After purchasing my daughters tank, I decided some moonlights would be a good idea.
The Perfecto Perfect-A-Hood for a 35g aquarium is a little lacking if you ask me, but does leave room inside to allow a serious modder like me, to do some wicked work
I didn't want to mess with a system where I would have to do a lot of manual work, and I had a relay lying around from a previous project so why not use it right? This way, when the main light is shut off, the moonlights will automatically turn on. simple.
Well, I wasn't sure how I was going to mount it, but then it occurred to me that I could simply mount it in the side of the inner light mount on the fixture.
It was also very convenient that I happened to have a lid the EXACT same size as the rim on the relay.
I measure, marked, and cut the hole. Actually I melted it with my soldering iron for lack of a large enough hole saw.
Once that was finished I did some fitting and made sure everything was going to work out ok.
Once that was finished, I screwed it in through the white plastic, and back into the case. Essentially the relay was assembled exactly the same, except now mounted to this fixture.
The reason for doing this was simple. The relay base wouldn't fit in the fixture.
I also mounted a 12V transformer that I disassembled so I could mount it in the fixture itself. Gorilla Glue was used to secure the transformer. It works great.
Next it's on to the holes for the LEDs. After finding the appropriate sized drill bit, I was able to mark out a line, 20" long, from one screw mount to the other, and put LEDs every 5" apart. doing at the front where I did, made it really easy to get them lined up properly since I just used the perpendicular side as the drill guide.
I'm not totally finished the wiring yet, I need to get another power cord, and more of those blue connectors I used to wire the relay.
This is what it will look like assembled.
Stay tuned, I should have more connectors tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to get this finished up by then.
The Perfecto Perfect-A-Hood for a 35g aquarium is a little lacking if you ask me, but does leave room inside to allow a serious modder like me, to do some wicked work
I didn't want to mess with a system where I would have to do a lot of manual work, and I had a relay lying around from a previous project so why not use it right? This way, when the main light is shut off, the moonlights will automatically turn on. simple.
Well, I wasn't sure how I was going to mount it, but then it occurred to me that I could simply mount it in the side of the inner light mount on the fixture.
It was also very convenient that I happened to have a lid the EXACT same size as the rim on the relay.
I measure, marked, and cut the hole. Actually I melted it with my soldering iron for lack of a large enough hole saw.
Once that was finished I did some fitting and made sure everything was going to work out ok.
Once that was finished, I screwed it in through the white plastic, and back into the case. Essentially the relay was assembled exactly the same, except now mounted to this fixture.
The reason for doing this was simple. The relay base wouldn't fit in the fixture.
I also mounted a 12V transformer that I disassembled so I could mount it in the fixture itself. Gorilla Glue was used to secure the transformer. It works great.
Next it's on to the holes for the LEDs. After finding the appropriate sized drill bit, I was able to mark out a line, 20" long, from one screw mount to the other, and put LEDs every 5" apart. doing at the front where I did, made it really easy to get them lined up properly since I just used the perpendicular side as the drill guide.
I'm not totally finished the wiring yet, I need to get another power cord, and more of those blue connectors I used to wire the relay.
This is what it will look like assembled.
Stay tuned, I should have more connectors tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to get this finished up by then.