75 Gallon technology heavy tank with DIY

[ilyad]

More update on the canopy build. No picture of the painting process, but the canopy was painted black using the same paint that the tank stand maker used.

First off, I started with using an old T5 bulb I borrowed to mock up the fitting for the end caps.

While mocking the bulb, I realized that the screws provided would have been longer than the end caps and the wood combined. Rummaging through my parts bin, I found a rubber padding that would add just enough height.

After a bit of racking my head I decided to cut small strips that would only attach to the feet. I used crazy glue to attach that. Once the screw is holding it down, the pieces will never move.

The next step was to add holes in the canopy where the T5 wiring will feed through. I started with a smaller pilot hole before moving to a larger drill bit while minimizing chipping. I then sanded down the openings to clean up the holes.

Along with holes for the wiring, I needed to add holes to mount the canopy mount. After marking off the location, I proceeded with drilling the holes in the same manner.

The holes came out perfectly spaced, so that’s a great start.

Lastly, I touched up the the holes with some fresh paint.

Next I need to run another layer of paint over the canopy to cover up any imperfections from the drilling and sanding, followed by some wiring.

 

[ilyad]

The canopy build is pretty much completed. I have run an additional layer of paint on the canopy to take care of any of the remaining blemishes after the drilling.

Next step is to wire in the LET Lighting T-5 kit.

I had to cut down the length of the wiring harness and strip the wires new to make sure the bend fits well within the space allowed.

Using zip tie and these sticky wire holders, I routed the wires.

As I reached the opening for each of the end caps, a set of wires was fed through that opening. The remaining wires continued to be routed along the path.

All of the wiring has been run completely

View of the canopy from the underside. All you would see are the end caps and the Radions (which will go into the openings)

Finally, I attached the ballast to the canopy using heavy duty double sided tape.

View of the bulbs added to test how the bulbs fit, and to test whether I have wired the kit properly .

And we have light! lamps fired right up.

I really like how the floating canopy is turning out and I cannot wait to mount it to the wall and see how everything will look in its place.

 

[ilyad]

Well, here comes another slow update. It looks likes its only been 3 weeks since the last one

One of the things I needed to do was to reinforce the wall where the canopy will be mounted. I wanted to be sure that at no point would the fixture have the chance of ripping off the wall and falling into the tank.

First started with measuring out the location where the mount will have to be so that its center above the tank. (Not the best photo, but there are pencil markings on the wall measuring things out).

Then the wall was cut out and cross beams were added. Note that I added metal brackets, so the mount will not go anywhere!

There are two crossbeams so that the mount can attach, while still allowing room for wires to pass.

Template of the mount bracket.

Drywall placed back in its place.

Patching started.

On the bottom, I (my cousin) added a wire receptacle so that the wires would feed nicely from the wall.

(The strings were fed so that I can use them later to feed the wires through the wall).

Overall view with more patching and repaint needed on the wall.

Next steps: finish touching up the wall, mount the canopy, and build the electronics panel.

 

[ilyad]

Nothing too exciting today... but here is a very quick update on the canopy mount actually attached to the wall.

Here is a picture of the bulbs I intend to use. One coral plus and blue plus. Although I do like how coral plus looks and may run both of those.

Also, as a bonus, here is a fun picture I took this weekend at my LFS where a sea star was hugging a fish.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Awesome build !!! Following>>>

 

[kdino]

sweet build, following for sure!

 

[ilyad]

Awesome build !!! Following>>>

sweet build, following for sure!

Thank you both for the praise and the follows. I hope to keep up with the momentum I've gained and keep everything being built as soon as possible.

 

[ilyad]

Another update ready for post. In this installment, I am still working on the floating canopy.

As previously designed, I needed to create mounting brackets for the XR15s in order to mount them into the cut outs. So we start with some L shaped aluminum which is plenty sturdy to hold a light without flexing. I was initially planning to use C channels but decided against that for ease of access to screws.

I then went ahead and marked off the bar into 9 inch increments (allowing an inch overhang on each side of the light).

Then went ahead and clamped the aluminum to a block of wood and slowly cut it with a fine hacksaw.

Finished cut being sized up.

Next to clean up the cut ends with some sandpaper.

After that I marked off the areas where the holes for mounting screws need to go and drilled them.

After a few minor adjustments, here is the fit on the light.

I used the already well fit pieces to mark the next ones (taking into account the center being off due to the lip)

Here are all 4 pieces (to mount two lights), cut, drilled, and sanded.

Pieces are then sprayed with black spraypaint. Including the back sides of the washers from earlier in the thread.

The next step was to cut out some grooves to allow the light power cable to sit better in the canopy without being bent too much. I didnt like how it would sit otherwise for long term use.

I used a drill to cut a hole and then a Dremel to cut it out further

Then finished it up by painting the cut outs.

The canopy construction is actually finally completed. Next day that I have available, I will go ahead and mount it to the wall along with the lights. Stay tuned.

 

[ilyad]

I wanted to ask those of you who are following this thread whether the details for this threat are at a right level. Would you like me to continue to include the same amount of pictures in my updates with thorough step-by-step write ups, or would you prefer that I keep it short and sweet and give you a few photos that show the progress much faster?

 

[a4edwin]

I like the detailed information! Please don’t change your format

 

[Ruben's Reef]

You are doing great on your build and the details and pics makes it easy for anyone to build their own.

 

[ilyad]

I like the detailed information! Please don’t change your format

You are doing great on your build and the details and pics makes it easy for anyone to build their own.

