Premaid canopies?

[Anonymous]

Oooh... A board I havent set foot in before!

Anywho, since Im a moron when it comes to working wood, I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of pre-maid canopies that I could use to house my DIY MH setup/project... It would be for a 10-gallon, of normal proportions... (Forgot actual measurements... )

And by the way, is $186 for a MH DIY setup from hellolights.com, including a fan and employing that parabolic reflector/mogul base unit, too much? Id be using the cheapest ballast I can get, and I was wondering how that would work with the tiny dimensions of my potential canopy... I really dont like the idea of mounting externally and remotely the ballast to be, but if I would have to, is there some way I could build an enclusure for it to protect the ballast?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Anonymous]

What wattage is that MH Dewr?

 

[Anonymous]

Gimme some ideas what you're looking at.. - I'm still considering that little ditty I mentioned in the Sump..

 

[Anonymous]

"premaid", :lol:

Looks like something I would type. :wink:

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input, Louey. :roll: :lol: Wheres Alfy to back me up with the spelling police?!

I was thinking of 176Watt... I like the low-profile-ness (push off Louey! ) of the HQI's or double-ended bulbs, and their respective prices, but as far as I know, theyre the only type of MH bulbs/setup that puts out an unheatlhy amount of straight-up UV light that needs to be dealt with using some sort of UV-glass or whatnot... That, and the lower wattage... Im not sure how much Ill really need, but I dont want anything to not get what it needs... I always thought 150Watts over 10 Gallons was overkill, but I think it makes more sense to me these days, with what I know of SPS...

I think the tank will be a mantis shrimp tank in the end, so I can still do my SPS corals and other corals without conflict, but I think tridacna clams and other cool inverts out of the question in that case...?

I just needed something that could sit over the tank and house a MH bulb, reflector, and maybe the ballast as well, but Im still wary of ballast issues... The one for $49 that I saw on hellolights.com looked like it needed some sort of housing, as if it were kind of exposed and fragile.
So yeah, just a basic setup. Mine punched out to be more expensive becuase I added a fan for like $27!!!! What the hell kind of fan is that?! Makes me feel like rigging a computer fan I have lying around, but I hate dealing with electrical works that arent designed to be fooled with by people like me... :x I know Ill need the fan, though, being that close in proximity to a small body of water in a small room with no cooling device... I might even need to try that heat-sink set-up for the back of the tank like I saw in the nano forum once... *sigh* I just hope Ill figure out a way to market these things to winery fat-cats with desk jobs and their thumbs up their @sses...
By the way, GratefulDiver, you drink wine?

 

[grav]

I did a DIY fan for free using a fan from a PC that was going to get tossed and an old Cell phone charger (for a phone that would never be used again) to convert the power down to match the fan I had.

Red to red, black to black and if you screw it up, the thing just runs backward. Droped the temp on my 33g right quick took 10 min and I didn't spend a dime.

 

[Anonymous]

I did a DIY fan for free using a fan from a PC that was going to get tossed and an old Cell phone charger (for a phone that would never be used again) to convert the power down to match the fan I had.

Red to red, black to black and if you screw it up, the thing just runs backward. Droped the temp on my 33g right quick took 10 min and I didn't spend a dime.

Details!

 

[grav]

1. Take fan out of PC (use screwdriver not hammer)
2. Read back of fan for something like: 12v
3. Find old cell phone (or electric razor, or whatever...) charger The kind with a "big box" attached to the plug. This converts the 110 coming out of the wall to 10v or 12v... use whatever you have that is closest to what the fan said.
4. Cut wires, on each, attach em to each other.

Use at your own risk. I have one, and 2 others I know did the same thing, but no lawsuites if you drop it in water and your house burns down.

 

[Anonymous]

:roll: Thanks. Ill keep that last part in mind. :wink: I was wondering where you were going to get the power-supply for the fans... Hadnt dawned on me about those phone charger (I hardly EVER charge my phone; awesome battery life. :wink units!

So nobody knows where one can find premaid (bold defiance for Louey! ) canopies capable of handling a MH heat source and size parameters? Nothing at all?

Nada? Zip? Zilcho? Not a squeak from the custom-type-guys that used to post here about making custom canopies?...

 

[ricky1414]

If you hardly ever need to charge your cellphone battery, just use that one. I'm sure your phone will be fine. :wink:

 

[ricky1414]

You'll be hard pressed to find a premaid mh canopy, due to the extra height needed. There is a pos lfs near me that didn't know what metal halide was. :roll: Have you thought of going with one of those DE dealieos that peeps with nanos are doing. Get a kit from Dr.Lamp (I think), get a regent floodlight housing from HD, and frame it above a normal 10 gallon hood.
Just my .02

 

[Anonymous]

You'll be hard pressed to find a premaid mh canopy, due to the extra height needed. There is a pos lfs near me that didn't know what metal halide was. :roll: Have you thought of going with one of those DE dealieos that peeps with nanos are doing. Get a kit from Dr.Lamp (I think), get a regent floodlight housing from HD, and frame it above a normal 10 gallon hood.
Just my .02

Wow; Ive never seen such a compendium--nay, an amalgamation--of acronyms and abreviations before, such that I was not able to understand what it was you were trying to tell me, at least not here on Reefs.org! :lol: :wink:

Seriously though... What?

