aquastart 320T lighting upgrade

[leedaly52]

Hi all,

Thought I would share my latest DIY project. After running on just the standard pc lights for nearly a year, mostly as fowl and a fee mushrooms, I decided I needed to upgrade.

 

I got an aquaray 500hd tile off eBay for £30 and a tmc controller for £60.

 

I wanted to keep the hood on the tank for visual reasons so decided to fit the light under the hood where the original pc light was.

 

The first issue was the light with casing was too big so I had to remove the outer casing of the tile. ( this voids the warranty fyi) but as I only paid £30 this wasn't an issue for me.

 

After removing the casing, I took the cover off the pc lighting, and began removing the innards.

 

The parts came apart easily with just a screw driver, except 1 wire connecting the lids power switch, which I had to cut.

 

I then removed the pc lights plug from its cord, and slid off the small plastic ring that makes the light box watertight, and fit this to the aquaray power cord.

 

I needed to file a small notch in the metal light cover for the aquaray power cord to pass through.

 

I placed the white light cover back in place as this held the tile firmly in place without the need for extra drilling or fixtures.

 

I then drilled some ventilation holes in the rear of the lid to let excess heat escape. (I did consider putting in a fan, but after monitoring for a few days, there was not significant heat buildup, and has now been running over 3 weeks with no issues)

 

I have attached images below. The whole job was done in less than an hour and I now have noticed a marked growth in the mushrooms and have added some zoas and some lps which all seem very happy, with noticeable growth already.

[leedaly52]

Here are the images