Hey guys, hopefully you find some usefull information on the little project i did yesterday.
Walmart had a huge sale and while there I saw 2 flood lights 150watts and 500watts on sale for
$5 each, so in a moment I had a DIY thought. So I bought 2 and figured with some basic scrap at
home, perhapse I could use them.
So what I did was build a basic canopy to house the 2 500watt floods to see how would it work
towards the aquarium. Worst case, Its $10 and something to do, if all fails.
check it out...
These are the lights that I will be using in my little DIY Project, they are 500watts each.
And altho this is an over kill, as stated above, its more of a testing ideal.
My wood used was scrape from the many projects before but if you bought from lowes, you
spend about $15-20 tops and they could cut for you ifyou dont have a way to cut for yourself.
1
What I did was basic, my tank is 30" long, so I made the Bridge ( what will cross over and hold
the lighting 30") So I could tuck the sides and lift the bridge to what hight I needed later.
Space out the lights, evenly, mark and drill. The floods come with a mount of there own but
that would need more hight off the water then I wanted. So when i drilledthe holes, I fliped the
mounts to be on the oposite side, but killing 3-4" and allowing the ablity to raise or lower the
lights with a couple turns.
2
This shows the mounts fliped and the wiring pulled threw. Now the floods are designed to wire
directly into the house. I want in to have a basic on/off switch and to plug in.
I hadthese items already ( have a lot of left over project parts...lol) but new it would be $5
total.
3
If you can wire cool...if not this is what you could do, You always have 3 wires in Ac, One is
power or a hot wire, one is nutral ( AC is that the power + and the power- /push+ pull-, switch
back in forth between the hot and nutral. DC is like your car, were there is only one hott,which is
+ all the time and for the -/pull you have a ground.)the last wire is your ground. Most of the time
the color code is black/red hot and white nutral and green is ground. in this case its blk hot, white
nutral and ground is a rope wire ( looks extposed).
Because this is not aquatic designed, I will water proof everything. DIY trick is use old air line hoses
nuts and silacone.
I conected the ground to the mount, put a nut on with a drop of silacone with the hose...
4
As in the picture, at first I used one switch,later that night I went to two swtiches that
I could turn on at a time, just repeat the process to do that.
First get an extention cord, or power cord, since the lights are grouned by them selves you dont
have to have a 3prog extention cord-if you could not of done that the the ground would of been
connected to the green wire in the cords, and because its AC and it will swtich, it dont matter
what side you pick for hot+/-. I used a power cord- splice the ends and connect both whites and one of the
cords, then the blacks-dual switches just connect to each. place the nut and silacone with hose
and your set.
5
I then took an old canister hose cut bottom and slide over.I put electrical tape on the wires
also just to hold them tighter,expecally at the nuts when doing this, just makes it neater.
Pic is show with a haft piece on to give you a better view, suggest useing a hole piece.
6
This is the switch-one wire fallows al the way threw and the other you cut a loop out of
placing it in the prongs and tighting the top.
7
I painted the bridge but thats so i dont have to remove the wiring top paint later. I didnt paint
anything else since i didnt make up my mind with that, you can and is best to do so before you build.
I threw on a set of basic 5"x2" L brackets.
8
Measures and cut my sides,mount the brackets on the sides and then to the bidge-easier to attach.
9
Mountedthe from witch was slight under cut to fit right.measure the side out to out, u can use brackets
or if you want your canopy to sit over the lip of you black frame. Measure and cut the canopy about an inch
to big, place a mount on the inside of yourwall at the distance of the hang. So the mount rest on the frame.
I did perferr either or so mine is to sit on the top like a hood. ( Its just a tester ideal)
Finally place your front, I just nailed it, carefull not to slpit
10
I used a piece of black foam board to maock up the top door and sides since they are angle cuts.
11
12
This is a picture of the back- adjusments to the light postitions will be done last and with a
screwdriver
13
Adjusting lights...
14
Then I cut the sides angles and the top a set of hinges and we were done...
15
16
17
18
All in all I spent $10 and I got a 1000watt toatl lighting system that worked great. Other then the heat factor
with the lights directly at the water the heat dosent cause a problem with the canopy or the tank for that matter, just
becarefull not to touch.
I will on thursday, set up a fan though and will show that as well.
Other then that it worked out great form me. I did figure if you bought everything new you would spend about
$40-45 and about 3hrs to do.
hope you guys liked....
