My 165 Build - DIY LED, Cabinet, etc.

[justincgdick]

I wanted to show off some of my DIY projects as well as some skills of others that have personally lent a hand to my build. This is for a freshwater planted tank, but I'm stealing a lot of hardware, info, and help from this board, so I wanted to share.

These are unfinished panels that attached magnetically to the stand. The whole setup is designed to be a peninsula style tank but I'm putting it in the corner. I still need to have the panels painted with lacquer after I finish the prep work.

I made the panels slightly taller so that it will go from the floor to just above the silicone bead on the bottom pane.




This is my custom light hanger. I didn't want to have any of the viewing panes blocked by the hanger and I am unable to drill the ceiling of my rental so I got in touch with Grizz. Greg was able to help me brainstorm some ideas and do some testing. A week later I had the light stand in my possession.

The hanger is slightly under bent so it will level out when I have hung my light. I had to guestimate the weight and Greg bent it under the impression I would have the hang wire in a few feet from the ends of the light, but I had a brain fart and forgot. All in all, the hanger droops just under an inch from level at the far end. Not bad at all for guessing on the weight; and if I cared enough I could take the hanger down and pull out a touch of bend. Instead, if it bothers me I'll just take a 6" length of fishing line to a plant hanger on the ceiling. It only needs a finger push to come to level.



There's also a sleeve with set screws so I can raise or lower the hanger. Unless I cut it down it's about 7' minimum up to about 9' max height. Right now it's about 4" under my ceiling.



The tank was build by Jay at Waterbox Customs. He built it a few years ago and I bought it used. I broke it down and had Jay CNC a custom weir and some returns with an external overflow and rebuild it.

72"x24"x22" tall, 1/2" with euro. Three 1" drains for the Beananimal and it's drilled for a closed loop on the bottom. I'll have to cap a few holes from the old internal overflow.

The tank when I bought it.


Now

[justincgdick]

The LED fixture is my pride and joy. It's taken me countless hours to put it together and it's about 95% complete. Technically it runs now, but only on timers, no controller or fancy features quite yet. I'm waiting on a few Tycoon controllers to finish it up. I build a ballast/ project box out of acrylic scraps (haha, went through the bin) and it turned out pretty good for an amateur.

Here's a link to the detailed build thread it anyone cares. There are lot's of changes I made over the build, but I have a lot of pictures of the whole build.











With the analog dimmers I'm pretty close to minimum power. I've dialed them down to around 25%. With the controllers I will be able to dim smoothly from completely off to full power or anything in between. There are 8 seperately controlled channels. A channel of 7 CW XML on each panel as well as two groups of 6 RB XPG and two groups of 6 NW XPG. The royal blue and neutral white are for spectrum adjustment while the cool white are the main power.

I just need a par meter so I can figure out what this thing can put out. I think it is pretty darn powerful but it's hard to say without a meter. I'm hoping it's capable of SPS raised up and with only 52 LEDs total.

[scubadawg]

Looks great, I would be putting it GFI's for plug ins if that was me.

[justincgdick]

I was gonna put everything through the gfi, but then I would loose my whole system if it trips. The I considered having one gfi for the wet side and a bunch of regulars for the dry side of the stand. Then I thought about putting in a bunch, but that is a lot of $$$ for 6 or 8 GFI plugs. Now I'm not sure what I'm gonna do.

It's not nearly as much an issue as with salt water, but I should have some protection. I'll take any ideas!

[Nano]

Looks great so far

[gregzz4]

For GFCIs I bought a 10 pack from E-Bay before Xmas. It was $100 with shipping and another $47 for Duty etc. Still saved $50.
I just looked and that vendor has bumped the price to $150, so no longer worth it after Duty. Guess I got lucky buying when I did.
If you only need 6, they come in 3-packs for about $40 in store.
But, if you don't care about code, you could use 20A outlets on your 15A system. Here's and example of no-name ( factory ) ones you could consider. It's a 10 pack shipped for $80
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Lot-10-White-...item5ae5f01992

I bought Leviton Smartlock Pro, similar to these
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Leviton-8899-...item3f150ecdc8

If you do buy from outside Canada, don't forget to factor in Duty and Brokerage

[gregzz4]

Likin' the build