Building a Canopy...

[Luca Brazzi]

Ok... I went to Home Depot and Loews today to pick up some plumbing supplies and other stuff to finish my tank and undergravel jet system. While I was there, I also picked up a snow shovel, and a couple of LOA's (Lights of America) exterior flourescent floodlights that I plan to use on an LCD projector TV project that I am working on. Anyway, when I got home, I was playing with the lights when my Girlfriend said, "Is that the light you are going to use for the fishtank?". Then it hit me... like a diamond bullet straight through my forehead... My God... the Genius of that! (for you Apocalypse Now fans) Perfect, pure, crystaline...

These lamps are made for outdoor use. They are very high output 6825 lumens each, and they are sealed. All I need to do is to figure a way to mount 2 of them to the top of my soon to be Canopy, and that is all the light Ill ever need, or want.

Will 6825 Lumens of light times 2 give my fishies a sunburn?

[carpguy]

I found this site for Lights of America (http://www.lightsofamerica.com/) and basically just became confused. I looked at the Security Lights under Lighting Products and the writeup said the color temp was 6500k, but the specs in the replacement bulb area said 2800k. (I'm assuming your talking about a planted tank with all this light). 6500 is ideal for plants, 2800 is low. I'd also be concerned about them lacking coverage, leaving shady spots and bright spots. Are they significantly brighter/cheaper than strip setups?

HTH

[Luca Brazzi]

Well I bought the lights for a projector project, and then thought about using them for the tank. They were 30.00 each. The tank wont be planted, just rocks and caves. I just thought that since they were sealed, and for outdoor use they would last longer than regular flourescents.

[carpguy]

My lights haven't been set up long enough to know about how they'll age, but I've seen a number of posts where the water has caused problems over time, so the the outdoor lights may be good on that point. If you're not planted the other points aren't important.

Its an amount of light thats low to moderate for a planted (if its 2x65 over a 75?), so I don't think it'd be too much on the fish. Unless they're from a good ways down, I'd think the Rift Lake fish must get an awful lot of light -- tropical sun and clear water with no cover. I was concerned about having too much light for my SE Asian (forest stream) guys and they all seem perfectly happy with higher light than that. Nobody tries to hide in the shade. Cosmetically, I really like the glow of the intensely lit tank. Maybe leave space for a third :cool: .

[Luca Brazzi]

Today I mounted the light in my DIY hood. The thing I realized was that the hood needed to be taller to keep this light away from the water (even though it is an exterior light I wanted to keep it at least a couple of inches off the water surface). The light itself has a couple of mounting brackets, one that looks like its for mounting the light to a pole, and the other seems like it was meant for mounting to a flat surface. I used the latter mounting bracket and screwed it into the top of my hood, directly in the center (I decided to do initial tests with 1 light). Anyway... the thing BLASTED light into the tank! The tank is empty (no aquascaping or fish) so Ill have to see what it looks like once this is done but the initial tests are fantastic. Im not planning on plants so I dont know about the lights characteristics in a planted tank but as for the pure light output...****!

Anyway, I think Im going to roll into production (thats techie talk for get fish etc) with the one light source. If I find issues later... Ill just move the one to the side, and add the other one.

[tyler]

they're rated at 6500k.

i've heard these aren't the best bang for your buck. you'll love them at first, and eventually there are problems. i've read about a lot of people having problems w/ the ballast crapping out, or overheating multiple times a day and shutting off the light.

http://www.aquabotanic.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1367&highlight=flourex

the guys over at aquabotanic experimented with them a bit. there are a few more threads about it there if you search for flourex.

[Luca Brazzi]

Wow

Thanks Tyler....

Hail Internet!

I havent modified them yet, and since I dont have any fish yet, I havent run the one LOA I have mounted in my hood, but from the sound of things Im in for trouble.

DANG... I should have known! After all they are Made in America!

I wonder if they work better if there outside? After all they are outdoor floodlights. Nah... once again... Made in America, means there is DEFINITLEY some kind of scam going on.

[Luca Brazzi]

SPOKE TOO SOON!


Right after posting my last reply I went downstairs and plugged in my LOA... AND IT BLEW OUT!!! After only turning it on about 4 times... It blew!! CHEAP JUNK!!!

So... being the electronics technician that I am, I disassembled the fixture to see what went wrong.

It has an electronic ballast like the forum you pointed me to said. Located on the circuitboard I found a chip which had completely blown apart!

After examining the circuit, I realized that the chip that blew is actually part of the light sensor that controls the lamp. Maybe I can bypass this circuit. There are several people using these lamps for TV projectors so maybe theyve encountered this and have a workaround...

Also... I may be able to simply replace the whole ballast circuit with another aftermarket electronic ballast.

Hay carrumba.

[Luca Brazzi]

Well in conclusion, after my LOA blew out I went and bought some plain old GE aquarium lights. I know these probably arent the greatest but this isnt a planted tank anyway... The LOA's might still get some use if I can find a better electronic ballast for them.

So... since I had designed my canopy to work with the LOA's I made it much taller than it turns out it needs to be (about 10" above the water surface) Oh well, maybe this will be better in the end.


I cut 2 access openings into the canopy... one on the left front, and one on the right side. Into these openings I mounted hinged doors. All I need to do now is apply some moulding to trim things up and a couple of knobs and Im done.

[drbdc]

Not sure if anything has changed since these posts, but I've been using 4 of these over my 65 gallon reef tank while building my canopy with metal halides and pc's. I have sps frags in the tank and they are growing like crazy. I've been using 14 hours a day for 7 months now and I only had 1 fixture break back in the 1st month. I just returned it to Home Depot for another. I now have 2 of them on my freshwater planted tank which takes me barely under 3 wpg on a 45 corner tank. PAR is extremely high with these so they in a sense are even more powerful than thier wattage. Ignore the incandescent comparison. You could have a full blown nano reef tank in a 10 gallon with these and grow anything.

[vtmechie]

Can you post some pictures of your project? That would be great. I am curious.