Jumping In

[Slick Fork]

Just thought I'd give an update,

Got my lighting figured out the other day. I opted for a DIY style lighting system and got it done fairly cheaply. I had a 24" 20w 18000K fixture sitting around from when I upgraded my freshwater to t-5 lighting so I decided to try and make use of that.

I ran out to the hardware store and bought a chunk of 1x8 lumber, a galvanized steel stove-pipe, found an 18" fluorescent fixture on sale for $10 and bought some phillips 27watt compact fluorescent screw in bulbs (6500K colour) Total bucks spent at the hardware store.....$45 Then off to petsmart where I grabbed a new t-8 actinic bulb for the 18" lamp, came home and put it all together.

Here's what it looks like (quick sketch, not to scale)



The ducting I cut in half and screwed on to the bottom of the 1x8, It was already sort of parabolic so all I had to do was bend it to the 10" wide I need for the tank, the 2 fluorescent fixtures I ripped apart and mounted the ballasts and starters to the top of the new hood to get them out of the way and away from the heat. This thing is frickin bright, I filled the tank with water and set this thing on top and am very very pleased with the results. I hope to be able to have most coral's now as I have 89 watts going into this little 10 gallon setup (and that's not considering the "actual light" being produced by those power compact screw-in bulbs). Total cost for the fixture $58

I'm gone for holidays tommorow so this is as far as I'll get before July probably (lots of time to think up a DIY skimmer!)

Cheers