Building my lights
 

well I finaly got everything ready so I can start putting togeather my lights.
I bought a box and drilled holes in it as mounting points and such.

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/box.jpg

this is the inside (there is a termanal strip there as I was testing the fit

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/boxinside.jpg

and now the ballasts are in

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/ballastinbox.jpg

I will post more pics as work progresses.

Steve

Building my lights
 

Ok the box is done now.

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/boxwire.jpg

and

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/boxwire1.jpg

and
just befor I closed it up

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/boxdone.jpg

and the finnished product.

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/boxclosed.jpg
all that I have left is to put the quick conects on the end install a small fan and vent in the box, and then wire up my light frame in the tank.

Steve

[ 06 March 2002, 21:15: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

Building my lights
 

Hello,

Oh my god. Hey don't forget to get it CSA certified. You can bring it to their lab, pay them a one time test fee, and they'll give you a sticker. :D

Building my lights
 

Hmm that might be a idea.. but I think I would shorten up the wires a little so they hide a bit better first [img]smile.gif[/img]
did you know that if you need 6 grommets for a project that they will only come in boxes of 5 or 100 :D

Steve

Building my lights
 

Hey steve what lighting are you planing to run on those ballasts?
just curious what you decided on?

Building my lights
 

this box will run the 3 NO actinic tubes and the two 96 watt PC's, the MH is going to come later as I won't need it untill I am ready for SPS and it will be a while befor my tank is stable enuf for that.

Steve

Building my lights
 

Very nice. thanks for the prompt reply. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Building my lights
 

Ok I built the reflector assembly and hung it tonight.

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/reflectparts.jpg

assembled

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/reflectass.jpg

and mounted

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/reflectin.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/reflectin1.jpg

now all that is left is to hang the bulbs and conect the two halves togeather.

Steve

Building my lights
 

Well another question for you steve. what did you make those fancy reflectors out of? very nice looking keep up the pic's!

Building my lights
 

they are made of the spectral aluminum that I had ordered in. the shape is a copy of the reflectors AHsupply sells

Steve

Building my lights
 

Hey nice lights!!! But I'm sad to see another person how got suckered in that piece of $*** Shaw digital crap :mad: .[ no offense :D ]

Building my lights
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">what crap, what do you mean? Oh the remote.. actualy I love the shaw digital cable, better than satalite actualy my parents have satalite and I wasn't impressed with the local channels and all the rest is the same. except I don't get a fuzzy picture when there is a storm.. actualy the one thing I am disapointed about is I was kinda led to beleave that it was high deff (my own niativity I guess) so I bought a high def TV and the pic is just a tiny bit better (lots better with a dvd though, hehe)

Steve

[ 08 March 2002, 06:31: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]

Building my lights
 

Hey steve, looks awesome. Can't wait to get my reflector material off you, It look like really nice stuff. How did you bend it so nicley though? My halide is itchin' for a reflector, tinfoil ain't cuting the cheese. The pictures almost makes me want to get more off you. Also, should we pre-order that sand from Hillside?

Building my lights
 

naa she is getting lots in no need to preorder..

I can thank Silverfish for the clean bends, well I did them but it was his brake that I used to do it. was pretty easy after the first one :D

Steve

Building my lights
 

I use DirectTV, this rules!{picture is way better} Even when we had all that snow there was no fade until it built up on the dish, wiped it of twice. Shaw digital is not even true digital it's transformed to digital from analog. Last but not least, At least 5 times I went to watch something and there was no service :mad: , never once lost service on my satelite :D With the money I wasted on the Digital box I could have put into my reef! SORRY for the Inconvenience, but I'm an Audio-Video file!!! :D

Building my lights
 

well after a mishap which resulted in a broken PC, I final got it all hooked up and running (asided from one PC that is) well here is a pic with the actinic on and the flash on my digital caner on (the bottom of my tank is pink under normal lights)
http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/actinicflash.jpg

and here is one with no flash and you can see how much the room gets lit up by this.

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/actinicnoflash.jpg

the reflectors make a huge difference over my trials with the bulbs just resting on the top of the tank.

Steve

Building my lights
 

StirCrazy, looks awesome! I really like the blue that the PC's give off over NO's & VHO's :D . I use 2 55w hamiltons myself, thinking of getting 2 more!!! :D

Building my lights
 

um Jay, the blue is from the three philips 30 watt NO actinic bulbs, my PC is 10000K and the one that broke was 6500K which I am replacing with a 10000K when I go over for the meeting.

Steve

Building my lights
 

My Bad [img]redface.gif[/img] , read through this really quickly. I used to use 2 NO's with no reflector, 3 looks much better than 2 especially with the reflectors ;) , plus with the lights out in that photo it makes it look BLUE!!! ;)

Building my lights
 

I think steve's NO's are overdrivin, if my memory is working.

Building my lights
 

I thought they were overdrivin [img]tongue.gif[/img] !!! This overdrivin stuff seems to work very well and cost effective :cool: . Worth a further look!!!

Building my lights
 

hehe, Jack this set up is NOT overdriven [img]smile.gif[/img] I am going to do a reacessment when I get my other lights and water in and then overdrive if I fell it is nessary, I never thougth I would have gotten this much blue out of NO plain jane bulbs but I am thinking this could be because of the fact there is no water in the tank.. so in all likelyhood I will be overdriving when the tank is up and running.
when I do the overdriving I will most likely use a workhorse 6 to drive the two outside bulbs and a workhorse 4 to drive the center one, this will alow me to over drive a 30 watt bulbs to ~ 70 watts and alow me to set them up on seperat timers to have the ccenter one come on first, then the two outside bulbs then the PC's for more of a dim to sun effect..

Steve

Building my lights
 

doh, could of sworn I saw overdrivin somewhere. Lol, oh well. Just goes to show my memory. Steve, I think I will be in Victoria around the 21st of this month for a few days. I think I will pick up some of that sand. I also want to check out Hillside now too, time to start stocking my tank ;) Now this is the fun part... :>

[ 10 March 2002, 13:54: Message edited by: Jack ]

Building my lights
 

Where do you get the workhorse ballasts from? I think I'm going to use 1 more Actinic for my soon to be 90g ;) . Thanks guys

Building my lights
 

Steve,

Your link to your home page does not work. If I missed something about this then pretend you did'nt read this.

Patrick

Building my lights
 

ya I guess @home finaly went down, I was holding out till the bitter end hehe, I guess it is time to redo it anyways hehe.

Steve

Building my lights
 

Steve,

Do you have anymore of that reflector material? I have been too busy to check the BB for the past few weeks. I would really like enough for 3x36" NO bulbs for my 33g. Maybe I could get Jack to pick it up for me. Please don't use my email right now, home computer died while I was gone this past 2 weeks, don't know if I will be up a running for a few days.

Building my lights
 

Lee!!! I was wondering what happened to you, geez. I will be in Victoria March 20th to the 24th, I might take a detour and pick up the reflector material, and sure I could pick some up for you Lee if I go, no problem. Steve, can you mail or message me an adress? Are you moving your tank or something?? I could help if you want. I was wondering why I didn't hear from you for the longest time, I figured you were out working or something but computer dying makes sense. Give me a call or get back to me Lee. 250-339-0383

Talk to both of you guys later.