Yes, valid point for sure. If it works out as I have it planned in my head, it should be easy enough to raise or remove as well for cleaning and maintenance. Bracket is quite light, and Noopsyche K7 lights I will be using dont weight much either.

Hello

All of a sudden I started thinking about these.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...64035c77VX1TP6

Titus

Hmm, thats interesting contraption I never knew existed. It would be a cool project to see if it could be repurposed for aquarium use. Thanks for sharing!

Hello

They are quite popular in mainland China. I think it'd be fine because a rack of wet clothes is likely going to be heavier.

Titus

Finally have an update. Weather has been crappy and cold last few months, and since I do most of the work in the garage, it was cold. That prevented me from doing much. I finished light mount, or at least have it 99% done.

As can be seen above, I made a frame using square aluminum tubing and didnt lineup some of the corners perfectly. I used Blue Demon Triple Play Low Temp Aluminum-Zinc Brazing Rod and MAP gas to fill in the gaps that can be seen above, and to braze legs to the whole structure.

Since I never did this before, there was a lot of reading and watching of youtube videos. Really important thing that absolutely has to be done to get this to creat proper hold is to make sure that aluminum tube is up to the temp. If it is not, and you melt the rod onto it, it will not stick at all, and will create for really weak connection. Few pieces I had to break off several times as I couldnt get one side to braze properly. Once I figured out how much I need to heat up the tube, it was really easy and fast work from there.

Once it was all done, I painted it black, mostly to cover imperfections in brazing as much as possible

https://i.imgur.com/OSTr6C3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9ZQjYos.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/J3WJqc6.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JC7vEit.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tDNOGvb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uhiII7C.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sKJGK0F.jpg

As you can see, there are legs inside of legs. Unpainted legs are brazed to the frame, and then I created another set of legs and base that top frame goes into (all black part). This will allow me to move whole top frame up and down about 5 inches. I wanted to have option of moving it, so that when I start figuring out PAR and height I should place lights at, I can play around with height and see which one works the best. I just have to drill few holes to hold it at various heights. Finally, I plugged square tube ends at the bottom with plastic caps.

Also, light mounts (aluminum bars) where NP lights are mounted can be removed via screws, so if I decide to use different lights I would just have to space those bars around in new position. Then again i can play with height and re-adjust as necessary. I also made sure that I have enough space so that I can mount a single T5 fixture on each side, if/ when time comes for that

Hello

Very nice. Can't wait to see the next update.

Titus

Now this is a proper DIY! Good on you for not using a grinder to clean up your welds :lol: but really good on you for building this unit yourself! This is on serious light fixture now! I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up being stuck at less than 30% power on those lights.

Thanks. I didnt dare use a grinder or anything of sort. I figured I would make it a lot worse than it is, so I just left it be. I may end up not using 2 outside lights right away, or maybe have the 3 middle ones on higher power, and 2 outside ones on lower. Once I get into SPS and more demanding light corals I can play around with power of all 5 units to get optimal results.

I recommend finding a par meter or finding someone in the hobby that's local in the hobby with one to come on by and help you set the power on the lights. It's surprising how little you need when it comes to LEDs. It's good you have that many LED fixtures though. That just means that you can run them all at a lower power together. With LEDs, the lower the power you can run them at to make happy coral, the lower their heat is. And the lower the heat on the lights, the longer they last.

I have Seneye reef, so I will be using it as PAR meter. Main reason i bought it really haha. I have one more fixture actually, but wasnt going to cram 6 of them in. I was playing around with idea of doing 2 rows of 3, but figured it would still be an overkill for this size of tank. Like you said, I would rather run them at lower power and keep heat down a bit more, as well as possibly extend life of fixtures, as they are not running at high power and producing less heat