Building my new tank top

[Sparky]

I just bought a 4x 8 sheet of flashing material. You would be amazed at what some rubbing compound and a good buffer will do for the shine. I think it is going to work much better than I thought it would. Thanks for the suggestions.

Mike

 

[JProx]

spark.. you know you gotta post some pics now.. with it in use right ?

glad i could help, if i did at all.

 

[Sparky]

Oh yeah, I will. I still haven't gotten the damn bulbs yet. I am calling the distributor Monday morning to see where they are. I was suppose to get them in a week. That was 2 weeks ago. Everything else is ready to go. I just need the bulbs so I can figure out where to mount the bases for them.

 

[Sparky]

Finally got the bulbs today. Now I got them installed, and got most of the reflector up and installed. My next problem is deciding which set of bulbs to use?....14K or the 20K bulbs? I have mounted the f-can ballasts for the MH in the base cabinet and wired them to a 4 pole twist lock receptacle. There is a cord for the MH lights connected to the tank cover and has the plug on the other end. The MH ballasts were too heavy to mount into the top so I had to do it this way. So if I want to remove the cover all I got to do is just unplug it from the base cabinet.

 

[Sparky]

Well, here ir is. Finished,

It has
(2) 4 ft 50/50 lamps
(2) 4 ft 03 Actinic lamps
(2) 175 watt MH Hamilton 20,000K lamps.

First picture is with ALL the lights on





Second one is with the MH off.

 

[Sparky]

Well the pictures came in backwards. The first one is with the MH off, and the second one is with them on. Someday I'll get this posting pictures right

I think I was able to match the color of the top to the bottom cabinet pretty good. It's not quite perfect, but it's close enough for me.

Well, what do you filks think?

 

[tmcgee]

Looks pretty sweet Sparky,
Feels good when all of your hard work turns out so great!!!

 

[JProx]

dood that looks great. great work! and as far i can tell the color matches perfectly maybe 1slight shade different but close enough to fool me.

i could be wrong, but is there a lot of light escaping from the bank of the tank/lighting hood ? if there is, you might want to extend the reflector if at all possible, i am probably being overly critical.. but just in case.

 

[Sparky]

Yes there is light escaping from the back. I am going to make a flexible "curtain" for the back. There is (2) HOB filters there and the protein skimmer, so I had to leave some room there for this to work.

Thanks for the kind words. It does make you feel prety good when it's all done and you stand back and take a look at what you have done. I had to make a few last minute modifications because when I went to put it on the tank it fit perfectly, but I didn't take into account the filters and skimmer. They just wouldn't fit in there right. But all is good now.

Again, thanks.

Mike

 

[24 hours? NE!]

I came acorss this post earlier, but didn't think anything of it. Now I'm trying to build a stand and canopy for a 55 gallon. I really like your canopy, I think I'm going to go slightly different. I'm sticking with flourescent bulds and I like the doors on the front to open to the side. I'm having a really hard time finding information on building the canopies. Thanks for your pics, Sparky!