Spiral Fluorescent Bulb Canopy

[vca2004]

This is the "canopy" I recently made for my 16 gallon tank. It cost me about $25 in materials, but I already had the wood for the canopy as the whole think was built into a bookshelf.

Materials:
(2) 20W GE 6500K Daylight spiral fluorescent bulbs (Ace Hardware)
(2) light sockets (Lowes)
lamp cord w/plug (Lowes)
(4) aluminum flashing pieces (Lowes)
silicone, electrical tape for better protection from water

I also siliconed a couple strips of black silicvone tubing onto the front edge of the reflectors to prevent cutting myself while aquascaping .

[airborne_r6]

That is awesome I totally want a tank built into a bookcase now. What are the dimensions of your tank? The lighting looks great also, good job on the build.

[vca2004]

Thank you very much .

The dimensions are 20" x 10" x 18.5"H. It's a 16 gallon HIGH from Marineland, same footprint as a 10gal. I put some craft foam under the tank and an acrylic sheet on top to prevent water damage to the bookcase. So far it's working like a charm, no condensation. Might have to exchange the acrylic against a glass cover sometime though as it's starting to bow from the warmth of the bulbs (they are not hot, but a little warmth seems to be enough for the thin acrylic to bow).

[dirkgent001]

Nice! I'm in the process of building a CF fixture exactly like this, except I'm going to essentially double this. So like what you did X2 inside an old 30" light strip. I like how you siliconed the back part of the sockets to protect from water/moisture. Definitely need to do that on mine.

[vca2004]

Thank you! How big is your tank? Mine it's pretty high, but the HC is doing OK. It's slowly growing with daily Excel addition after some initial die-off.

[dirkgent001]

mine is a 29 gallon, so its about 18" tall. I just finished the build, its a bit rough but its working. The tank I'm using it for was not really planted, but I just took my 10 gallon planted and put all the plants into the 29 gallon, so we'll see how it goes.