qfour20's DIY hood (at long last)

I've been working on this hood since AbS sent me a metal halide bulb in November. I'm a little slow, ok!

First, let me say that this is the first woodworking project I've worked on since the "pinewood derby" from scouting. I am by NO MEANS good at woodworking. I just took my time, and it came out ok. Not gorgeous, but ok.

Before I bore you with a bunch of babble about construction and such, let me show you what the light looks like over the tank, which is the important part.

System Specs:

1x 70w Ushio 10,000K Metal Halide bulb

1x Regent Floodlight Housing

1x Aromat Electronic Ballast

2x 36w Actinic03 PC bulbs

1x Fullham Workhorse5 Ballast

Construction Details:

I did not want to build a hood out of heavy, bulky 1" thick or so wood. This would make the hood heavy, and would be more difficult to work with (so I thought ).

I chose to build up a frame made from .5" x .75" trim, purchased for $almostnothing at homedepot. Here is the frame with the Regent pendant mounted:

There are several things that I built into this hood's design. I have a sheet of plexi that sits between the lighting and the surface of the water to control heat. I did not, however, want to inherit gas exchange problems from this design, so there are ventilation fans placed below and above the sheet of plexi. This will help to encourage evaporation so that I don't have to throw down $$$ for a chiller (I HOPE!).

The pieces of dowel rest in holes drilled in the frame to hold up the plexi.

I also designed the front of the hood to open up, so that I could feed, dose, test, etc. Here is a shot of how it came out:

Here is a shot of the bulbs, as they sit inside the hood:

I need to come up with a design for a reflector for the PC bulbs, but I'll get to that eventually. The PC bulbs are held up on a subframe that I attached into the main frame (that sounds odd... but oh well). Here is a pic of the subframe when I test fit the actinics on it.

Here is a shot that shows a front and side view. I need to come up with a nice way to cover up the gap that the hinge created. I am thinking of using black cloth tape, but am open to suggestions.

And finally, another shot of the side. You can see the place where I was an airhead and cut the hole for the fan at the top of the hood instead of the bottom. I had to patch that, and it was a PITA.

Please let me know what you think. Any improvements, questions, or comments. Don't hesitate to tell me it sucks, because I am happy with it. I haven't even installed the plexi yet, and it hasn't raised tank temps by more than 2degrees, so I think thermal performance is where it needs to be. I love the light that it puts out.

A very special thanks to AbSoutC, Wetworx, KrackerG, and many, many others who post often in the DIY forum. You guys convinced me that metal halide is *THE* way to go, and I am very glad I did.

-q (shades on because of the bright shimmah!)

Looks good esp. for your first DIY. I would swap the plexi for glass for better UV filtering as well as less of a chance of melting.

BTW nice liquor and wine collection. :-D

Sorry, I didn't clarify very much. Just getting the pics posted, really. There is UV filtering glass on the Regent fixture. The plexi is just there to act as an additional heat barrier from the metal halide and PC's.

If you're ever in downtown Dallas, feel free to drop in and raid the liquor collection. Thanks for your kind comments.

-q

Looks like a good first project. Can you tell me where you bought the fans from, if it was on line which site, and also how you set up the power for them, are they all running off of one converter?

C. Jerome

Fans are Vantec Stealth (60mm to cool the lighting, 80mm for air movement over the water). Bought them at Fry's ($10 each, but it was payday and I wanted it NOW). I also bought some 3-pin connectors so that I could use the lead that's already on the fans.

I currently have all 4 fans and the LED nightlights running from one powersupply, wired in parallel. This will change shortly. I already ran two sets of wires from the hood to the powersupply (connections will be made inside the ballast box). I plan on having the 2x80mm fans and the moonlights on one circuit (always on, ~7v) and the 2x60mm fans on another circuit (at 12v... noise does not concern me as the tank is in my studio / server farm) that will be on the same timer as the actinics. This way, when the actinics come on in the morning, the upper part of the hood is cooled all day long. The metal halide will only be on for the peak part of the day, so the fans will already be running.

**edit** A fifth fan (80mm, not pictured) will be on the same circuit as the other 80mm fans, and housed in the ballast box. Pictures of this config will be posted when it's done.

-q

Great DIY qfour20! I'll be starting mine pretty soon too. Still have to plan the darn thing.

Hey qfour...beautiful light job/canopy....that's what I intend to tackle and learn more about wiring/power supply when I move in to our new house....Love this forum...really helps people like me learn more and spend less....

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Still haven't tackled finishing it up. I'm going to change out the nightlights with a 10" acrylic tube that has led's in it, on a seperate circuit, on a timer. Also, I need to put the ballasts in the ballast box, wire up the ballast box fan, etc.

-q

Where did you get the balast box from. I am looking for a place to pick one up.

Jerome

Metal project box from Fry's. $14, if I recall correctly.

-q

thats a sweet hood, nice techniqe