Well I got my new 150 g toy

[Speakerman]

And it went from this

to this


I rebuilt the cabinet glueing everything, screwing it, adding a bottom, bracing it. ect ect. Built a hood for it out of scrap wood I had laying around. Went to home depot and got 2 48" dual fluorescent light strips for 9 bucks a piece, installed them, wired it up...Then painted everything dark blue.

Took me all afternoon lol...

Everything all together cost me exactly 380 bucks. Thats with the tank, stand, lights, hood, paint, ect ect ect.

Not bad IMO. now I just need water. lol

[rich311k]

Very nice work. Looks great can't wait to see it up and running.

[joannde]

WOW ! you work fast !!! I spent 5 hrs just changing the decor in my tank yesterday.

Can't wait to see that baby filled and inhabited. What a great tank !

[lmw80]

Looks good!! Keep us updated!

[Speakerman]

I have a question though, Do you think 4 48" lights is too much light? I turn it on and it f'king blinds me...I wanted a lot of light for the fish and plants, but I dunno when too much is too much.

I have 2 high-output lights, 1 plant light, and 1 daylight.

Recommendations/suggestions/ect?

[joannde]

how many watts are each bulb? its going to look VERY bright, especially empty. I'd say if you're at 2wpg then you're good - any higher and you'd need to start CO2 injection (which is fine if you want to do that - but I myself am not ready ! LOL)

[Speakerman]

I'm only at around 1wpg.

So I should be fine?

[newfound77951]

1 wpg is enough to grow some hardy, low light plants such as Anubias and Java fern but not much more. That tank looks pretty deep, which means even less light at the bottom. Lights can look awfully bright through the air, but light intensity is quickly reduced through water. if you just want a few hardy plants, you're fine. If you really want to get into a lot of plants, you'll need 2-3 wpg, and you can go even higher. The fish won't mind unless you specifically stock with nocturnal fish. I have 2 96 watt compact fluorescents on my 55 gal (for almost 4 wpg) and if you look directly at them....instant migraine. But my plants love it!

[Stretch]

Looks nice. I like that you made that hood all from your own stuff.

[Speakerman]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Looks nice. I like that you made that hood all from your own stuff.

Thanks I had a bunch of solid pine, birch and poplar laying around on the back porch that I was going to build shelves with. But this seemed like a much better use for it. Everything I had was just the perfect size lol.

The only problem I have with it is I put the light switch on the wrong side. I should of put it on the left so it was easy to get to. However I put it on the right so it would be out of site ect...But now it's kind of a pain to walk all the way around and turn it on...Or maybe I'm just extremely lazy. Maybe a bit of both..heh

Probobly won't have water for a while. I need a filter, heaters, air pump, rocks, and decor'. So I'm only about half way there on the battle for staying on budget.