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Old 10-09-2004, 06:37 PM
Ethan
 
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Default DIY: 120W fluorescent, under $75

I recently built my own light strip for a 55 gal aquarium and I
thought I'd share my plans. I had two goals: lots of light, little
money. Time to completion was about three hours. The materials have
extra left over: the gutter only comes in 10' lenghts, so it is enough
to make two strip lights, and I only used 1' of aluminum flashing, so
I have 9 additional feet left over. The materials can be found at any
hardware stores, but I found the lowest price on screw-in compact
fluorescent lamps at Sam Walton's store.

Materials:
10' vinyl gutter (white) $6
Two gutter end caps 4
10' extension cord 3
3xdouble light socket (screw-base) 9
Spray paint, textured black 5
Aluminum flashing, 12"x10' 7
6x20W, 65k screw-in flourescents 30
Misc screws, pop-rivets 5
-----
$69

Tools:
Wire cutters/strippers
Pliers
Hand saw
Drill
Sand paper (optional)
Screw driver
Pop-rivet tool (optional)

A few construction tips:
- I used pop-rivets to fix the end caps in the gutter, but #6x3/8"
screws would work fine.
- Disassemble the light sockets and replace the screws holding the
socket together with #6x 1 3/4" machine screws.
- Make reflectors out of 4"x12" pieces of aluminum flashing. I tried
without reflectors, but the gutter got fairly hot. Use a couple of
nuts on the machine screws as spacers between the reflectors and the
gutter.
- I used fairly 'fancy' black spray paint that has sand to give it a
textured finish. To give the paint a better surface to adhere to, I
lightly sanded the gutter surface.
- The gutter was still warm to the touch, so I drilled ventilation
holes through the vinyl, but over the reflectors so that light doesn't
leak out. With only these holes, my tank stays at 80-82 F when the
room is 76 F, so fan cooling is unnecessary.
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Old 10-09-2004, 07:25 PM
RedForeman ©®
 
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Default

|| I recently built my own light strip for a 55 gal aquarium and I
|| thought I'd share my plans. I had two goals: lots of light, little
|| money. Time to completion was about three hours. The materials have
|| extra left over: the gutter only comes in 10' lenghts, so it is
|| enough to make two strip lights, and I only used 1' of aluminum
|| flashing, so I have 9 additional feet left over. The materials can
|| be found at any hardware stores, but I found the lowest price on
|| screw-in compact fluorescent lamps at Sam Walton's store.
||
|| Materials:
|| 10' vinyl gutter (white) $6
|| Two gutter end caps 4
|| 10' extension cord 3
|| 3xdouble light socket (screw-base) 9
|| Spray paint, textured black 5
|| Aluminum flashing, 12"x10' 7
|| 6x20W, 65k screw-in flourescents 30
|| Misc screws, pop-rivets 5
|| -----
|| $69
||
|| Tools:
|| Wire cutters/strippers
|| Pliers
|| Hand saw
|| Drill
|| Sand paper (optional)
|| Screw driver
|| Pop-rivet tool (optional)
||
|| A few construction tips:
|| - I used pop-rivets to fix the end caps in the gutter, but #6x3/8"
|| screws would work fine.
|| - Disassemble the light sockets and replace the screws holding the
|| socket together with #6x 1 3/4" machine screws.
|| - Make reflectors out of 4"x12" pieces of aluminum flashing. I tried
|| without reflectors, but the gutter got fairly hot. Use a couple of
|| nuts on the machine screws as spacers between the reflectors and the
|| gutter.
|| - I used fairly 'fancy' black spray paint that has sand to give it a
|| textured finish. To give the paint a better surface to adhere to, I
|| lightly sanded the gutter surface.
|| - The gutter was still warm to the touch, so I drilled ventilation
|| holes through the vinyl, but over the reflectors so that light
|| doesn't leak out. With only these holes, my tank stays at 80-82 F
|| when the room is 76 F, so fan cooling is unnecessary.

Great job... now... take some pics and post them in the binaries group or on
your own website for the world to learn from your excellent process....

--
| RedForeman ©® fabricator and creator of the ratbike streetfighter!!!
| ==========================
| 2003 TRX450ES
| 1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
| '98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
| ==========================
| ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
| ((((º`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·.¸. ((((º ·´¯`·. , .·´¯`·.. ((((º
| for any questions you may have....
|
www.gmail.com


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