Walmart had a huge sale and while there I saw 2 flood lights 150watts and 500watts on sale for
$5 each, so in a moment I had a DIY thought. So I bought 2 and figured with some basic scrap at
home, perhapse I could use them.
So what I did was build a basic canopy to house the 2 500watt floods to see how would it work
towards the aquarium. Worst case, Its $10 and something to do, if all fails.
check it out...
These are the lights that I will be using in my little DIY Project, they are 500watts each.
And altho this is an over kill, as stated above, its more of a testing ideal.
My wood used was scrape from the many projects before but if you bought from lowes, you
spend about $15-20 tops and they could cut for you ifyou dont have a way to cut for yourself.
1
What I did was basic, my tank is 30" long, so I made the Bridge ( what will cross over and hold
the lighting 30") So I could tuck the sides and lift the bridge to what hight I needed later.
Space out the lights, evenly, mark and drill. The floods come with a mount of there own but
that would need more hight off the water then I wanted. So when i drilledthe holes, I fliped the
mounts to be on the oposite side, but killing 3-4" and allowing the ablity to raise or lower the
lights with a couple turns.
2
This shows the mounts fliped and the wiring pulled threw. Now the floods are designed to wire
directly into the house. I want in to have a basic on/off switch and to plug in.
I hadthese items already ( have a lot of left over project parts...lol) but new it would be $5
total.
3
If you can wire cool...if not this is what you could do, You always have 3 wires in Ac, One is
power or a hot wire, one is nutral ( AC is that the power + and the power- /push+ pull-, switch
back in forth between the hot and nutral. DC is like your car, were there is only one hott,which is
+ all the time and for the -/pull you have a ground.)the last wire is your ground. Most of the time
the color code is black/red hot and white nutral and green is ground. in this case its blk hot, white
nutral and ground is a rope wire ( looks extposed).
Because this is not aquatic designed, I will water proof everything. DIY trick is use old air line hoses
nuts and silacone.
I conected the ground to the mount, put a nut on with a drop of silacone with the hose...
4
As in the picture, at first I used one switch,later that night I went to two swtiches that
I could turn on at a time, just repeat the process to do that.
First get an extention cord, or power cord, since the lights are grouned by them selves you dont
have to have a 3prog extention cord-if you could not of done that the the ground would of been
connected to the green wire in the cords, and because its AC and it will swtich, it dont matter
what side you pick for hot+/-. I used a power cord- splice the ends and connect both whites and one of the
cords, then the blacks-dual switches just connect to each. place the nut and silacone with hose
and your set.
5
I then took an old canister hose cut bottom and slide over.I put electrical tape on the wires
also just to hold them tighter,expecally at the nuts when doing this, just makes it neater.
Pic is show with a haft piece on to give you a better view, suggest useing a hole piece.
6
This is the switch-one wire fallows al the way threw and the other you cut a loop out of
placing it in the prongs and tighting the top.
7
I painted the bridge but thats so i dont have to remove the wiring top paint later. I didnt paint
anything else since i didnt make up my mind with that, you can and is best to do so before you build.
I threw on a set of basic 5"x2" L brackets.
8
Measures and cut my sides,mount the brackets on the sides and then to the bidge-easier to attach.
9
Mountedthe from witch was slight under cut to fit right.measure the side out to out, u can use brackets
or if you want your canopy to sit over the lip of you black frame. Measure and cut the canopy about an inch
to big, place a mount on the inside of yourwall at the distance of the hang. So the mount rest on the frame.
I did perferr either or so mine is to sit on the top like a hood. ( Its just a tester ideal)
Finally place your front, I just nailed it, carefull not to slpit
10
I used a piece of black foam board to maock up the top door and sides since they are angle cuts.
11
12
This is a picture of the back- adjusments to the light postitions will be done last and with a
screwdriver
13
Adjusting lights...
14
Then I cut the sides angles and the top a set of hinges and we were done...
15
16
17
18
All in all I spent $10 and I got a 1000watt toatl lighting system that worked great. Other then the heat factor
with the lights directly at the water the heat dosent cause a problem with the canopy or the tank for that matter, just
becarefull not to touch.
I will on thursday, set up a fan though and will show that as well.
Other then that it worked out great form me. I did figure if you bought everything new you would spend about
$40-45 and about 3hrs to do.
hope you guys liked....
...I just love DIY!
Those halogen lights are pretty inefficient at converting electricity into light, and generally produce as much or more heat as light. On the cheap though, for an intermittent high intensity lamp, you can't beat $5 
Make sure your tank stays at the right temp!
