DIY - Projects & Ideas

by **dark SSide** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 4:34 am

Lights look amazing, along with stand. I am taking your pics to my lighting guy this week and see what he can put together for me. Thank you for the information.

by **GTZ** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 8:12 pm

Looks great but shouldn't the piano hinge be screwed to the inside edges instead of the top? Just curious if you did it that way on purpose.

by **mattwhoo** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 10:18 pm

GTZ wrote:Looks great but shouldn't the piano hinge be screwed to the inside edges instead of the top? Just curious if you did it that way on purpose.

Unless your over 6' tall you will never see it. Also think about how hard it would have been to pre drill and mount the hinge on the inside. That canopy easily weighs about 80- 100 lbs. I would be very difficult to get people to be able to hold it in place to even get a few screws in place like that. The canopy is 7' long and even with the 4' hinge(the longest i could find at lowes) I ended up putting another 1' hinge on each end to keep it from flexing and twisting too much.

by **malady** » Sat Nov 26, 2011 1:19 pm

your tank is incredible

everything from the design, color, lights.. love it all

by **papasmurf** » Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:23 pm

I love the stand and the molding you added to it. I have been looking to do something similar with mine. I am currently running 4 54W T-5's (usually only run two) on a 125G tank and would like to upgrade to LED's as the T-5's unit is only 48" and I would appreciate the reduced heat and energy savings from the LED's. I like the aluminum pieces you sourced as it looks like it would be cheaper than the heatsinks that are usually sold with the LED kits and you could space the lights more evenly around the tank surface. What width of aluminum did you wind up using?

by **mattwhoo** » Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:47 am

papasmurf wrote:I love the stand and the molding you added to it. I have been looking to do something similar with mine. I am currently running 4 54W T-5's (usually only run two) on a 125G tank and would like to upgrade to LED's as the T-5's unit is only 48" and I would appreciate the reduced heat and energy savings from the LED's. I like the aluminum pieces you sourced as it looks like it would be cheaper than the heatsinks that are usually sold with the LED kits and you could space the lights more evenly around the tank surface. What width of aluminum did you wind up using?

I used the 1 1/2" hollow 2 slot McMaster Carr Part # 47065T119

by **papasmurf** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:28 pm

I am really interested in how the LED Lighting looks. I am thinking of putting together a DIY LED setup for my 125g tank. I am thinking along the lines of a 72 LED (3w) setup as I want the tank to be very bright and I try grow plants in it from time to time.

by **mattwhoo** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:10 am

I just got the tank and stand inside yesterday and hope to at least have some water in it soon. I will take some pictures when it's all setup. I will say I had the lights over my old 125 to test them out in the beginning and they are very bright. I only have 48 lights so I'm guessing 72 over a 125 would be putting out tons. The nice thing about the way I did the lights is that it would be real easy to add another row if I need more.

by **papasmurf** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:09 am

I am probably going to go with the cheaper bridgelux LED's so they will not be quite as strong as the Cree's you used. I was just worried there would be spotlighting if I used too few LED's. BTW...that is the nicest stand I have ever seen someone make. I am going to try and incorporate some of the molding ideas you used when I have time to renovate my stand.

by **Vadimshevchuk** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:02 am

Beautiful build so far. I considered building my own led light for my 90 gallon. I was considering going 40 1watt led but i couldn't find the right ballast and i found a good deal on 4 stunner strips. Not bad light output. What are you gonna stock with tank with other then p. salousi?

by **rotccapt** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:18 am

just curious what are the dimensions of your tank? i am about to use the bridglux leds on my tank72"x36"x30" and i just wanted to compare the number of leds you have compared to what im planning

by **mattwhoo** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:50 pm

I'm Back! Sorry it took forever but I just got fish in it this week. I went with a mixed Mbuna setup, about 70 in all. Here are some pictures. Sorry for the weird angle but my desk is in front of the tank.

And one of the new residents

Matt

by **mattwhoo** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:51 pm

rotccapt wrote:just curious what are the dimensions of your tank? i am about to use the bridglux leds on my tank72"x36"x30" and i just wanted to compare the number of leds you have compared to what im planning

The tank is 72 x 24 x 24 I have 48 LEDs 24 blue and 25 white. It's plenty bright for this tank.

by **JimA** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:36 pm

Looks great! Nice job with the build.

by **GTZ** » Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Brilliant! Nicely done. =D>

DIY - Projects & Ideas • 220 Stand canopy and Custom LED lighting build.

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As others have said...very nicely done.

Re: As others have said...very nicely done.

Do you have any pics of the finished setup?

Thanks for the reply....

Re: 220 Stand canopy and Custom LED lighting build.

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Re: 220 Stand canopy and Custom LED lighting build.

Re: 220 Stand canopy and Custom LED lighting build.

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