Pittbully's DIY cfl hood conversion! By brookster

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Brookster123

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Got this idea from pitbully, seemed easy enough and it really was.. End result was night and day;) . What you'll need- 2 dual lamp sockets, foil tape, 3 wire nuts, electrical tape, power drill with bits, one toggle switch (can re-use existing switch depending on location) First step- take your light hood and remove everything but wiring. image-341958508.jpg Second step- using foil tape from the duct work section of your home good store, line the interior of the compartment. image-1478196748.jpg Third step- drill holes for lamps and switch. You'll want to play with placements prior to drilling holes, take into account bulbs not touching wires or plastic.. image-3737568805.jpg Step four- wiring, this may seem tricky but it's really simple.. You have positive ( black) and negative (white) wires. Take the neg from the supply cord and the 2 lamps and twist them with a wire nut, take the pos from the supply and the pos from switch and twist them up and nut em, take the 2 pos from lamps and twist them up to pos from switch! Tape them all up nice nice and try it on a surge protector away from your tank.. If it lights up.. Hurray!! If it pops the surge protector try again;) image-3475870013.jpg Final steps- once all components are assembled in place tape up all wire connections with electrical tape, also consider foil tapping wiring to housing to clean it up a bit. You can also drill holes on the top to relieve heat, I did.. About 50 1/8" holes

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image-797291147.jpg I used 4- 13 watt 6500k GE cfl's .............IMPORTANT NOTICE....... *****no exposed wiring******* anywhere!!!! Make sure there is a barrier between bulbs and water, splash guard, glass.. Something.. Bulbs can burst if they get splashed...

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I didn't want to post this last pic because I knocked my heater crooked last night and it's embarrassing that I'm to OCD to reach in and fix it until I properly scrub my arm..
 
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Nice bulid, couldn't have done any better. Thanks for the props.

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*****note***** I only recommend using builds less than 15 watt, the 23 watters ran way to hot... That is all...
 
Nice bulid, couldn't have done any better. Thanks for the props.

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Thank you so much for sharing this with me. It's perfect. I can definitely do this. Probably not right now but I will. :)

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I'm really happy with the end result.. I have swapped some bulbs, the 23 watt cfl's were running too hot, I am now using 2 13 watt 6500k. One 13 watt 5000k and the end all be all over the dwarf baby tears 18" below..... A Cree 60 watt 5000k led bulb... ($16) this puppy better produce;)
 
Sweet, I've been trying to come up with something for a new tank. This opened my weary eyes to some more possibilities!

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Very nice man, I did something just like this with my old 10k hood! Just 2 cfls though! I did this with the 20g long too but algae bloomed full a week after!
 
Awesome DIY! Just finished it for my 29g, and added a blue led strip for 'night mode'.
 
Philips 'mini twister' 13w 6500k cfl's. Came in a nice 4-pack at HD.
 
Perfect!! Enjoy!!!, mine has dwarf baby tears growing In at 18" down.. They're under a 60 watt led bulb though;) did you drill heat loss holes?
 
Nice! I just have 'beginner' plants atm. And no, they don't seem to be getting to hot, but I'll keep an eye on it, and drill'em if need be.
 
Ok, I'm a very cautious person, always have been.. It would make me feel better if you'd keep a close eye on it for it's first few hours running, smell for burning plastic and feel for excessive heat.. Thanks!!!
 
Will Do! and made sure there are batteries in my smoke alarms :)
 
Haha knock on wood! Now!! It should be fine, I found mine threw off a smell for a few days now it's all good...
 
Also if you don't want to gut your old fixture, you could use a plastic rain gutter with end caps and just paint it black. Just a thought.
 
And you can dip the wire nuts, along with a few inches of the wires, in some liquid electric tape. That's what I did to make the connections completely water tight.
 
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