Carz
Well-Known Member
I have been working this project for a few months now. I got some good advice from the people of this forum and wanted to give a report back. I made a prototype out of some foam board first and then I made a working model that I put on my tank on 11/24 for testing.
My concern was the choice of lights I got from amazon. was not sure if they would work. At $24 each I thought why not just try them. I put two of these lights on the test model and started to see growth within one week and has continued to grow ever since. I ran the lights 24/7 for the first week and then I started to run the lights for only 12 hours after that.
After running for about 3 weeks the acrylic started to bow. The lid was pretty bad. I was going to double the acrylic on the final model but changed my mind.
So when I worked out most of the bugs I had a final model. I added a poly carbonate lid and hinges. I made 3 of them. Gave two to friends for testing. I was going to wait before I put mine in to place. My original demo was working just fine and I am basically measuring algae growth at this point.
The two I gave to friends worked well so far. No lid bowing and algae growing. But I started thinking again. I had the material and i have the laser files all made. I made a few more changes just for myself. First, I went bigger. I had 2 extra lights and with the two in the test model I decided to go with 4 lights and make the scrubber longer. I also used a black PVC vinyl with a cut out for the lights. I would stick this vinyl in place and with the help of CADD software, vinyl cutter and a laser...everything just lines up perfectly. I decided to not use the vinyl and replace that with an extra piece of 1/8" acrylic. Then I was concerned that the added length would cause the sides to bow. I added some top braces to stop that from happening. Then finally the hinges would cause my lid to hit my ATO controller so it was no hinges. I went back to the double lid, but to stop the bowing I used the poly carbonate for the inner and the black acrylic for the outside.
DONE..............I hope. I plan on putting this on my system at the start of the new year.
My concern was the choice of lights I got from amazon. was not sure if they would work. At $24 each I thought why not just try them. I put two of these lights on the test model and started to see growth within one week and has continued to grow ever since. I ran the lights 24/7 for the first week and then I started to run the lights for only 12 hours after that.
After running for about 3 weeks the acrylic started to bow. The lid was pretty bad. I was going to double the acrylic on the final model but changed my mind.
So when I worked out most of the bugs I had a final model. I added a poly carbonate lid and hinges. I made 3 of them. Gave two to friends for testing. I was going to wait before I put mine in to place. My original demo was working just fine and I am basically measuring algae growth at this point.
The two I gave to friends worked well so far. No lid bowing and algae growing. But I started thinking again. I had the material and i have the laser files all made. I made a few more changes just for myself. First, I went bigger. I had 2 extra lights and with the two in the test model I decided to go with 4 lights and make the scrubber longer. I also used a black PVC vinyl with a cut out for the lights. I would stick this vinyl in place and with the help of CADD software, vinyl cutter and a laser...everything just lines up perfectly. I decided to not use the vinyl and replace that with an extra piece of 1/8" acrylic. Then I was concerned that the added length would cause the sides to bow. I added some top braces to stop that from happening. Then finally the hinges would cause my lid to hit my ATO controller so it was no hinges. I went back to the double lid, but to stop the bowing I used the poly carbonate for the inner and the black acrylic for the outside.
DONE..............I hope. I plan on putting this on my system at the start of the new year.
