Covering a 125G Stand

[Sisterlimonpot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15297836#post15297836 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Whys
Ppsshh... ...amateur.

Definitely not a professional!!
I kinda skimped on the pictures but here are a few of it finished and on the canopy, I put 5 coats of finish on this one:

And now they are screwed on from the back, I chose to screw them instead of glueing for the simple fact that some day I will have to replace those fans :

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Now for the part I have been dreading.... Attaching the cover to the stand, a lot of thought went into HOW for the last few weeks, and this is what I came up with:

They are window latches??? I know them as "Table Locks" (hardware for securing leafs on a tables). So the part I was dreading.... The tank stand is 1 5/8" away from the wall:

So I can't exactly get a screw driver back there to secure them, So here's what I had to do.
The tools I used:

Using the prybar to wedge between the wall and the apex, and the wrench to turn the screw a 1/6th of a turn at a time....
and them in use:

Believe me... It was a very slow process. It took about 30 minutes for each side but I got it done:

 

[melev]

I like it. It would have been easier to move the tank forward though. :lol:

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

When the actinics came on tonight, I felt like taking some pictures of my new PBT. But he wouldn't cooperate I couldn't get a decent focused picture so here are the best ones:

and lets not forget the CBB:

and the yellow tang:

and my 2 freebees....
ORA green birdsnest from phillipj2:

And a purple milli from spliefy:

 

[Whys]

Look'n good Sister. And that was nice of Spliefy to send you a frag.

The powder blue looks great in there.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15328269#post15328269 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Whys
Look'n good Sister. And that was nice of Spliefy to send you a frag.

The powder blue looks great in there.

Yeah it was, I went to visit him only to see his tanks and walked out with a huge bag of chaeto, a heater and a frag.

and he's not the only person that has done that, since finding RC I have met so many people that are willing to offer up just about anything to get me going on this 125. And one day I will repay the favors that's for sure.

 

[murfman]

Looks awesome, Jimmy, great work!

 

[dtech]

Looks good, it's comin along great. +1 on the people here!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

So I started looking for a moonlight set up for the tank but they cost more than what they are worth. So I went to radio shack and picked up 4 bleu LEDs and a packet of resistors.

I hooked everything up in series so fist I soldered the resistors in line:

Then I cut 3/16 tubing to various lengths (to line up where I want the LED's to be on the capapy:

Soldered everything together:

adding the tubing in the process:

everything is soldered and tested with the multimeter:

then I made everything waterproof by injecting some hot glue into the tubing:

I didn't take any pictures of it up in the hood but I will post pictures of the lights on at night later.

Thanks for looking


.

 

[melev]

Sweetness. That's probably going to look great. The biggest hurdle is keeping the bulb pointing where you like it most.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15347628#post15347628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Sweetness. That's probably going to look great. The biggest hurdle is keeping the bulb pointing where you like it most.

your right about that, They are kind of spot lighty too.... I need to figure out how to defuse them some way.... I'm open to suggestions???? maybe a lens of some sort....
but they have a good shimmer to them.

I didn't think about how hard it was going to be to take a picture in the dark only because I said I would post pics.. not much to see but here you go:

 

[melev]

Try pointing them up into one of your reflectors.

Take the picture with your camera on a tripod, and set the exposure to 1" to 2" (seconds) and see how they come out.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

That's a good idea, I didn't think of that. As far as the camera thing... That would have been the logical choice but the tripod was in the other room.......

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

OK, got the tripod out and took some pics at various shutter speeds:
First 5 seconds:

then 10 seconds:

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

20 seconds:

then 30seconds:

Five seconds is the closest to what it really looks like. as you can see it has the spot light effect. I will mess with reflecting it tomorrow sometime.

 

[melev]

Looks good. I had a feeling it would only take a few seconds to get the one that matches your eye.

 

[Zooid]

If you can't get where you want using the reflector, try taking a ping pong ball, drill a hole in it the size of the LED and put the ball on the LED. I saw this on:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/21/ping-pong-ball-led-d.html

Thought it might be worth a try.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

That’s a good idea, I have a couple new pingpong balls in the garage, I'll have to hunt them down and give that a try first. But will that get rid of the shimmer effect?

 

[melev]

I'm positive it will, because it will diffuse the light and lose the pinpoint effect.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Marc,
what about pointing them up towards a reflector will it have the shimmer still?