For All You With 3 Gallon Picos!

[sir_dudeguy]

Hey if you've got a 3g pico, chances are there are a lot of corals that you want but cant have because the light isnt enough. Many people find ways to rig up this coralife aqualight mini that is 2x9w and thats awsome

But then there are many people like myself who have no way to hang the thing or anything like that. So if you want to put this light on there, do what i just did tonight. I just ran to home depot and got a 12x10 sheet of accrylic (either 1/8" or 1/4"...cant remember). Its thin enough to not block light really, but thick enough to hold the weight even after the heat of these bulbs (which in itself is not a whole lot)

Obviously you could do it much cleaner than i did it. But my way took 2 minutes w/a box cuttter lol. I will eventually make it to the right size so its not hanging all over the place. Enough rant, heres the pic of how it turned out.

Anyways, just thought it was a cool idea and cant believe i didnt think of that about 2 weeks ago

 

[kaserpick]

That's a cool looking tank; do you have any pics of the front?
Thanks for sharing!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

no unfortunately i completely forgot to get the pics of the whole tank. Whats sad tho is that picture turned out much better than the pictures i took with my real camera (that was my phone pic above).

 

[chaznsc]

I have a FW nano, set up like yours with the mini lite. I put a strip of black electric tape to protect the edges of the glass plate and it cleans up the look considerably.

chaz

 

[sir_dudeguy]

wait so what is yours like? I cant really picture that in my head....you have any pics of it?

All i did to cut the acrylic was took a heavy box cutter and kept going over and over....not the preferred choice, but its what i had lol. And the cut didnt come out too great either but we turned it around so its facing the back and you cant see it.

I'm thinking that when i cut the edges down to size i may use the electrical tape like i think you used it....Basically cover up the crappy cut and rough edges...

 

[chaznsc]

I went and had a piece of window glass cut at lowes for like 2 bucks. I applied black electric tape to reduce the sharp edges of the glass. It works well with the black light housing. Will post a photo tonight.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya freakin Home depot doesnt cut glass so we just got this acrylic for like 2.50 or somethign haha. It was more just temporary till i can make it nicer (which will prolly be glass that is a bit thinner). And i was wanting to actually cut out the glass directly under the bulbs anyways. But that would be kinda hard to cut a square in the middle of the acrylic would it not?

 

[chaznsc]

i think so!!

 

[Doglover_50]

sirdude and others, I'm wondering after looking at your setup. I have a sort of retrokit with coralife 65w bulbs (two 50/50 bulbs).

my old qt has broken glass top, and the lights are just bald, no top or anything to put them in. If I got cut acrylic, do you think it would withstand the heat of 2 such bulbs? This is sadly how I broke my glass top--it did NOT withstand the heat and cracked.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

The glass actually cracked due to the heat of the 2 65w bulbs? hmm...that sounds kinda weird. Cheap glass maybe???

How close to the glass were the bulbs?

The 9w ones hardly give off any heat so i didnt even bother taking that into account really.

Actually at first i was thinking that they might give off heat...so when i was lookin at the acrylic i was looking at the thicker ones (so that the light wouldnt warp it and brake or whatever). But after lookin at them, the thicker stuff just seemed like it wasnt as clear and would have blocked some of the light a fair bit. And this stuff was sturdy enough and shouldnt bend

Or did you mean that you had your bulb itself actually resting on the glass? if that is the case, that would prolly be why it cracked.

 

[Doglover_50]

I'm lame, the bulbs were just sitting on the glass. I have nothing to hold them, no hood to put them in, don't know how to make a fixture....I'm so busy with the tanks I have, just don't have time or the know how to somehow put them in a hood. So they just sat on the glass--and broke it.
That's why I was asking about just sitting them on acrylic on top of the tank.