Thanks for the feedback... I'll keep the posts detailed. And as to your point Spyder, some of these components took quite a lot of brainstorming, trial and error. Hence, I think it is nice to keep a fully detailed process documented for anyone else that may find that they would like to make something similar to mine.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Thanks for the feedback... I'll keep the posts detailed. And as to your point Spyder, some of these components took quite a lot of brainstorming, trial and error. Hence, I think it is nice to keep a fully detailed process documented for anyone else that may find that they would like to make something similar to mine.

That's great. As a matter of fact, I'm working on my 75g upgrade that will take me a little longer due to some wife projects on the house but I'm cooking your lighting idea for my build. I like how's everything looks clean, the wire holders, etc. Even that my tank will be in-wall but I want everything nicely setup. Keep it coming..

 

[ilyad]

That's great. As a matter of fact, I'm working on my 75g upgrade that will take me a little longer due to some wife projects on the house but I'm cooking your lighting idea for my build. I like how's everything looks clean, the wire holders, etc. Even that my tank will be in-wall but I want everything nicely setup. Keep it coming..

Ah, Im glad some of my ideas are of any use to anyone. And I'll have to check out your build too!

 

[ilyad]

I can finally say that one major component of the tank build is completed - I finished the floating canopy.

Picking up where I left off, I had to attach the pivoting mount mechanism to the canopy itself. Its being held in place with washers, stainless bolts, and stainless self locking nuts.

Mocking up the mount to the canopy.

Nuts and bolts tightened down.

This is a test fit of the canopy over the tank. So far the power cables and actual lights not attached to the canopy.

View of the Radion from above.

I was a little worried that I may have built the canopy so the light sits too close to the edge and that it would create some shadowing. Luckily, it seems that the puck sits far enough inside not to create an issue.

View of the painted brackets on the Radion.

Attaching the diffuser to see if that has any impact on shadowing with the canopy.

Unfortunately, the insert that came from EcoTech was a bit crumbled in the bag. (I'll be contacting the company for a replacement because I suspect that may effect the blending of the spectrums.)

View with the Radion on with the diffuser - doesn't seem too bad.

Testing T5 to see if it works.

Moved the Radion to the right side to see if the light spillover effects the TV. From what I can tell, there is very little noticeable light on the TV. The only issue is a bit of the T5s are visible from the couch, but it shouldn't be an issue with those running only for a few hours during the day.

Moved the Radion back to the left side where it'll sit.

View of the Radion and T5s on.

And a bonus picture of the cat wanting to be the center of attention and falling asleep on the towel where I was changing the diffuser.

 

[ilyad]

Still a bit worried about the effect of the shadowing caused by the edges of the canopy, I decided to borrow a PAR meter from my LFS to test the PAR levels at the edge of the tank as well as at the estimated water line. If there is little to no shadowing there, the effect would be reduced even further deeper in the tank.

I used some masking tape to tape out some grid points to test the PAR output right below the light and equal distances from the light moving left and right. Since the right side of the Radion doesn't have a wall, if the par levels are similar, I knew that the edge was not causing much issue. And as I suspected, the par levels were right about the same with the edge or without, which is great news for me!

Now that I knew that I am happy with the canopy/lights and how it lights the tank, I went ahead and fed the Radion power cable through the canopy and the wall. I left some slack on the wire because the canopy is designed to rotate around to give more room if I need to access things in the tank. I used the strings that I inserted earlier to help me feed the cables by taping the wire to the rope and pulling it through the wall.

No wires visible from the outside.

And this is where they would come out behind the stand.

The next step was to get the T5 ballast power cable longer since the one that comes in the kit was too short to be routed around the canopy and through the wall. I found a 15 foot extension cord with the same specs as the one that came with the kit. Prior to doing this, I contacted the company and they confirmed that doing so is their recommended step. It turns out that these are the same cables used in computer power supplies.

Went ahead and cut off one of the ends.

I then used a box cutter to strip the outside rubber coating.

Then used my tool to strip the actual cables.

Clean it up by twisting it "with the grain."

Since the ballast has holes where the cables need to plug in, I needed to add solder to make it a stiffer connection.

I have never soldered before, but I think this came out pretty decent.

Cut it down in size to match the original. Left side is my work, right side is the original cable.

Tested to make sure my handiwork is to par. Since the lights turn on, I think thats a win.

Like the Radion cable, I routed the T5 cable with a bit of slack and fed it through the wall.

Another shot of the Radion fit into the canopy. I just like how this turned out so well with the space for cable and the brackets, that I had to add another pic of that.

Entire canopy view from above. Note the empty spot for the second Radion which will be added once all livestock is transferred from the old tank to this one.

NOW FOR THE BEST PART.... ALL WIRES RUN THROUGH THE WALL AND ALL LIGHTS TURNED ON. VIEWS FROM VARIOUS ANGLES.

Note: that if I was redoing this light canopy again, I think I would add an inch or two on each side of the canopy to ensure 100% that there was no issue with shadows. Likewise, I think I would raise the canopy a few inches to allow easier access into the tank. However, as is, I am very happy with the outcome, and don't see any reason to redo what is currently in place.

 

[ilyad]

Not a lot of work got done since the last update... but we can all thank the holidays for that. But I did do some small miscellaneous things.

First, I completed the manifold by attaching the corner 90 degree elbows and barbs to the two outputs, so that they can be rotated in any direction.

Then I went to work planning out the electrical panel inside the stand by laying out some of the items.

Finally, I marked off where those things will go for the next step when I actually carry over that to the wood.

 

[LaraLouM]

I'm super impressed! I would not even be able to begin to create any of this! can't wait to see more updates.

 

[ilyad]

I'm super impressed! I would not even be able to begin to create any of this! can't wait to see more updates.

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words. I cannot wait for the build to be done as well. ;Blackeye Hopefully that'll be sooner than later.

 

[count krunk]

this is a great build thread. Keep up the documentation. I think I am going to use your same idea with the projector mount on my build.

Thank you!