DIY Lighthood venture?? i think so!

[huma-huma]

so i was sitting around yesterday and happened to have my 24" black light sitting near my tank...after showing the old lady the effects of blacklight on the Glofish, i decided to turn my single tube 36" hood into a custom dual hood. Please, before commenting, please keep in mind that this was done with nothing but parts/tools laying around the house and i know that it need somes extra final touches, but for pretty much free... i now have a dual light setup!!. so i will post some pics of the build process and give as much info as possible. If you have any questions or comments, please do tell enjoy!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Did you leave the black light bulb in? Get some glofish and let the light show begin . Definitely pics with the thread please.

Got my light conversion kit done and it looks great on the tank. But until the app is back, or I can figure away around the funky frames on the website, no pics .

 

[huma-huma]

top one is my actual light hood, bottom is my 24" black light after i got it opened up.

 

[huma-huma]

removed all the hardware from my lighthood and successfully got the blacklight installed!!

 

[huma-huma]

top right is the ballast and directly below is the starter.

starting to cut the white reflective plastic for my 50/50 light.

 

[huma-huma]

pic showing the switch, ballast, and starter for 36" 50/50 light

hard to tell ( and pic is upside down ) but both bulbs installed and on.
obviously the 50/50 light drowns out the blacklight but when running seperate, looks decent.

 

[huma-huma]

attempted to get a night shot of the blacklight tank only but my 5 year old bulb just decided to give up one of its metal endcaps.... will post in roughly 10 days, will be out of town.

 

[Homer8]

you know they sell black light bulbs you could have just put that instead of doing all that work.

 

[huma-huma]

Yeah I could have done that...but I didn't spend a single penny on this project and.it gives me the best of both worlds. A 50/50 light for daytime showing and a secondary light for night/ show use. I had a blacklight in there but it broke, so im gonna look into geting an actinic light to show offmy boorish at night. Only question I have is which would be brighter in terms of glofish?? The blacklight or the blue actinic light?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Yeah I could have done that...but I didn't spend a single penny on this project and.it gives me the best of both worlds. A 50/50 light for daytime showing and a secondary light for night/ show use. I had a blacklight in there but it broke, so im gonna look into geting an actinic light to show offmy boorish at night. Only question I have is which would be brighter in terms of glofish?? The blacklight or the blue actinic light?

The actinic isn't going to work like a black light and make them glow florescent. You could put a actinic in the tube part and get a clip-on light fixture and put a screw in black light bulb in there.

 

[huma-huma]

Blahhh no clip on light.. I prefer the clean simple look of the stock tank/hood...think im just gonna go with a blacklight bulb for my secondary.. doesn't givean even coverage of the tank but dang if the glofish don't look amazing when they swim under it

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Blahhh no clip on light.. I prefer the clean simple look of the stock tank/hood...think im just gonna go with a blacklight bulb for my secondary.. doesn't givean even coverage of the tank but dang if the glofish don't look amazing when they swim under it

Yeah, just a thought lol.

I bet they look cool . We can't get them here in CA, they're illegal .

 

[huma-huma]

Want me to overnight you some?? Lol that's just stupid if you ask me. Given the right lighting, they are mighty impressive

 

[huma-huma]

ok so i know its been awhile and i havent posted any pics, but im gonna throw up some night pics of the blacklight in action! please keep in mind that i dont have an expensive camera to take amazing low light pics, but these should give an idea of the "moonlight" effect i was looking for

 

[huma-huma]

 

[huma-huma]

can you spot the 2 glofish??

 

[huma-huma]

it has a eerie look to it at night but its an uneven light which is what i wanted... and on a side note... the BLUE glofish are coming out this month!!! im excited!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Looks cool!

Gonna have to figure out who needs to be bought off at the state capitol so I can have some lol (JK ).

 

[huma-huma]

i wish i had a better camera because these pics dont do the Glofish justice under the blacklight... i mean if i had 5 or 6 glofish, they would literally light the tank up because they glow so bright. IMO id say just order some online, what are they honestly gonna do? come in your house and inspect for "illegal fish"? lol

 

[Mr. Limpet]

i wish i had a better camera because these pics dont do the Glofish justice under the blacklight... i mean if i had 5 or 6 glofish, they would literally light the tank up because they glow so bright. IMO id say just order some online, what are they honestly gonna do? come in your house and inspect for "illegal fish"? lol

Yep, they're very strict on stuff like that, more so with wild capture/caught. No license, you go to jail (Abalone poacher got 5 years in San Quentin a couple years back).