jojopus Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 Here's my attempt to get back into the hobby again, a DIY hood for my 20L. All I need to do is seal the inside, stain the outside and apply a sealer of some sort. Well.....I guess that not ALL I need to do........need to add lighting (2x55 cf from ahsupply) and a couple of fans for cooling. Oh yeah....then i need to set up the tank.... . I'll prolly go with lots of zoos and some nice softies.and maybe an LPS or two.... call me crazy but ive never been an SPS fan but each to his own. Link to comment
jojopus Posted January 8, 2003 Author Share Posted January 8, 2003 heres another shot Link to comment
glazer Posted January 8, 2003 Share Posted January 8, 2003 Nice job jojo! Is it plywood? Pics are small so hard to tell... me thinks I see the edges of ply. If so those edges can be a real beyotch to seal up properly.... may want to think about putting the veneer strips on the edges, either the kind that you use contact cement with or the one that is already treated with heat sensitive glue...you just iron that stuff on basically... if not ply or you already did this then um, nevermind...lol Oh and while I'm thinking out loud... the frame work around the interior middle of the hood.... for holding a plexi splash lens? Thinking if lights were mounted to hood you could still access the tank by lifting the plexi either as one piece or two seperate windows with the edges laying on the center brace. Um, if ya know that or are going to do that then, um nevermind....hehe? Oh and another thing..... naw just kiddin' Post a pic when it's all good for go, would love to see the final product. Link to comment
jojopus Posted January 8, 2003 Author Share Posted January 8, 2003 Actually it is plywood. The edges that are showing...i.e. the outside edges, do have oak veneer covering them so ya cant see the ugly plywood guts..hehe. the frame inside that you asked about IS for one solid peice of glass so i can have tank access by lifting the top cover and pulling the peice of glass off. I would have much preferred using poplar as the wood to make this, but my father in law had a bunch of this plywood laying around and offered it to me. Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?......so we went ahead and used it. I actually sealed the inside of it using the same sealer that ross used on his ten gallon hood project in a previous post on this forum. I'm being really liberal with the stuff around those exposed plywood edges so perhaps that will keep them protected pretty well. I'm actually gonna stain the outside this evening. I'll post another couple of pics when i finish it and then another couple when i get the lighting in and another couple.....and so on on and so on......lol. Anyways...thanks for your comments and especially for the complement. Link to comment
jojopus Posted January 9, 2003 Author Share Posted January 9, 2003 a couple shots after sealing the inside and staining the outside. I may apply a second coat of stain to darken it a bit. Link to comment
jtown Posted January 25, 2003 Share Posted January 25, 2003 too bad my stand doesn't match ... =P Link to comment
SonicBlue02 Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Nice top!! What hinges did you use for the lid? Here is my attempt -- Mine is plywood also. This is after one coat of stain, I plan on hitting it with one more coat of stain, then several coats of seal. I am tempted to paint the inside of it white, but not sure. I too plan on using 2 1x55w's from ahsupply. Link to comment
lizbeth Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 Very nice work jojopus! I'm looking forward to seeing the whole set up. jtown if I have to tell you this one more time I'm going to slap you. MAKE MATCHING TRIM for the bottom of the tank. It will cover the cheap looking plastic on the tank and then it won't matter that the stand doesn't match. SonicBlue, do paint the inside white. It will help the light reflect and it looks clean and purty. AND D*MMIT make trim for the bottom of the tank. Link to comment
jtown Posted January 28, 2003 Share Posted January 28, 2003 aw man! now I have something else to do. right now the bottom is covered up with part of my couch which is why I dont' really notice, but yes .... I have 3 different colors. Link to comment
SonicBlue02 Posted February 3, 2003 Share Posted February 3, 2003 Well here is the finished product - 2 coats of stain and 2 coats of sealer.... Sorry the picture didnt turn out better... Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 14, 2003 Author Share Posted February 14, 2003 Here is pretty much the finished hood. Now i just need to get my basement carpeted this weekend and then I'm ready to add water and rock and let the tank run through the nitro cycle. here are some pics. Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 14, 2003 Author Share Posted February 14, 2003 another........... Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 14, 2003 Author Share Posted February 14, 2003 dag...never seen a CF light in action...never realized how intense they were. pretty cool. I decided to put a csl 50/50 (actinic/10,000k)smartlamp and a helios 7100 k white bulb to get a nice balanced spectrum. Link to comment
lizbeth Posted February 14, 2003 Share Posted February 14, 2003 Nice job jojo! On with the water! Link to comment
SonicBlue02 Posted February 15, 2003 Share Posted February 15, 2003 Very nice job jojopus! Here are some updated pics of mine -- Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 15, 2003 Author Share Posted February 15, 2003 Hey Sonic nice job to you too. Is that a 2x36 kit on yours as well...doesnt look long enough to be a 2x55? Link to comment
SonicBlue02 Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 jojopus, They are two 1x 55s. The hood does kind of dwarf them, I didnt even check if I could go bigger. My tank isn't that deep (12" tank height) and wtih 110 watts I figured would be plenty for anything I plan on keeping. Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 16, 2003 Author Share Posted February 16, 2003 Hmmm...thats funny, they dont look much bigger than mine and i got the 2x36 kit on the advice of a couple of very advanced reefers in the chatroom. They both agreed that 2x55 might be overkill on a 20L since PC's were built for deeper water penetration and the 20L is only 12 inches deep. Anyways, even if it turns out to be 'moderatly intense' lighting i only plan on having zoos, softies, an lps or two, and maybe a montipora capricornus. I may even try my hand at a more subdued color variety of tridacnid squamosa set really high up in the tank. Link to comment
quiksilver5768 Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 IMO, 2x55's on a 20L are not overkill at all. You could even go with 2x65's and still be fine. Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 Funny thing about lighting issues..... I've heard alot of different things from alot of different people on the subject. The wierd thing about it is that folks have kept such varied forms of life under such varied lighting schemes and had wonderful success. I even read about a person (someone on this board i think) that has a very small tank containing acropora lit with only a couple of 13 watt pcs and is seeing signifigant growth. Thats amazing considering a few years ago light loving corals (and clams) like that were thought to only survive under HID lighting. I figure I'll be okay with my lighting due to my choice of animals. Well.....I do love tridacnid clams but again, I think a brown Squamosa will be do-able especially with the amount of white light I've chosen to include in my lighting scheme ( 1-7100K and 1 - 50/50). In short I'm certainly not saying 2x55's or greater is wrong its just that I've listened to alot of different opinions and based on that information have decided on the lighting that I believe best suits the animals i wish to keep. After all, that's what it's all about. Link to comment
jojopus Posted February 24, 2003 Author Share Posted February 24, 2003 Well, finally got my tank set up and have some water in and the cycle is starting. Got about 15 lbs of rock in there and plan to add about 5-6 lbs more next weekend plus some live sand. I'm currently running a CPR BakPak skimmer on it and its already collecting some nice brown gunk in the cup...stinks too. unfortunately its filling the tank with alot of micro bubbles but CPRUsa suggests that once the tank has cycled the surface tension of the water will decrease and the micro bubbles will cease and desist. Anyways here's some pics. Link to comment
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