Just wanted to show off my new lighting hood.

[hanknmorgan]

I am fairly new to MAAST and have really enjoyed seeing pictures and reading about all of your tanks.

My wife and I have a JBJ nanocube 12g that we purchased used in January. I am currently in school, so we have been SLOWLY upgrading and adding things here and there. Not much coral yet unfortunately.

Anyway, I decided to make a custom lighting hood for it last week and thought I would share it here. It's made from aluminum that I welded together and powdercoated. It has a 70w 10k Ushio metal halide, 32w Current Sunpaq dual actinic PC, and 2 led moonlights. It also has 2 80mm fans for cooling and a UV filtering XL10 Lexan cover. I love the light and the tank looks great with it. Thanks for looking.

-Hank

[hanknmorgan]

Couple More Pics

[MattK]

Dang! Your inhabitants are going to need sunglasses and sunscreen!

Good job.

[hanknmorgan]

It's nowhere near as bright as it looks in the pics. My junky blackberry camera really doesn't do it justice and my wife had our "real" camera with her when I took the pics. I am hoping that I will be able to keep some SPS and/or a clam down the road when we can afford to buy them.

[BioCube14]

very nice light i like the halide with a PC combo how are your tank temps by the way?

[hanknmorgan]

Temps are holding just fine so far. It's only gone up about 1 degree all day with the lights on. I have the fans setup on variable voltage DC adapters, so I can turn their speed up and down if I need to. It's only been on about 2.5 days, but so far so good. The hood is actually cooler feeling than ambient air temps, so I can probably turn the fans down slightly.

And we are loving the actinic dawn/dusk cycle. Whole different viewing experience now. Plus that nice MH shimmer everywhere.

[markgsa]

:w00t nice work!!!

[hanknmorgan]

Thanks for the compliments guys. My couple corals and clownfish dont know what to think. The old PC bulbs that were in there were about 3x past their prime. We like to get small (a.k.a cheap) frags whenever we can and just let them grow. What we have had hasnt done much in the few months its been in there, so hopefully the new lighting will make things take off a bit so I can start fragging and trading and fill this little tank up.

Glad you all like it.

[Stacy]

Wow! I'm gonna be lucky to get my husband to build me a stand and canopy, let alone weld together a custom light fixture! I'm jealous!! Nice work :)
Stacy

[tony]

wow, great job!

[hanknmorgan]

I'm taking preorders now for the official product release later this month. Send paypal to.......... Just kidding.

Luckily, I work at an automotive engineering shop that designs and fabricates turbocharger and supercharger systems. Lots of nice equipment to use. I imagine a simple canopy could be made from wood or something though.

Seeing other people's projects gave me ideas/inspiration, so I was hoping that mine would do the same.

[hobogato]

great job! looking forward to seeing closer pics of the tank ;)

[hanknmorgan]

I'm taking preorders now for the official product release later this month. Send paypal to.......... Just kidding.


I'd buy one for my 14, seriously.

Well, I could perhaps be convinced to make a few. ;) I could replicate it in probably half the time it took to design and make the original. It wouldnt be much trouble to stretch the dimensions as necessary to fit your 14. Shoot me a PM if you really want one. I can price out your desired components and get a ballpark figure for you on price. It doesnt really save money vs. buying a commercially available one because I have to buy all the bulbs and what not at full retail. But it's nice to have something unique and have it exactly the way you want it with the bulbs you want, etc. Shoot if anyone else wants one, let me know. I could probably make a batch and possibly bring the cost down by getting components in larger quantities. I would love to trade the labor for coral or something.