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300 gallons of blog!

Lights complete. Next stop... cutting a hole in the wall.

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by
crvz
, 12-17-2010 at 06:24 PM (3201 Views)
I've been taking advantage of some down time at work to make good progress. I've not shared this image yet, so here's the completed stand.



I've also got the light rack all secured. I hung it via a rancor bike hoist, which will allow me to pull it to the ceiling if it's in the way during maintenance, while also giving me the flexibility to adjust its operational height with ease. To install the hoist, I simply screwed a 2x4 into the ceiling joists so that the hoist could be mounted directly over the tank without having to otherwise bolster the mounting hardware. In this image, you can see the rack is just sitting in the hooks designed to grab the handlebars/bike seat, but I've since bolted it together.



A couple days later, I slapped the pendants in place and wired everything up. Here's the combination of the three 250W radiums (lumatek ballasts with lumenbright mini-wide pendants) and the 36 Cree LEDs (meanwell drivers, 30 Royal Blue and 6 White LEDs).



And from straight on.



Because this is mounted to a nearly 10 foot ceiling, and more importantly will probably be over 7 feet from the floor when operational, I'm thinking about putting up a simple light visor to block direct exposure to the metal halide bulbs when I'm in the room. This is probably overkill, but I'm thinking more about when the kids are in the room. They tend to look at bright lights.

I've alright got the finish trim painted and ready to install, so once I can get a few friends over to the house I'll be ready to slide the tank into position. Probably right after christmas, as we're hosting events at the home this year and I'd bet the wife doesnt want a construction zone.

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Updated 12-19-2010 at 02:33 AM by melev

Categories
‎ DIY projects

Comments

  1. gimmito's Avatar
    Sweet set up there. I'm trying to figure how to mount my lumenmax reflectors and lumentek ballast over my 450. I was thinking of using reefbrite led strips for atinic supplementation, but like your led setup.

    Jim
  2. Midnight's Avatar
    CRVZ glad to see you are still making progress. you know us little guys love to see you alls big tanks.
  3. melev's Avatar
    Adjusting the height of the lighting is almost a two-person job with that bicycle hanging kit. I've helped Ryan adjust his in the past over his 400g. If you don't mind doing a test run, I'd suggest you rig two different ropes so you can raise and lower it like a common Venetian blind.

    You could use black rubber as your light shield.
  4. Sisterlimonpot's Avatar
    I was thinking the same thing. unless the light fixture was pulled all the way to the ceiling it would have the tendency to lean to one side. With the hooks positioned in the middle of the frame I would be concerned with the light fixture tipping forwards or backwards. I'd also suggest having 2 independent pulley systems one on the left and one on the right, having it all tied into the tie down on the left, that way you can still control and fine tune them both at the same time. I would also use hooks on all 4 corners of the light frame to prevent it from tipping forward and backwards.
  5. crvz's Avatar
    I havent had an issue raising/lowering it thus far. While it will lean one direction a little while letting it out, I can manage it with relative ease. But, once I get the tank in, I'll check it out again and see if there's reason to adjust something. I do not expect to have to manipulate the system very often. But thanks for the thoughts!
  6. Sisterlimonpot's Avatar
    BTW, I really like how clean and organized everything looks off to the right of the stand. Keep the updates coming.