[karnivor]

As anyone who owns a fluval edge knows, the lights are pants. Ive played with various ways of improving them but never been totally satisfied with the results. The other day, the compact Flourescent that I had installed died on me, so I used the opportunity to action an idea I'd had buzzing around in my head head for a while.

The Idea was to install a 35w HID xenon headlamp bulb into the edge. HID bulds are basically mini MH lamps and are available quite cheaply off the net in a variety of temperatures from 4500k and 12000k I went for 6000k and ordered the kit up. Here's what arrived.



As you can see, you get a pair of bulbs, ballasts and ignitors, of which one can be seen above. Of course, these lamps run on 12v, so I also needed a power supply. I just happened to have an old Laptop supply lying around, so utilised that, but you can pick a suitable supply up from fleabay for £10-£15. I soldered a plug on to it, which comes attached to a spare cable with the kit.




I quickly constructed a simple reflector and mounted the bulb using a pipe clip as used by plumbers and mounted the ballast and ignitor inside the back of the filter compartment.



You can see the finished installation ready to go, here.




And here it is working. Compare it to the brightness of the wall light.



A closer look



I think you could easily turn it into a micro reef this way, and even grow sps in it.

[chriss]

Good job tony. Presumably you could use an old pc power supply too, what is the cuurent requirement for the lamp?

Your next job is to improve the coverage, it's still very much like a spot light.

Chris

[karnivor]

chriss, on Jun 18 2010, 10:43 PM, said:

Good job tony. Presumably you could use an old pc power supply too, what is the cuurent requirement for the lamp?

Your next job is to improve the coverage, it's still very much like a spot light.

Chris

Power is 5.4 amps on start up (momentary)and 3.2 amps running.

Its difficult to prevent spotlighting due to the design of the tank. There is a should on the top of the tank that prevents you getting the lamp in a place that will give total coverage. Having said that, it can be improved upon, as the lamp can be lowered slightly from its current position. It kinda suits me to have it that way though, as it keeps the brightest light off the glass, which helps keep algae off the glass.

[ben]

nice one, what about temp?



ps, please dont wear socks with sandles. its not funny

[mrfishy]

ben, on Jun 19 2010, 08:34 AM, said:

nice one, what about temp?



ps, please dont wear socks with sandles. its not funny

[Joey]

ben, on Jun 19 2010, 08:34 AM, said:

nice one, what about temp?



ps, please dont wear socks with sandals. its not funny

Think this might be his new look and has got rid of those dreadful shoes

Joey

[karnivor]

Is there any need for all this abuse?

[TrevC]

karnivor, on Jun 19 2010, 01:41 PM, said:

Is there any need for all this abuse?

There is if you've been seen outside weaing


socks with sandals!

[karnivor]

TrevC, on Jun 19 2010, 01:53 PM, said:

There is if you've been seen outside weaing


socks with sandals!

Not bad, considering its coming from a man who's national dress includes the wearing of a skirt.
Not to mention blowing up a sheep's arse with a whistle on the other end.

[TrevC]

karnivor, on Jun 19 2010, 04:04 PM, said:

Not bad, considering its coming from a man who's national dress includes the wearing of a skirt.
Not to mention blowing up a sheep's arse with a whistle on the other end.

Yeah, fair point.....

Anyway, nice little DIY project.
Are you going to try a few SPS in the future?

[karnivor]

TrevC, on Jun 20 2010, 08:23 AM, said:

Yeah, fair point.....

Anyway, nice little DIY project.
Are you going to try a few SPS in the future?

I dont have any plans to ATM, but it would be a fun project. Maybe if I ever get sick of shrimp keeping, ill have a bash.
Might be a good idea to avoid stags though.

[lindsay]

Yeah very good,go on do a nano sps m8?.

[karnivor]

lindsay, on Jun 20 2010, 10:54 AM, said:

Yeah very good,go on do a nano sps m8?.

I still have a spare kit....and a very small tank.......and ive done it before........in that very tank.
You would have to save all those little broken bits that you get with your shipments.

No..no...what am I thinking.

[lindsay]

karnivor, on Jun 20 2010, 11:14 AM, said:

I still have a spare kit....and a very small tank.......and ive done it before........in that very tank.
You would have to save all those little broken bits that you get with your shipments.

No..no...what am I thinking.

OK,will keep them for you......

[chriss]

There are some 'full size' reef tanks I've seen using these lights, I think they were Japanese or somewhere in that region. They used some lenses as well and had the lights far higher up than we would normally.

Chris

[karnivor]

chriss, on Jun 20 2010, 04:34 PM, said:

There are some 'full size' reef tanks I've seen using these lights, I think they were Japanese or somewhere in that region. They used some lenses as well and had the lights far higher up than we would normally.

Chris

I'm not sure I understand the logic in doing that, unless it is to provide lighting from some distance above the tank. Even so, there has to be a simpler solution.