Here's a nice overview of the tanks.
Looks fantastic Marc!I wish my tank looked even half as good.
Wish my tank looked that good! Do you run your MH/T5 in a hood? If not do you get alot of light spilling over the sides? I am considering removing my canopy and installing a new t5 fixture but I'm afraid it may drive me crazy being in my living room if theres a ton of light spillage. I posted a blog entry about this.
There's two sides to that story. The bottom line is allowing that light to flood into the livingroom doesn't bother me one bit. However, the peanut gallery that seems my images often bemoan a lack of woodwork or complain the lightrack is a distraction. I like the industrial look and it allows me to explain how everything works when people stop by. I do have a couple of sheets of black corrugated sign material that I can affix to the front and back to contain the lights, which I use occasionally - especially when I want to take full tank pictures and don't want to wash out the images with light bleed. Here's a picture of the tank without any light shields:
Looks great, I'm not sure if it would bother me a whole lot. But I think it would bother my wife and then she would bother me. If I end up getting this fixture I could always build a slightly bigger canopy.
There's always a way to build woodwork. I've got plans but zero rush to implement them. I spoke about the concept back in January / February but it may only happen this summer. We'll see.