Diy T5

[ben1987]

This is the plan...


me and my mate were planning on adding a 30" tank onto my system. It would drain from my display, to this tank, then to the sump. It would serve as a frag tank and a refugium, probably baffled in the middle for cheato and DSB one side and eggcrated on the other for frags. Plus it would add 80L of volume to my tank.

We were pricing up a 2' lighting unit and the idea of a DIY t5 unit cropped up. It would need to be 4 tubes. If someone could point us in the direction of what we would need that would be magic.

Cheers.

 

[seffieuk]

There is a guy on ebay selling t5 home made lighting systems to order, I asked about a unit for my tank, but its too much for me at the moment, look good quality though and chap comes across well! Maybe you could steal some ideas

Have copied the list of parts he said he would need to use for my tank

As a rough estimate a 5 foot unit with 4 tubes will cost :
1 board
£55.00
2 Side rails drilled @ £8.00 each total £16.00
1 lid @ £12.00
2
ballasts @ £24.00 each total £48.00
4 pairs of end caps @£5.50 each total
£22.00
Approximately 12Mtrs of heat resisting wire £10.00
1 fixing kit
£20.00
Total £238.00
This is without painting/ assembly /tubes.
Keep
looking though, to add another pair of tubes it will cost around an extra £
64.00
Extra width board £15.00
Extra width lid £2.00
Extra Ballast
£24.00
Extra pair of end caps £11.00
Extra 4 metres of Wire £6.00
Extra
fittings £6.00
So for a 6 light unit it will cost around £302.00
And for
an 8 light kit it will cost around £366.00.
Tubes, I can recommend a good
brand which is not very expensive for the main lights and I recommend some
premium tubes for the rest,
So as you can see it’s not the cheapest 2xtwin
on the market but it gets much better value as you add tubes to it, it is
custom made and the components are very best quality, and is also fully
serviceable (unlike many units on the market)
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230423777718

Seffie x

 

[Truck]

Look on lamp specs mate, all of the equipment you will need is on there:

Ballast * 2 (39 watt*2)
End caps
Tubes.

 

[AK77]

Hi Ben,

Couldn't you just make an acrylic box that you could put the T5 tubes into and just use the normal arcadia starter light units?

If you imagine a sheet of acrlic 30" x 12" which would be your base/spash guard. To the revese of that attach 3" high x 30/12" acrylic to form a box. You could then cut 3/4" holes into the sides to slide the T5 tubes into and then just push the end caps from the starter units onto the ends.

You could then mount this above your 30" tank by either suspending it above it or having it sit on the tank securely. It would probably cost you no more than about £15 for the acrylic.

 

[seffieuk]

So simple, but sounds perfect

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

Look on lamp specs mate, all of the equipment you will need is on there:

Ballast * 2 (39 watt*2)
End caps
Tubes.

Cheers truck, il have a look mate tar.

Hi Ben,

Couldn't you just make an acrylic box that you could put the T5 tubes into and just use the normal arcadia starter light units?

If you imagine a sheet of acrlic 30" x 12" which would be your base/spash guard. To the revese of that attach 3" high x 30/12" acrylic to form a box. You could then cut 3/4" holes into the sides to slide the T5 tubes into and then just push the end caps from the starter units onto the ends.

You could then mount this above your 30" tank by either suspending it above it or having it sit on the tank securely. It would probably cost you no more than about £15 for the acrylic.

good plan...will look 100X better than my idea or wacking it all on a sheet of marine ply

So simple, but sounds perfect

Seffie x

You havent seen my DIY i wont be perfect

 

[seffieuk]

I was thinking about the perspex hood that AK was talking about - wouldn't there be a lot of light seepage (sp)? How would you get round this, or wouldn't you mind?

I'm thinking of buying two t5 54 w remote ballasts so that i can add four more tubes, so was thinking along the same lines as you Ben, a piece of marine ply

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

If you got black acrylic i think you could make it look dead smart tbh!

but i think its going to make more sence for me to bu a unit or get a 2nd hand 150W halide.

Seen a 4x 24W T5 unit with legs and tubes for £140.

If you got black acrylic i think you could make it look dead smart tbh!

but i think its going to make more sence for me to bu a unit or get a 2nd hand 150W halide.

Seen a 4x 24W T5 unit with legs and tubes for £140.

 

[seffieuk]

Thats a good price - is that on fleabay, saw one similar on there?

I can get a another juwel lighting bar for about £80 but then theres tubes on top of that, £20 or so each - so ends up about the same price as the four you were looking at (with postage) - I could get four more tubes if I used remote ballests, its just the hood thing that is stopping me at the moment. Dont know why i'm so worried about it - zipzap has got his bulds screwed into 1x1 wood slats!

Seffie x

this game isnt cheap is it

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Regarding the light seepage on the other thread. You could make the top part out of marine ply and screw reflectors to it. Make the bottom part out of acrylic and have a lip around the outside of it so you can screw it onto the marine ply.

When using acrylic in lighting solutions be careful what you are using. I have come across some before that blocks UVA and UVB which while that's great for general use its not much use when you are growing corals.

Interested in this thread too. The cube tank we have for our seahorses only has 1 T8 tube in it and I'm looking for a cheap way to upgrade the lighting. Doesn't need to be mega bright but has to be bright enough to support a few soft corals and macro algae.

 

[ben1987]

it was one of the shopping links on google seffie when i searched 24" T5 unit

 

[AK77]

You could make the top part out of mirrored acrylic ben. That way all the light will be deflected back towards the tank and would probably eliminate the need for any reflectors.