29g BioCube hood - repurposing and putting in heavy duty bulbs

[ilikefish69]

So I am using a BioCube without the hood, and the hood is just sitting there all useless. The hood has fixtures for two bulbs, and the LED strip.

I was thinking I would remove the lighting fixture from the hood, and put in some better bulbs. Currently am only running LED strips on the display tank, so these are interesting to me. I think they are referred to as T5 lighting? The two sets of two white bulbs.

What are the options when replacing these bulbs? The plastic cover comes right off. The plan is to take a couping saw to the plastic part and chop around the red square, and then mount that to a piece of plywood above the tank, directly under the shelf.

 

[RedoubtReef]

I think it depends on how handy you are. It could be retro fitted with LED or maybe a small 150w DE halide with plastic above that section removed. The guy I got my cube from cut out the entire section above the light and then set a led fixture in the center. Didn't look great but it worked. I replaced the hood with the newer model that has LED built into it which is another option; you could just buy the new version.

 

[ilikefish69]

I was hoping to just replace the two white bulbs with something that is more powerful. Is that the DE halide you are referring to?

It's going under a shelf with an overhang so it won't be seen at all unless you're looking up under the shelf

 

[RedoubtReef]

Yes, double end. It's too bad you can't get a T5 that would fit in there. That would be better in my opinion than LED and for sure better than the PC bulbs. They do make an actinic PC bulb, you could just swap out one of the whites. Are those 11" bulbs?

 

[ilikefish69]

I am scouring the internet trying to find out, not at home, but I am unsure the length. 11" seems right as it's about 20" across the hood

 

[ilikefish69]

Basically what I am trying to figure out is what is going to be the best way to repurpose this hood so I can utilize it rather than storing it on a shelf? lol

 

[RedoubtReef]

What are you planning to keep in the tank? I think that will determine best route as well as how handy you are and how much effort you want to put into the 'retrofit' route.

 

[ilikefish69]

Just softies, got 3 orphek or3 LEDs

 

[ilikefish69]

And 100% effort. Lol

 

[RedoubtReef]

My first saltwater aquarium was a 40 gallon SeaClear AIO that had a 36" Coralvue PC light fixture and it was fine for zoas and shrooms. Sounds like the easy route for you is replacing one of the white PC bulbs with an actinic. I think that you'd like the change. Otherwise, you have to start cutting things up and modifying which is fine if that works for you.

 

[ChrsFrssll]

So I am using a BioCube without the hood, and the hood is just sitting there all useless. The hood has fixtures for two bulbs, and the LED strip.

I was thinking I would remove the lighting fixture from the hood, and put in some better bulbs. Currently am only running LED strips on the display tank, so these are interesting to me. I think they are referred to as T5 lighting? The two sets of two white bulbs.

After multiple iterations of installing led stinger strips, replacing the fans, and other modifications of the hood of my ancient Oceanic BioCube 14, here’s the DIY conversion i landed on that works for me: Removed all of the stock lighting, fans, and wiring, and cut a hole in the hood to to mount an AI Prime LED. It’s easily fixed in place with black silicone sealer. I kept the original plastic splash guard in place as a shield and light diffuser.

This tank’s located not far from our kitchen, so the full hood is needed to reduce exposure to cooking and cleaning aerosols. The conversion was surprisingly easy, and it’s been reliable and super low maintenance. Besides very controllable, high quality lighting, summertime heat buildup in the hood is a thing of the past. The Prime’s integral fan is also nearly silent, much quieter than the stock fans in the hood (which for me never lasted more than 12-18 months before needing replacement).

The Prime’s closer to the surface than ideal for dispersion efficiency, but on the BC14 I’m only using about 35% of the LED capacity at the daily maximum anyway. So there’s plenty of light to go around. On the larger BioCube you might a stronger light intensity gradient around the outside of the upper half of the tank, but coverage near the bottom should be fine.

 

[ChrsFrssll]

….But re-reading your original post, my suggestion’s probably irrelevant, as I guess you’re ok open top, just looking to get some use out of the hood’s lighting fixtures. Sorry!

 

[ilikefish69]

That is legit, haha no worries!! It's still just sitting there... collecting dust...

I really wanted to just replace the two bulbs with some T5 type bulbs and supplement my Orphek LED bars with some t5 lighting, but I think I'm going to end up going the route of purchasing a single T5 bulb holder and just install it with the LED bars.

Its a 48" long tank, I don't foresee it having any use other than being out of place. Maybe someday I'll bring the 29g out from under the 75 and run it as an anemone tank, and then I can put an AI in it like how you've got.

Well done, very well done.