Lighting. 

 The Diagram below represents what I hope will be the finished Lighting canopy.

I acquired three, 250watt 10,000K Metal halide 'Lowbay' units a while back, and have stripped these down to utilise the components separately. Unfortunately the units come as single (all in one) light fittings comprising of a surround, the bulb holder, reflector, lens, and all electronics including ballast housed inside the back part of the housing. Bearing in mind the issues of heat, when using three of these in my living room. It was a major consideration that I take as many of the hot components away from the top of the tank as possible. To this end. I stripped down the units to their separate components and devised a way to run the starter units away from the actual bulbs by extending the feed wires from the starters to the bulb. This has also given a distinct advantage that the relatively heavy starter units aren't adding to the weight of the finished canopy, thereby making it easier to remove from the top of the tank at times when I need full access to get right inside the top. Normal maintenance/feeding etc, will be carried out via lift' able panels along the front and sides of the canopy. (NB. please note, that some ballast/bulb/starter combinations, are very sensitive to the length of cable used to link the two components, and it may not be possible in all cases to run your ballasts/starters remotely)

The canopy as a whole is quite easy to man handle by ones self 'but it is really a two man job, lifting it off without any risk to the bulb units and the tank in general'. Basically the canopy consists of two frames of wood, built using pine ( 3" x 3/4" planed ) from the usual DIY outlets, which are made to exactly the same outer measurements as the top of the tank (plus a couple of mm in both directions for clearance) (pic. 1) . The top frame and bottom are fixed together using four uprights that keep everything square and set the height of the top of he canopy. This height is approximately 14" from the top lip of the tank, to the top edge of the upper frame rail. Once the outer panelling has been fitted the unit just slides onto the top of the tank using the overlapping outer end panels and front facia as guides to set the whole thing square. The top frame rail also carries the supports for the light fittings i.e. bulb holders and reflectors, which gives a final clearance of 12" between the bulb and the water surface within the tank which should serve two purposes. 1. To keep heat transference down to acceptable/controllable levels, and 2. It minimises the risk of splashing a bulb which can make them explode.( pic. 2) There was no need for cover glasses in this case due to the fact that single end BLV bulbs, come with their own UV protection built into the glass of the bulb itself. (NB. Please please, do not try this with other bulbs that lack UV protection as you will severely harm, or even kill your corals and burn your fish within 15-20min of he lights being on).

Here are some pictures of the bare framework with the light fitting attached awaiting the outer panelling

Pic1                                                                                      Pic 2   

The unit will also carry 2 x 5ft Blue 'Actinic' tubes to give that nice blue tint to the water. This helps corals build up that lovely iridescence we all love to see, and induce the production of fluorescent pigmentation. Unfortunately 10,000k bulbs lack some of the 'visible' blue spectrum making them appear slightly yellow in some cases, unlike the 20.000k bulbs which are slightly 'too' blue in my opinion. I've seen fantastic success utilising a mix of both types so I may switch two of the bulbs at a later date to 20,000k, and retain the 10,000k in the centre.

The outer panelling which is made from the same Beech faced Ply as the cabinet, is attached to these frames on both ends and along the front, whilst leaving the back open for pipe work etc. The bottom edge of this outer panelling drops down below the bottom frame rail to cover the decor strip along the top of the tank and just low enough to hide the water level (pic 1). In the end I ended up with a canopy that has a total (external) depth of 16" Whilst this might at first seem quite deep/ or high as the case may be. I'm sure you'll agree that, combined with the matching cabinet, it has framed the main display area of the tank nicely whilst hiding ugly light fittings and piping etc. The other benefit is that because the total height of the system comes out at about 6' 6", from floor to the canopy's top edge, there is no light overspill from the sides of the tank, even when stood up you have to stretch to see over the top lip. This can be a big problem when using suspended light units, especially if your sitting position in the room is below the level of the light unit as you invariably get blinded by the glare. In my case, all light is directed downwards to the water surface rather than being wasted by disappearing sideways between the top of the tank and the light fittings themselves.. Note: This also makes photographing your tank allot easier as you are not blinding the camera.  In this case, all the light is coming from the tank itself, rather than being over spilled into the camera, causing possible glare, and ruined pictures.

In order to keep things as neat as possible. I utilised some of my un-used Marley plumbing, to make a cable duct that carries the main wiring for the lamps. and the Actinic's. I also included a 4 way socket at the back of the canopy which enables me to plug in accessories such as fans, or additional temporary power heads etc. Rather than having to rout cables all the way down the back of the tank to the power points in the main power cabinet. All these wires run to one end of the canopy where they feed off to the remote ballasts, and one short cable that is tied into the main power box. These all connect via 4 water proof 3 pin connectors of the type you would commonly use to connect up garden machinery.

Photo's of the finished canopy with outer panelling will be added shortly. But for now, here is a photo of how the tank looks under the three Metal halides and supplemental 2 x 80W T5 actinic 03s as of July 2004.

For further info and tips on lighting a reef tank Look at Lighting

Further sections will be added as progress continues.

For more details on other aspects of this setup, such as the sump design etc. see DIY, and the Hints and Tips pages.

Continue to the next page for more recent progress