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Ahanix 
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 Topic: Biocube 14 Lighting Upgrade, would this work?
Posted: March 09 2010 at 12:48pm |
So I have been playing around with the idea of doing a lighting upgrade for my biocube 14. I am receiving a replacement canopy because one of my lights has a hard time firing (I think the switch is bad) and it will be here Thursday. I've seen a lot of of 72w mods, and I think they look great, but why couldn't you fit 96w in the hood with some modification?
Here's a picture I made in paint, kind of crappy, but you get the idea
The plastic shield (I will have two) would be cut, one towards the rear, and another in the middle to give more protected room, I would seal it shut with silicone in the middle, or something.
4 LED's would be placed in the front of the canopy, or 2 in front and 2 in back, I could cover these with acrylic or something from home depot, and sealed with silicone.
4 fans would be placed in the hood, one in each corner, the stock reflector would be cut / drilled for air to get in and out
I'm doubting this would work, and i'm most likely better off just going for 72w but figured I would ask.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: March 09 2010 at 12:59pm |
That looks great!!!!!!
Adam
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 09 2010 at 3:09pm |
Due to lack of planning, the only way I could fit a 4th light in the tank is to seal off the feeding lid of the tank, and put the light forward, rather than in the back (because of the rear chambers) So here's a more accurate mockup
Edited by Ahanix - March 09 2010 at 3:21pm
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Aquaristnewbie
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Posted: March 09 2010 at 9:23pm |
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Seems like a great mod and very cheap if you already have the parts from your old hood. Good luck with it. My only thought is do you need to have the LEDs in there? They are cool for moonlight effect and I understand that but maybe worry about those later. Also instead of sealing off the feed hatch what if you some how siliconed the reflector to the light cover to seal it off yet still be able to use the hatch. Not a huge deal but it is nice to have that sometimes. Good luck with it. Post some pics when you are done. Seems like a great idea and I think you will be vey happy going this route.
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 09 2010 at 9:57pm |
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hmm.. Well, I guess i'll have to look more at the hood once the new one comes. i'll keep everyone posted :)
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 12:37am |
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That's pretty ambitious! I'd keep one of everything pretty much intact until you were sure everything was working properly, just in case.
I like the first one better if you could make that work. You could probably keep the moonlight leds behind/between the pcs, especially if you used all 4.
After taking a minute to look at mine, that will be a ton of work to modify the splash guard. What if you used 3 pcs and supplemented with a couple rows of leds? Actually, I like that idea...I'm gonna look into that myself.
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Todd
14g nano mixed reef project
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 12:51am |
Not sure if its worth the $70, but sure looks nice
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 1:30am |
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Hmmm...two strips, a 24v transformer and shipping = $121.96. Tempting.
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Todd
14g nano mixed reef project
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 10:51am |
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t81236.html
This is most likely the same format that I am going to adopt, except only use one workhorse 3, and my two stock oceanic ballasts. I'll post the work once I get my hood tomorrow and take the old one apart to see how much room I have to work with
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 12:34pm |
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Have you thought about watts per gallon? I've read the recommendation for reef tanks to be max 8 watts/gallon. I don't know if that recommendation is different for MH, PC or LED.
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Todd
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 12:43pm |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNR21no-9Ck&feature=related So I finally found this, this made my life 10x easier. Tomorrow i'll see if I cant find a ballast and an aluminum project box from radioshack. Are there any comparable ballasts to the workhorse ballasts that are sold locally?
Yeah, the whole watts per gallon thing got me started on this whole 96w conversion (6.85w per gallon). I think I would really like to go 2x10k 1x50/50 and 1x actinic. Hopefully I wont get a huge algae bloom or anything, but I figure with that I could grow about anything I wanted to, and keep temps even. Plus with the way that this is going, this mod would cost me about $25 (I hope....) Do you think 7w per gallon would be too much under PC?
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 9:06pm |
I have no idea about the ballasts. If you know the specs on the ballast you want, ask EWS for something comparable. I don't think these tanks actually hold 14 gallons. When I first put in the sand, rock and water, my tank was full with 7 gallons. This makes me think the capacity is actually closer to 10 gallons. I would think MH, PC and LED would have different effects on the aquarium, thus changing the optimum wpg. I'd also guess that actinics, 50/50, and 10K would also differ in effective wpg. Then there's tank depth and desired fauna. Somebody in the know should create a formula so we can just plug in the numbers and see what's optimum for our tanks. 
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Todd
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 10:07pm |
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Haha, wouldn't that be great? So I am kind of torn now. I think I might just sell my old hood and the internals of my new hood coming and doing an LED retro. But i'll have to see exactly how much it would cost, and how much I could sell my old stuff for.
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 10:09pm |
That, or most likely I might just do the nanotuners 3.24 upgrade.
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 10:38pm |
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I'm seriously considering adding 1-2 of those LED strips you found. Those plus the 3.24 are still cheaper than the nanocustoms LED and MH upgrades.
I think you should keep at least enough parts to add another PC. You'd only need to buy a transformer for the third light, and some wire connectors, etc. I'm not even using the upgraded fans right now and heat is not an issue, even with the transformer mounted in the hood. That would save you a ton from the 3.24 kit.
I went with a 10K bulb, a 50/50 and an actinic. When the time comes to replace them, I will go with one 10K bulb and two actinics for more color.
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Todd
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 11:17pm |
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I posted a link earlier, I might have found a way to build a full LED setup for $150, but that was before I found some different drivers. which would cut the cost down by $30, and if I only had to go with one driver, instead of two, it would cut the price down to almost $100
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 10 2010 at 11:33pm |
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I still think though that i'll tear apart my old hood this weekend and see if its possible to even fit 4 lights in the hood, if not i'll just buy a small ballast and do my own lighting upgrade for $25 for now. Maybe save the money for future mods / wait till summer and do my LED setup over time. I have a lot of research to do this weekend on the matter, so I guess we will see what happens :P
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 11 2010 at 12:37pm |
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81236&st=0&gopid=738504&#entry738504
So I found this link the other day, and I think this would probably be easiest to do, My new hood comes today, so i'll be able to pull my old one apart. if I could wire the on and off switches, and then just retro all 4 lights to a workhorse 5 ballast that would be pretty awesome.
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Ahanix
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Posted: March 11 2010 at 3:15pm |
So here's probably the last mockup before I start the project, i'll get everything wired up (with the parts from the old hood and I think a workhorse 5 ballast, or I need to find something comparable that I can fire 4x24w ballasts with. I think I found a ballast from EWS that is $25, so we will see what happens. If you look at the pictures, you can see that I left one of the fans in the same place, and put another one in the top right hand corner. I don't know if this would work. Either I will do that or just leave both of them in the rear where the 4th ballast will be (same place as the nanocustoms 3.24 kit has them.
Anyways, i'm not sure if two fans will be enough, but when I start testing and fitting everything i'll make sure it works before I move the stuff over from my other hood. I can probably get some more bulb holders at EWS as well, so I can just get everything installed without touching my other hood at first, until I do the fans / moonlighting. I'm thinking about installing 4 of the stock moonlights in the hood near the middle like the stock is set up.
The only thing I need to do now is find out where to buy some metal / have it cut down to size.
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Mad Dawg
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Posted: March 11 2010 at 10:55pm |
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Are you planning on running a dawn/dusk lighting scenario? If so, you may need to keep one of the existing ballasts for the actinic and use another ballast for the remaining 3 bulbs. But I don't know for sure, just thought I'd throw that out there.
BTW - Thanks for the frags. They opened up pretty quickly, even after being manhandled and superglued.
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Todd
14g nano mixed reef project
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