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| Light Box |
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| * Hammilton 2X55 watt PowerCompact retro - Daylight and 7100 Kelvin Blue bulbs - Appliance timer controls cycle * 24"Normal Florescent kit w/ Actinic bulb - pvc rain gutter used as reflector - Appliance timer controls cycle * 110 volt AC fan - Appliance timer controls cycle |
| I wanted a light rack that I could remove when it was necessary to do some serious maintainance inside the tank. I do not have a removable hood sitting on top of my tank. The tank is INSIDE a cabinet, there are good and bad thing about that. The bad thing is a lack of clearence when you're trying to clean the tank. If there were HOT metal halides mounted inside the the lighting part of the cabinet, I'd have a lot of burn-scars to show you. In the "bang for the buck"catagory for lights, nothing beats Power Compact Florescents (PC). PCs are 1/2 to 1/3 the price of halides and, though comperable in price, they are at least twice as brite (per watt) as VHO Florescents. |
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| My original plan was to mount hooks into the top of a plywood board and then put eyelits into the top of the cabinet's interior. Alignment became a nightmare in the logistics, so I decided to just slide it into place like a drawer. There are two levels to slide it into: Up High (as shown,right)for feeding, simple maintainance, to help keep it cooler in summer. Bottom for maximum light and child proofing. The Lexan lens was suggested by author/researcher Dana Riddle. We corrisponded via e mail during the planning of the light. Lexan is used for airplane windows. Very strong and flexible (so it's usually sold thin) and filters 90% of UV rays. Also, more expensive than acryic. |
| Above, you can see a demonstration of the arms holding up the light box. The width added by the arms makes a tight squeeze, but I can remove it fairly quick. Left, the light box is pulled out and resting on top of the cabinet. Inside you can see the bottom ledge. The top ledge is split because the light box has to be inside the cabinet before it can mounted. The inside of the light cabinet is larger than the opening So to mount it to the top level the light box is, first, slid onto the bottom level then lifted up to the very top of the inside of the cabinet, then it can be slid onto the top ledges. |