Custom Hood for My TL-450

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Durbanville,Cape Town
So i was on leave for a week and got very bored so i decided to build a new hood for my tank with extra lights in.I got the TL-550 lights sponserd by @mandarinman and also gonna use my TL-450 lights aswell...We all know the lights on these boyu's suck bigtime...Also decided to add some LED's that i had lying around..Yes i know its not cree leds ect but they are onle for the fun of it and it looks great when the main lights go out...

So here it started cutting all the pieces..

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All the fans im gonna add to the hood to keep it nice and cool..And geez they are doing a great job sofar...:thumbup:

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Here is the hood semi assembled sealed and pinted..

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All the PL tubes going in..2*18w and 2*24 tubes..

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Wiring all the freakn leds..20uv 30deg, 8 Blue 120deg angle, 6 Red 120deg angle and 6 green 120deg angle...All are super bright leds...And as i said its purely for nite time viewing...

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All the leds powerd up...


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And all the Lights and Leds up and running...:thumbup:

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And the result after a serious rescape and WC...
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Corals look happy and expanding nicely..Running the lights on timers...The 18w tubes come on 1st and 2hrs after that the 24w tubes come on so i dont shock the corals and shut off in reverse..
Well i know its not Cree leds like everybody is going now but all my extra moola is going into the bigger tank savings plan that sould take off at about July:(....
Now the tank hase some nice strong lights..And the blue and uv looks super cool at night..Stupid camera cand really capture the look...
 
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I love it...:thumbup:..can I get a pic of the Hood on the Tank...?..I never thought of going this route as I always thought that it's impossible to make a Hood to fit "perfectly" and always thought it "could" look sloppy...does you'r Hood "slip over" like a lid of a shoe box...?
 
Well that was the plan but it does fit over like a shoebox lid..Just the front with the curve that didnt work so well..But im sure if i take it to someone that really knows wood they can bend it to the same shape as the curve..Im not a wood expert and ma did it to the best of my knowledge...It is abit higher that the normal hood but its because i wanted more air flow inside the light compartment for heat purposes...But if u know someone that can do wood work im sure they can help u with someting that looks super nice...I used 9mm exterior pine plywood...
 
I need to make use of your soldering skills to fix two of my led strips sometime.
 
Very nice work :thumbup: Those LED's must have taken forever to wire up, don't think I've got the patience to do something like that, lol. How did you bend the wood for the front?
 
Very nice work :thumbup: Those LED's must have taken forever to wire up, don't think I've got the patience to do something like that, lol. How did you bend the wood for the front?

Lol it did take forever...Steam the wood for about 1hr then flex it slowly into the shape keeping it there leaving it to dry...Works very well...
 
Good job, those are alot of fans for a TL-450. Are they on a thermostat? They will definatly increase eveporation!

4 of the fans are just circulating the air inside the light compartment cos those lights and ballast generate ALOT of heat...got 2 fans at the back that can circulate air inside the tank...
 
nice job there dude.........still wanna figure out something for my lights.....want to at least run them on separate timers or something
 
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