Psycho graphic
Trouble Maker!
- Location
- Somewhere on the East Coast
I moved over labor day and my plans for the tank move went kablooey. I had to move my tank in about 2 1/2 hours. Needless to say, I lost almost everything. I seriously thought about putting the rock and the couple of corals I had left up for sale and get out of the reef obsession. But I decided to give it another go as I had a lot of new stuff for the tank waiting for an upgrage from my 30 to a 40 breeder. Some of you might remember my posts on the Sump/Fuge I built and the SCWD mod among others posted here. Anyway I have the sump up and running and other than one little issue with noise it's working great. I already have plans to fix this problem. I'm happy to say my tank is on the mend, now I just have to replace the boatload of Zoa's and Rics I lost!
Well back to the subject at hand. I have run this tank with just a carboard canopy since day one so I started building a temporary one to work out the bugs before building one for the 40. While looking for some stuff still in boxes I found my old strip of Moonlights and decided to add some to the new canopy. Now half the fun of reefing to me is building stuff rather than buying it. (Just ask KathyC)
So here is my new Moonlight build.
The stuff needed to make them.
LED's, a 3VDC Transformer, Solder and Gun, 5 minute Epoxy (somehow did'nt make it into the pic), Some thin wire, scrap 1/2" MDF and some scrap Masonite.
The Masonite is 1"x12" with 5 holes drilled for the LED's. After placing the LED's in the holes, bend the leads across the Masonite. Above the masonite you can see the strips of wire I cut to connect them. This wire was Galvanized, so I had to run it through a piece of folded sandpaper to remove the Galvanizing in order for the solder to stick.
Now I took the wire strips and wrapped them around one end of the Masonite and then pulled it tightly to the other end and wrapped it again.
In this picture you see the front of the Masonite where I wrapped the wire.
I also wrapped the extra wire from the LED's to hold them tight for soldering, again a front view.
Now just solder the leads from the LED's to the connecting wire. Remember to keep the Short leads of the LED's all to the same side as they can't be switched from Positive to negative.
After it was soldered together I bent it in this arch shape to hold the LED's tight to the Masonite for epoxying when you rewrap the connecting wires.
A very bad pic, but the Masonite is sealed with a Signpainters clear and
the front faces are painted flat white and the LED's are epoxied in place.
In this pic I am epoxying the mounting tabs to one end. These were just scrap pieces of 1/2" MDF cut to 1"x1/2". I epoxied this side over the connecting wires to use as tabs to solder the Transformer leads to. You need to be pretty liberal with the epoxy here so you fill the gap made by the wire.
Now just epoxy the mounting tab to the other side and drill holes through the the Masonite and MDF tabs for your mounting screw, solder the transformer leads and you are done.
The mounted and lit Moonlights.
Total cost $15 and I have 80 Led's left.
They look fantastic when on. The only problem is positioning them so they are not blocked by my PC Actinic, but with such a small tank it's the best I can do, this is not a problem with the design of the lights but with the limited space of the 30 gallon tank. I thought there would be a dark area in the center from where my MH is, but this did not happen. The halide is mounted under the center brace and is just visible in the pic. They will work much better once I have the additional 6" the 40 Br. will give me.
Well back to the subject at hand. I have run this tank with just a carboard canopy since day one so I started building a temporary one to work out the bugs before building one for the 40. While looking for some stuff still in boxes I found my old strip of Moonlights and decided to add some to the new canopy. Now half the fun of reefing to me is building stuff rather than buying it. (Just ask KathyC)
So here is my new Moonlight build.
The stuff needed to make them.
LED's, a 3VDC Transformer, Solder and Gun, 5 minute Epoxy (somehow did'nt make it into the pic), Some thin wire, scrap 1/2" MDF and some scrap Masonite.
The Masonite is 1"x12" with 5 holes drilled for the LED's. After placing the LED's in the holes, bend the leads across the Masonite. Above the masonite you can see the strips of wire I cut to connect them. This wire was Galvanized, so I had to run it through a piece of folded sandpaper to remove the Galvanizing in order for the solder to stick.
Now I took the wire strips and wrapped them around one end of the Masonite and then pulled it tightly to the other end and wrapped it again.
In this picture you see the front of the Masonite where I wrapped the wire.
I also wrapped the extra wire from the LED's to hold them tight for soldering, again a front view.
Now just solder the leads from the LED's to the connecting wire. Remember to keep the Short leads of the LED's all to the same side as they can't be switched from Positive to negative.
After it was soldered together I bent it in this arch shape to hold the LED's tight to the Masonite for epoxying when you rewrap the connecting wires.
A very bad pic, but the Masonite is sealed with a Signpainters clear and
the front faces are painted flat white and the LED's are epoxied in place.
In this pic I am epoxying the mounting tabs to one end. These were just scrap pieces of 1/2" MDF cut to 1"x1/2". I epoxied this side over the connecting wires to use as tabs to solder the Transformer leads to. You need to be pretty liberal with the epoxy here so you fill the gap made by the wire.
Now just epoxy the mounting tab to the other side and drill holes through the the Masonite and MDF tabs for your mounting screw, solder the transformer leads and you are done.
The mounted and lit Moonlights.
Total cost $15 and I have 80 Led's left.
They look fantastic when on. The only problem is positioning them so they are not blocked by my PC Actinic, but with such a small tank it's the best I can do, this is not a problem with the design of the lights but with the limited space of the 30 gallon tank. I thought there would be a dark area in the center from where my MH is, but this did not happen. The halide is mounted under the center brace and is just visible in the pic. They will work much better once I have the additional 6" the 40 Br. will give me.
