my diy light

[shawn]

Here some pics of a light I made. There is 1 250w metal halide and 2 33in vho's mounted on #8 mirror finish stainless steel. Wired it up yesterday and it is working great. Thank god I work at a sheetmetal shop.

 

[Krish]

Very nice Shawn!

 

[shawn]

Here is the tank I am going to put the lights on. Right now I am running 2 65watt white power compacts and 2 actinic 65watt pc's.

 

[shawn]

Here it is.

 

[NaH2O]

Awesome work!

 

[Krish]

Nice tank as well

 

[shawn]

Thank you, I have had this tank going for 3 years and I am still adding and subtracting stuff to it. I decided to take out all my soft corals while I am trying different stuff.

 

[Dragonfly]

Very Cool Shawn. I also DIY'd some reflectors for my 250's using mirror finish S/S.
Did you line the whole inside of your hood with it ?

 

[Detri]

Nice, Looks good.

 

[james734]

looks great. Is that a 20k MH? Looks pretty blue.

 

[shawn]

it's 10k mh.

 

[morgan]

how hard is it to make such an item because i run 1 mh light and would very much like to have 2 antinic lights to compensate
i have been told its not good place ur fluros that close to a halide because of temp diff between the bulbs have u considered this or does the fan take care of that worry

 

[shawn]

I haven't really considered that but I do have a sheild that somewhat blocks the heat of the bulb from the vho's. I but it on the tank last night and with the 2 fans mounted above the lights and I have another small fan blowing air in to the hood it was surprising cool. It actually runs my tank cooler with the new setup than the pc's I had on there before. I will let you know if it becomes a problem.

As for how much work it was it was actually not that hard. You got to remember I work in a sheetmetal shop so we have all the tools. Stainless steel is very hard to cut and drill. I tried to find some mirror finish aluminum but could not find any. That would of made it alot easier.

 

[Mauisreef]

Very nice shawn!

 

[hazyeyedj]

Looks good Shawn. I am getting ready to build a new canopy for my 55-Hex, how much was that sheet metal you used for a reflector? Where would be a good place to pic some of that up?

-Jason

 

[Meche]

ebay. I got some sheet SS for a ramjet project I did for my M.E. senior project. And yes Al is about 200x easyer to machine than SS!