My DIY light hood build for 55G

[cobfreak]

I have started the process of building a pair of light hoods for the 55gallon tank I plan on using as a planted tank.

The tank is 48" x 13" x 20". It's got a center divider so there'll be 2 hoods. If this goes well, each side will have three 26 Watt compact fluorescent floodlights. They are rated as Daylight, 6500K. I also may install some LEDs for alternate/moonlighting.

This is the first time I've done this, and it'll be my first proper planted tank.

So far I've cut the main hood pieces, and begun construction of one. Here are some pictures.

Two hoods in place, prior to being biscuit-joined/screwed/glued:

Top view after joins made on one, and first socket and bulb put in place. The piece of wood holding the socket in place is temporary, for measuring purposes. Ultimately I plan on having one board with all three sockets mounted:

Front close-up:

Side close-up:

Has anybody used CFL floodlights like this? Any thoughts on how they work? I don't know at this point how the coverage will be, if there'll be bright and less bright spots. With these bulbs I will have a total of 156 Watts, or about 2.8 wpg. I think the sockets are rated for up to at least 60 watts; I think if I need to I can get at least slightly higher wattage daylight floodlights.

No idea what the heat's going to be like there. I'm also not sure if I should put glass between the bulbs and the water surface - I know that in part depends on my stocking plan, which I haven't settled on yet. Any thoughts on having the bare bulbs there like that without glass?

Any other input welcome. I'll update this as I progress.

Thanks for reading.

 

[andyjh]

Looks like the woodworking is going well. My quetions would be heat output and how this will affect water temperature. Not sure if there's any danger with bulb surface relatively close to water surface. There's often some "splashing factor", be it from filter outflow or fish themselves and might there be a potential danger as water droplets hit those hot bulbs? You may need to work in some kind of shield.
Andy

 

[wanabedriver]

Any updates? I am curious how this style of floodlight CFLs work.

 

[cobfreak]

Unfortunately no really useful updates yet. I made some further progress on the wood work and light sockets, but now I can no longer find the bulbs I was going to use. The local Lowes doesn't have them anymore. Not sure if they'll get them back in.

I'm also frustrated by the sockets I chose, as it's made the wood construction more difficult than I'd hoped. They are outdoor spotlight sockets, which I thought was a good choice, but the way they are designed they cannot be positioned at a right angle, nor straight up and down. It's been enough frustration that I've considered just buying some decent lights. I could still use my prototype if I ever get it finished for another tank.

I haven't decided either way yet, as I've been busy building the stand for the 55g that the lights are being built for. Just got the tank on the stand yesterday, and decided to add silicone to the seals today.

So in other words I'm still curious to know how the CFL spotlights work. And hoping I can still get the ones I originally saw. I have ONE right now, and am using it in a lamp above my 20g, and it seems to be working pretty well but is offset at an angle and in no way ideally situated.

 

[pjrichar]

jeez with a fixture that big I would wire in bunch of 23 watt spiral cfl bulbs.. You could have some massive light there. There are all sorts of DIY threads for that. lowes and home depot and Menards sell everything you would need for cheap..

 

[cobfreak]

New Direction, still DIY light hood, same tank

It's hard for me to decide whether this should be a new thread or not. I've gone a completely different direction with the DIY light setup for my 55 gallon, but it's still a DIY light hood and it's still for the same tank. I am still also planning on going back to the original idea, though I might use those pieces for another tank.

So for now here's what I've done. I don't think this is anything unusual but it's new for me. I bought two 4' 2 bulb T8 shop lights from Lowes, put them in an improvised wooden "hood", and wired them to individual power cords and light switches. I've got 32 watt, 6700k (daylight) sylvania bulbs in it, so that'll be a max of 128 watts of light for fifty five gallons.

I didn't modify the shop lights themselves to add reflectors. I'm considering doing that but I'll start the tank this way and see what kind of results I get. I still don't know if I'll be doing CO2 but I probably will try that, also DIY, at some point.

Here are some pictures:

:feedback: Any thoughts on any problems I might encounter with this setup?

 

[FishVixen]

Is there a hatch for feeding or do you have to lift the whole hood?

 

[WeedCali]

make sure theres some glass or plycarbonate between the tank and hood. wouldnt want any splashing on the fixtures.

 

[cobfreak]

Is there a hatch for feeding or do you have to lift the whole hood?

As it is now I'll have to lift the whole hood. I'm probably going to come up with a way to make that feasible, like some chains and hooks so I can lift it and have it held in place. I could also cut a small hatch in the front, but I'll need to lift the whole thing for messing with plants and such enough that I'm going to need a solution to that aside from a hatch.

make sure theres some glass or plycarbonate between the tank and hood. wouldnt want any splashing on the fixtures.

Currently (though they aren't visible in the picture) I have two square pieces of glass, one on each end of the tank. So the center of the tank has no glass, but the fixtures are over glass. I bought some plexiglass sheets but if I'm going to use those I'm going to have to get them cut, because I'm sure I'll break them if I try it myself and they're not cheap. I may buy a couple of glass canopies.

Wonderful project and i think the DIY process is more interesting...

Thanks!

 

[Dieprophezeiung]

I'm looking at doing somthing like this for my 55 gallon. I think I'm going to go with 2 2' fixtures rather thAn 2 4' fixtures. What made you decide to use the 4' fixtures? Great progress btw. I think anything made diy is more practical and self satisfying!