Building a light rack

[burrows14]

Anyone built one on here? I'm planning on of getting rid of my photon plus and building one to house a couple reflectors and a LED strip for actinics. What kind of material did you use and can it be done without having to weld? Im thinking about building it and encasing it in wood to match my stand to give it a floating hood look unless I can find a very attractive frame only design that would look good in my living room.

Cheers
Ray

[mseepman]

I'm planning on building one with three MH pendants and T5HO's supplimental lighting along with LED's for Moonlights on my new tank. Take a look at these guys www.eztube.com and you'll probably find something that will work for you.

[burrows14]

That stuff is perfect!!! thanks for the link! any idea what their prices are like? It wont let me open the catalog or veiw any pricing

[golf nut]

Anyone built one on here? I'm planning on of getting rid of my photon plus and building one to house a couple reflectors and a LED strip for actinics. What kind of material did you use and can it be done without having to weld? Im thinking about building it and encasing it in wood to match my stand to give it a floating hood look unless I can find a very attractive frame only design that would look good in my living room.

Cheers
Ray
Take a look at 80/20. com, they have Meccano for big boys.

[burrows14]

HAHa I love mechano! Both those sites are great! makes things a lot easier. Do you know if there is a canadian company with a similar product? Id rather spend my money here instead of hand it to the americans lol

[mike31154]

I simply used square and angle aluminum stock from Princess Auto in Kelowna. Many big box building supply stores also carry aluminum stock, but I found the best deals & selection at PA. Stainless steel screws/bolts hold it together although in most cases I used a tap to thread the aluminum so nuts were not required. A few photos follow. I built two lumenarc reflectors from solar tube reflective material for my 250w MH and have two 4 foot T5s along the outer edge. There are an additional two empty sockets for T5s near the center, but I took them out after installing the MH. Bare bones, no fancy covering, but works for me. A future build will have it all hidden in a hood.

End shot, the large fans are no longer there, instead I installed smaller ones blowing directly on the end of each T5. The evaporation rate was crazy with those bigger fans running, good cooling for the summer though.

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1pANcr-zTnNiqypfd0Xv4jHgNcbD4IRbKq2NzoK5XcQfbbA-2As1VN-IDaLUOI_ggtCzlLvXJKtAjLRAjoVlTt8g/P1010867a.JPG

From the front. If I were to do it again, I might go with larger aluminum stock and run the wiring through the inside, but the bigger stuff gets pricey fast. The Workhorse ballasts for the T5 HOs are mounted at each end and blend in nicely with the overall aluminum look. Two hooks in the ceiling hold the plastic chain. This allows me to raise the assembly by hooking lower links in to the hooks. The lower assembly is attached with plastic covered steel wire and the MHs hang on separate plastic hooks. Excess plastic chain all over the place, but it allows for adjustments.

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p9EDrgIJJhr0xJEPPQ7cSbGozvN3KkBxdNAxkQ4oiJCrH4R2 ifjZUsGoCwl0DLB6EKFhnbvFWJeRSO8DaWHyLow/P1010866a.JPG

Close up of the new fan set up blowing on the T5 ends. The lamps are overdriven but the fans are doing a great job, no sign of blackening at the ends and I forgot when I installed the lamps. Still going strong. Also note the nylon screws I used to mount the various components.

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p3OqnRqrCxH4fTB9Lg37IYtZB6OuGk6-zjYXeEhlIK7Fx98QVOmbGEKSdC9OxnxbddOodPHZeNvSp_1gfM RzPnQ/P1030292a.JPG

Another close up of the fan mounting. I had to get creative with some scrap acrylic to mount them.

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1pJQgLbJmRc8BVL_g3t041ufhYKgjQ3vWvcigj4UJmAkzNh8D V7PNvCtaCaw16s32ZMCJ8wjlUM_ruRr-ubYiAvw/P1030293a.JPG

[burrows14]

Awesome there is a PA down the street from my work so ill go check it out. I am gonna be using lumenarc mini reflectors and a 48" reefbrite Led for supplementing and also moonlights. Did you make your rack the same footprint as your tank?

[burrows14]

Nice work BTW:biggrin:

[mike31154]

Awesome there is a PA down the street from my work so ill go check it out. I am gonna be using lumenarc mini reflectors and a 48" reefbrite Led for supplementing and also moonlights. Did you make your rack the same footprint as your tank?

Length is same as tank (approx 4ft) but it's a bit wider at close to 19 inches. The tank is a 77 gal Hagen, so 4ft long & about 16 inches wide. If you look closely at the first photo, the width overhang should be apparent.

[burrows14]

perfect! hopefully ill have my reflectors next week so I can get a start on this thing lol Thanks for the info Mike:biggrin:

[mike31154]

Not a problem, good luck with the build. I forgot exactly why I made it wider than the tank footprint, more than likely because of the space required by mulitiple individual T5HO reflectors. Before I had the MHs, I may have contemplated a row of 6 T5s and they likely would not have fit at 16 inches.