New Light Rack - PIC

DarG

New member
This one was easy. I had built a closed canopy of all aluminum. Had 4 T5's on standard HO ballasts and small retro DE reflectors.

It was cool but I wanted to change to better reflectors so I built this aluminum light rack, open frame. Two Lumenmax DE reflectors and two T5's with SLR reflectors. Since I lost two of the T5's to accomodate the larger Lumenmax reflectors I am running the T5's on an IceCap 660. I already had the ballast from a VHO set-up. The Lumenmax are completely height adjustable independant of raising or lowering the entire rack. I havent lowered them yet but seem to be getting fantastic coverage anyway even though the light is catching the edges of the T5 SLR reflectors.

I have to have moon lighting and to make things easy, I got two of the Coralife (I know) 1 watt LED moonlights. They are actually cool. A 1 watt led with it's own lens mounted on a bendable goosneck. Dont know how long they'll last but they are bright as hell and adjusting them some, the coverage is great.

LightRackNew.jpg


This one shows the entire rack hanging with an easily adjustable cable system. I'm using 250 watt DE Reeflux bulbs. I wired a molex plug and socket into the IceCap wiring harness for the T5's for easy disconnect. I wired up the reflectors with standard grounding plugs and sockets for easy connect and disconnect. The Blue Wave dual HQI ballast for the halides and the IceCap 660 are both located on the "roof" of the "fish room". I'm using an ATI Blue Plus and a UVL Super Actinic for T5 supplemental lighting. Nice Dawn Dusk effect. Everything is on digital timers.
The whole rack is very light. Not sure I'd hang this over a tank in the living room (actually, I probably would but my better half ... she wouldnt be happy) but they work great for a built-in.

MoonLEDs.jpg


These are the two Moonlights mounted on the center brace. I have them aimed firing at a slight angle across the front of the tank and rockwork. The lens seems to create more of a flood than spot pattern and coverage extends nearly all the way across to the side glass. It is a little bit darker at the very ends of the rock work but pretty impressive coverage for two cheap (but overpriced nonetheless) LED and lens assemblies.

Just thought I'd share. Tell me what you think.

Thanks
 
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