DIY Perfect-A-Hood MKII

[DarkSoul]

Well, it would seem that my current plants didn't have enough light, and this bothered me immensly, something had to be done about it.

I didn't want to go buy another hood, nor did I wish to spend the time or money right now to build one (neither of which I have) so I figured I could fit 4 15W CF's into the hood, instead of using the single 17W tube.

All I would need are sockets, angle brackets and some screws.

I have 5 chandeliers sitting around so I took the sockets out of one of them, and I have angle brackets, screws, and nuts in abundance, so all was good to go.

now the tank is much brighter, although I still don't like how the hood doesn't cover the entire length of the tank.

The lights not only look nice, and fit perfectly, they actually get in the way of the LEDs, providing a more diffused moonlight, with only a beam in the middle, which looks like it could be a moonbeam.

I haven't decided yet weather or not to use the blue bulbs.

 

[Viettxboii]

very nice hope they work well for you

 

[Lil_Stinker]

very creative

 

[kj5kb]

Nicely done....where the heck dija find the blue CFLs???

Exactly what I've been thinking abt doing to my 20H hood...24", should be able to get 3 of 'em in there.

 

[DarkSoul]

the blue ones are sold as party lights i think.... I actually found them in a dollar store lol.

 

[rwilliams254]

Good to go!!!

 

[Sploke]

nice work, got any tank shots with the different combinations?

 

[Mexican Racoon]

Nice toes.

Can you get a shot of night lights?

 

[southpaw]

Cool idea....might do this to mine as I have two of those hoods across my 55g tank.

When you wired in the sockets did you tie them into the on/off switch built in the hood or did you just hard wire them straight into the plugin cord?

I use a timer for my lights so I was thinking I could just hard wire straight into the cord and not worry with the switch.

My tank isnt planted (for now anyway) but I would like having some different light combinations to brighten the tank up some since the 17w bulbs dont do alot.And if later down the road I decide to add live plants then lighting wouldnt be a big issue.

 

[Jaysn]

I did something similar, here's my mod: