today i finished my home made triple fluorescent light !

3 x 18W... out of 14g tank though...

what u think?

how much light u think can get in the tank?

So what's the color temp of your lights?
So how's you make it?
Got any pics?

color temp?? no idea! tubes are "PHILIPS 18W/54"...
now im goin to electricals shop to get reflectors!

it took me a whole day to make but it's good imo!

if i start explainin how i did it nobody will understand , so i have to charge my old digital camera's battery to take a few photos for u!

stay tuned! :monkey

here are the pics!!

front


back

behind tank. (had to do it dark cause light was very strong for my cam.)

im goin to add reflectors too.

feel free to ask me anythin on it (connections etc.)

That looks cool.

Interesting.
Here are some good articles on lighting:
http://www.killi.net/lighting/
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/Darn/darn3.html
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/mari...um_lighting.php

You kept the light on the top of the tank right?
The reason I ask is that I've heard that fish use where the light's coming from to tell then which way is up.

uhm...
nop...
i have 1 fluorescent light on top of tank but this home made set is placed behind the tank like this


is this bad?

i dont know if its bad or not k but gf navigate to the light and always its above them so if its strong and to the side wont it confuse them and have them leaning over?

yea, i think i'd be confused if the sun started shining from the worng direction O.o

still looks funky though good job

lol. thank you...
BUT... i dont wanna harm my fish!!! aaaaaah!!! sh*t!....

Watch them and see how they do with it.

ahhh...
brown algae appeared in my tank!...

thats a sign of insufficient light, right??

my light is not on the top of the tank and i think that my fish are a bit confused with that.

my fish dont seem 100% upright to me now...

is that a problem caused by light not beeing at the top of tank?
i used this light just for 2 days....

Brown algae is not caused my insufficient light. I don't know where people always get that from. One of my tanks that get's the most light gets brown algae like crazy.

About Algae

Fantastic link grubgal. I added it to my favourites. I had question on alage awhile ago but no one seemed to know the specific answer, but this link clarified a few issues for me

There is also other useful info on that site. Thanks for sharing

I think the lights look cool kflynt2004! B) It's a shame that your fish may not get used to it. It was a great idea though.

I did something similar in that I had a great idea and then acted on it, and then realised it may not be good for my fish. I designed my 40 gallon so it was more of a square shape than rectangle so it would fit nicely in the corner of my lounge room. It looks great but the height of it has aeration/oxyegen issues for my GF and the filter cant sit at the back, it can only fit on the side, which means the hood I got specially made and cost me $214.00 is useless. I'm going to see if hubby can modify it.

I spent heaps of money on this tank and it's sort of a dud

If your fish dont get used to the lights being on the side you could probably find another use for it

can this light working for 2 days be a cause of my fish not swimming upright?

I am absolutely 100% sure that this is why your fish aren't swimming completely upright. Even though fish have swim bladders that keep their backs up and their tummy down, They still orient themselve with the strongest source of light available.

I highly suggest that you take the DIY lighting fixture (great job on craftmanship!)away from the back of your tank. Youll need to do a little bit of re-configuring to it so that you can mount it on top of your tank.

I'm thinking that the tubes need to be closer together (1/4-1/2 inch space between them is good). You will also need to build some small walls around the perimeter of the mounting board. These walls should be just big enough so that you cannot see the tubes from a side view.

Along these same lines, you might have to purchase, or manufacture a glass lid for the tank so that your new fixture cannot come into contact with splashing water from the filters or fish. Although, flourescents are suitable for damp locations.

Basically, youll wind up with a unit that could look like this:

I think you can see that the flap on the front is mounted by two hinges that allow it to swing up and rest on the top of the hood while you are feeding or peering in.

This design also has a hidden layer for the ballasts as you can see from the see through veiw i included on the side of the unit. Of course, this will only work right if the flourescents fixtures arent wider than your tank. Otherwise, A simple system of two shelf hangers on the wall behind your tank, coupled with some mylar (space blanket material) wrapped around the sides to keep the light from escaping would work.

Since you've proven yourself to have the DIY gene imbedded in your DNA, The rest of the work to build the unit in the diagram shouldnt bee too hard for you at all!

Good luck and let us know how it's coming along! B)

great help toothless!! thanks a mil!

Check out this DIY hood.
http://www.rcarchive.com/fish/hood/
I may try and make this one to replace the heavy one I made.

I admire all you diy people.

That is by far the sickest looking Diy lighting system that I've ever seen! WOW and WOW!!!!!


I had to add that one to my Favorites, there!

I don't think it is a good idea to place the light source at the side of the tank for the reason that the light source is always on one side of the fish and might confuse them. In the natural world, light source from the sun is always on top or at least 45° angled during sunrise and sunset.

Since you have constructed the lamp hood yourself, why not making a bigger hood that fits in the top of the tank and embed the lamps inside the hood and this will make it look nicer. I think you do not need 3 lamps of 18W. If your tank can fit a fully spectrum 30W lamp usually 3fett long, one will be sufficient. I only use a 30W full spectrum (pinkish color) FL for my 70 gal tank and it works great. This lamp provide very bright red relection on the gf. I tried the blueish lamp for corals and it causes the gf to look horrible as the red will look faded. Normal daylight FL will work OK but best is still the pinkish aquarium FL.

Good luck...........
Cheers.............

haha ..

spending 30 euros (about $35)
going to shops looking for the things u need - half a day
trying to understand what the lazy guy at the electrics shop explains about connecting cables - 10'
electric shock risk
working - 1 day
making a mess in my room
mom screaming - 10'
being late at your date - 45'

.
.
.
finding out that side light in not proper for fish? 1'....
AAAAAaaaaaaaargh!!!

Heh, I feel your pain, man. I feel your pain.............