floresent blub insted of ordinary light blubs

[Pegasus]

Yep... That would be much safer, provided you get someone conversant to see it is safely installed.

Condensation is often overlooked, until the day arrives when you get zapped

Take care now,

Bill.

[malawi_man]

do i need a perspex or glass covering because all of my tanks have glass on top

[Pegasus]

I use glass.. and some people even use Glad Wrap.. so I suppose it comes down to what works for you.

Bill.

[Ira]

Critter guy, get some screw in flouros. they'll use about 1/4 the electricity, and look a lot better than blue painted incandescents.

[critter_guy]

ira where do you get them from and can they screw into a normal light fitting??

[Ira]

They're all over the place and that's the whole point of them, that they screw into a normal light fitting. You may have a hard time finding 6500K ones, most are lower kelvin, but any lighting specialty place should have them.

[critter_guy]

can you get small ones so i can put two in or one long one??

[Ira]

I'm not understanding what you mean. They're not that long, most are maybe 6-9" long or less. You could just swap them with the bulbs in there.

[critter_guy]

yea ill take out the bulbs and but in the ones your talkking about

[critter_guy]

how much do they cost???

[Ira]

I bought the ones above one of my tanks at Lamp Specialists in Petone, they're 25ish watt, 6500K for I think it was $12 each.

[Robert Smith]

I'm a newbie to aquariums and while in the process of building my own 80L tank I got a rude shock when I found out what the lights cost for a sealed two-tube system, so I decided to do it my way.

[by the way - I see some of you are wiring up your own 240V lights. This can be very dangerous and is not recommended. You could kill someone (yourself) and I believe that if it causes damage to your home (perhaps by causing a fire) you are not usually insured! - Buy off-the-shelf or get it done professionally and make sure it is sealed, or use low voltage - see below].

I took an approach I've never seen anywhere else and which was very very easy and very cheap.

Because I didn't want to dangle 240V over my tank, I went down the 12V route.

I bought two mounting sockets for tungsten filament halogen bulbs (I didn't buy the sealed spotlights, just the bulbs and a separate two-pin mounting socket). Cost about $2 total. The supercompact 240V/12V 50W electronic transformer cost me about $20 (bigger, uglier versions cost <$10). And the key to it all are the 12V, 10W & 20W ultra-white, polymer coated quartz tungsten bulbs (about $2 each). These naked bulbs are ultra-white light (colour temperature 3500K, the sealed dichroic ones are 5000K) compared to normal tungsten, you can see the difference.

Because it's all 12V, the wires are very thin and easily hidden in the wooden hood over the tank and run down beside the external filter intake, the whole fitting stands about 25mm high and sits on top of my tank's glass cover.

It cost me about $30, took 30mins to put together and looks pretty good. It does not give UV light like some tubes to make your fish really glow, but the Tetra's really shine when the angle is right. I started with 2x20W bulbs, but that was overkill, so I went to 2x10W & 1x20W (40W total). The other great thing about the bulbs is you can use them like spotlights if you add a reflective cone (I use aluminium foil). This allows you to create light sculptures, or shadow zones etc etc.

I also tried to spice it up with a cold-cathode UV fluorescent tube that I had handy. But these have really low power (1-2W) and it made no difference.

Has anyone else done something like this? Is there something I should know about that I don't? Everything is going great. The tank's now about 6 months old and lightly planted and lightly loaded with fish (~20 small fish).

[Shelley]

The tank/lights we bought is quite good and saves you if you have no idea about electrics like us ). We have a glass lid on our tank (2 pieces of glass either side and a middle piece that doesn't come out...a pain in the butt if you need to get in to the tank ot try and catch a fish) ...with a small corner piece that can lift out for easy feeding....on top of this goes a wooden frame...it is just basically a hollow box shape....which has little ledges of wood inside for sitting a light fitting on top of.....and to close it in at the top, 2 lengths of wood one with a nick cut out of it for room for the light cord....the finished look looks quite good the only real draw back being if you need to get at the tank/fish etc...you have to lift off all the separate pieces. Oh and i had to cut a hole in the wee ledge thing the flourescent tube sits on...to allow for the hoses for our new filter.

[Snowman]

No one mentions that to wire in any 240 volt lights etc you must have an electrical cert, its a legal thing and if you do have a fire or any probs it's a good excuse for your insurance company to deny your claim i.e no payout, not to mention 240 volts can kill.

Surprises me to see parents letting 13yr olds play with 240 volts, bit like playing soccer on the motorway.

Robert Smith has the right idea using 12 volts, much safer and legal.

I prefer the brought products as its near on impossible to get the same quality finish (unless that sort of thing is your trade of course), and the safety asspect certainly comes into it, most off the shelf products have been tested and approved and personally my life is worth way more than saving a few bucks.

But making your own is basically a kiwi way of life so if you do, take it to an electrician to check the wiring and give you a cert for it, then there will be no legal or insurance probs.

[Ira]

My understanding was that to do the wiring you only need to be certified if you're doing it professionally. I can do all the wiring I want in my house by myself, but Bob the tradesman can't do anything unless he has an electricians certification.

[Snowman]

I got told i could wire up my own security lights but the wiring had to be checked by someone with a cert, brother in law did a limited course and got a cert to be able to wire in his external lighting.