 

[Anonymous]

Bt the way, Mr. Ricky1414, how was the weather Thursday through Saturday? I havent checked or anything, but how is it today? Just wondering, as I have a friend of mine that trains baboons that was supposed to be shooting a commercial down there those days... Anywho, have a good one! :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

By the way, GratefulDiver, you drink wine?

You betcha.. - What'd ya have in mind?

Hope you're not thinking of getting me drunk and ahh.... .. Ooops, we're not in the Sump, nevermind... :lol:

 

[ricky1414]

You'll be hard pressed to find a premaid metal halide canopy, due to the extra height needed. There is a piece of doodoo shop near me that didn't know what metal halide was. Have you thought of going with one of those Double-Ended halide setups that are the rage with people who are upgrading their nanos? You can get a kit from Dr.Lamp (I think he's on nano-reef.com), then you could get a Regent floodlight housing from Home Depot to mount it in, and build a "diy" frame above a normal 10 gallon hood.
Just my .02

Found a link for an assemled Double Ended setup: http://www.firstclassaquatics.com/catalog_lights.htm

The weather here has been nice since Thursday, I believe it stopped raining late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

 

[Anonymous]

By the way, GratefulDiver, you drink wine?

You betcha.. - What'd ya have in mind?

Hope you're not thinking of getting me drunk and ahh.... .. Ooops, we're not in the Sump, nevermind... :lol:

Ah, being in the wine country has its perks, not to mention my dad is a life-long wino and viticultarist of certain renown around these parts! :wink: I was pondering a trade of sorts, if it suited your fancy; whites, reds, Italian, Washington, Californian (not just Napa; we know the secret spots around here :wink, older vintages, newer vintages, cave-aged, 20-barrel, chipped, un-filtered, you name it! :wink: Theres even a Japanese winery here up-Valley whos sake is better than their wine, and I could pull just about any variety you could name. I even know where to get a killer Sangiovese (sp?) South of Napa--a new-found "wine-niche", if you will--and knowing what vineyards and clone-stocks a bottle is from doesnt hurt!

So, whats your prefference?

 

[Anonymous]

You'll be hard pressed to find a premaid metal halide canopy, due to the extra height needed. There is a piece of doodoo shop near me that didn't know what metal halide was. Have you thought of going with one of those Double-Ended halide setups that are the rage with people who are upgrading their nanos? You can get a kit from Dr.Lamp (I think he's on nano-reef.com), then you could get a Regent floodlight housing from Home Depot to mount it in, and build a "diy" frame above a normal 10 gallon hood.
Just my .02

Found a link for an assemled Double Ended setup: http://www.firstclassaquatics.com/catalog_lights.htm

The weather here has been nice since Thursday, I believe it stopped raining late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Thanks! I just couldnt decipher some of that! :wink:

Found a link for an assemled Double Ended setup: http://www.firstclassaquatics.com/catalog_lights.htm

:lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks! I kinda wanted to stay away from "DE" and HQI stuff because of the unduly UV output... I do like the low-profile-ness of them though... I think theres actually some old threads in the nano forum that have links to some personal sites where people make canopies and stands for 10G's and nano-cubes and stuff... I think Ill go sniff around there when I get a chance... The funny thing is, for just $4 more I could get a 250Watt retro-fit kit that has a bulb that looks slim and lithe enough to weedle into confined spaces as per the intent of this project! :lol: I wonder if the site owners know of that little incongruency!

 

[Anonymous]

OOOOHH! I found it!

http://home.earthlink.net/~reefcanopy/index.html

Thats what I was talking about! I hope hes still around/making em!

In hind sight, this probably wasnt the right forum for this topic/thread, no?...

 

[Anonymous]

So, whats your prefference?

Mad Dog 20/20?? - Boone's Farm?? - :lol: j/k..

Really, I'm not enough of an aficionado to name anything even close to worthy. A Liebfraumilch to saute chicken with and quickly swill the remains on an empty stomach merely for a mild buzz is usually plenty for me truth be told.

Tell ya what.. - I'll try and get motivated sometime this week to go dig it up out of the basement storage area and find out what the shipping will be.. - $10 over that sound good to you? - You're probably gonna want a new bulb for it.. - The 10K AB I've got is probably about a year old.

What are you planning on putting it over? - My main motivation is making sure it gets put to good use, secondary is going to a good (working mans) home and third is $$ for a pack of smokes (although I don't) and maybe a six-pack of Honey Brown or whatever..

Norm

 

[DOGMAI]

As hard as i tried i didnt understand much in this post. I thought it was about hoods but now im not sure. Lol.

Thanks,
Shane