Yuma
Fish Fanatic
Well, time for an update...past time, actually, but hang on as this will be pretty photo intensive and may require a couple of posts to update everything that has happened.
So, 2 1/2 weeks ago I purchased some Evolution LED light fixtures for my display tank from a local reefer tearing down his tank. More on that later, just trying to start the time line.
Weekend before last, my canopy was FINALLY delivered. It was a long time coming, due to some family issues with the builder and him redoing the finish countless times until he got it just like he wanted it. Without further ado, here's a photo of the entire DT now.
So it was killing me, but he had asked me to let the final coat cure a few more days before I did anything too much with it. That just meant I had some time to figure out how to mount the LED fixtures into it. Evolution makes some mounting brackets but they want $25 each. I figured I could DIY something for certainly less than that. So last weekend I sent to Lowes to see what I could come up with. What I found was some galvanized metal straps. After measuring upteen times I bent them into 90 degree angles and mounted into the canopy. Added the lights to the brackets and viola, new lights on the DT. Oh, and it cost me just over 8 bucks total.
I didn't do a good job of taking pictures getting them ready, but here are some pics of the lights mounted in the canopy. The nice thing in, you can sort of see it in the second picture, I have about an inch adjustment up or down with these brackets as is necessary.
All in all, I am really pleased with the outcome. I'll add some pictures of the lighting in the tank in the next posts.
So, 2 1/2 weeks ago I purchased some Evolution LED light fixtures for my display tank from a local reefer tearing down his tank. More on that later, just trying to start the time line.
Weekend before last, my canopy was FINALLY delivered. It was a long time coming, due to some family issues with the builder and him redoing the finish countless times until he got it just like he wanted it. Without further ado, here's a photo of the entire DT now.
So it was killing me, but he had asked me to let the final coat cure a few more days before I did anything too much with it. That just meant I had some time to figure out how to mount the LED fixtures into it. Evolution makes some mounting brackets but they want $25 each. I figured I could DIY something for certainly less than that. So last weekend I sent to Lowes to see what I could come up with. What I found was some galvanized metal straps. After measuring upteen times I bent them into 90 degree angles and mounted into the canopy. Added the lights to the brackets and viola, new lights on the DT. Oh, and it cost me just over 8 bucks total.
I didn't do a good job of taking pictures getting them ready, but here are some pics of the lights mounted in the canopy. The nice thing in, you can sort of see it in the second picture, I have about an inch adjustment up or down with these brackets as is necessary.
All in all, I am really pleased with the outcome. I'll add some pictures of the lighting in the tank in the next posts.