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Elmo's 40B RISES! *Update* Marineland LED Hanging Tutorial
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I find it ironic your last aquarium was titled: "Sandy Oasis"
I can't wait! Your tanks and photos are always a treat.
I can't wait! Your tanks and photos are always a treat.
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Hehe
Thanks though! Always nice to hear good things about my pics Haha, true, I didn't notice that until you pointed it out :hihi: Thanks for the kind words, I intend to document the whole process from start to finish during the buildI find it ironic your last aquarium was titled: "Sandy Oasis"
I can't wait! Your tanks and photos are always a treat.
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Thanks! And yes, Skinky is fine, I kept him warm by buying an entire display of hand warmers from the sporting goods store. Got some weird looks from the cashier when I walked up to the counter with the entire display shelf box of hand warmers and said I wanted to buy all of them
lol!
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Rise!
an awesome solution!Thanks! And yes, Skinky is fine, I kept him warm by buying an entire display of hand warmers from the sporting goods store. Got some weird looks from the cashier when I walked up to the counter with the entire display shelf box of hand warmers and said I wanted to buy all of them
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Yay! I love that skink. One day, when I am done spending money on my aquariums and photography (that will be awhile from now :hihi I want to get a blue tounged skink. They are so funny and different.
I want to get a blue tounged skink. They are so funny and different.
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I totally recommend it, they're such awesome lizards! :red_mouthYay! I love that skink. One day, when I am done spending money on my aquariums and photography (that will be awhile from now :hihi
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I'm glad you're getting the tank back up. I can't wait to see it! I always love looking at your photos, they are always awesome!
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Marineland LED Hanging Tutorial - Total Cost: About $15 (including shelf brackets)
Well, I did this on my 60P, so I figured I would do a photo tutorial since I was doing it again for this tank. The light I'm using is the double bright version, but this would work equally well for the other models, its all the same...As a side benefit, this is all reversible if you do it as I do, so you can always switch it back to factory style if you don't want to hang it anymore.
1. Remove these two screws! There's two on each side... Start on the end without the wire and switch...
2. After the screws are removed, simply slide off the end cap. It has a little bit of resistance but is easy enough to remove...
3. As you can see, the legs are quite long! This is what allows to it to fit tanks up to 48"
4. There's these two little white stoppers on each end. They prevent the legs from coming out of the fixture. These are easy enough to slide off on this end, but you'll need pliers of some kind to give you some extra grip and leverage.
5. Replace the end cap. You can then replace the screws, or leave them off if you really want or need to for some other reason. The end caps are secure enough without them, just don't go swinging from your light fixture and you'll be fine. That being said, I put the screws back as I like for it to look factory finished.
6. This end is slightly harder to do as a result of the wires and switch. Remove the screws but DO NOT pull the end cap off with force, remove it very slowly. If you do not remove it very slowly, you will severe/rip out the wiring and render your expensive LED light useless. The wires do NOT have a lot of slack, hence the need to be gentle.
7. This picture shows the wire, and the very little slack available on the wires. This is why you need to be careful!
8. Because there isn't much slack on the wire, before removing the end cap I recommend pulling the legs out about half way. This way you don't accidentally yank the whole end cap back accidentally/mindlessly while attempting to reach the white stoppers. A mindless accident here will rip the wires.
9. For some reason the white stoppers were much harder to remove on this side, which I don't remember being the case with the light on my 60P. Regardless, I got around it by using a mini screw driver wedged in between the gap in the stopper to separate it a little and widen it so it could be easily slid off.
10. Slide the end cap back on and replace the screws.
11. Four eye bolts. I used the 5/8" size, which is a perfect fit for the original leg holes.
12. Simply place the eye bolts into the holes where the fixture legs were. They come with nuts, but theres no easy way to attach them to the bolt and the lack of space in the slim fixture is an issue, so I leave them off. Note that the eye bolts simply slide into the leg holes with a bit of resistance. Therefore, theoretically they could slide out of the fixture and send it crashing into the tank if you insist upon using your LED fixture as a swing. That being said, I've never had an issue with it on my 60P, even after bumping into it violently multiple times, and I actually prefer it as if I want to remove the fixture to clean the tank or do some scaping, all I have to do is remove these bolts and put the fixture elsewhere instead of taking down the whole hanging setup.
13. S-Hooks. I use these to hang from the shelf brackets which then hold the chain which is connected to the light. On my 60P, I used hooks which are probably better. You can use whatever you want!
14. S-Hooks in Action...
15. S-Hooks in Action 2
16. Shelf, with shelf brackets and S-Hook Hangers.
17. Black Plastic Chain. Super cheap, somewhere around 61 cents a foot. I got two feet to be safe, and then trim later. You can get less if you want, just keep in mind it helps to have some extra in case you want to lower your lights.
18. More S-Hooks to connect the chain to the fixture. I used smaller S-Hooks for this, but you can use whatever size you want.
19. Attached and in action...
20.
21.
22.
23. Done! Just have to cut the excess chain!
Thats it for the Marineland LED Hanging Tutorial! :smile:
--------------------------------------------------------------
-Tank Progress-
I've grown to love the LED accent lighting below my stand on my 60P, so I decided to do the same with this tank!
This stand doesn't have anything to drill into with the "top" of the stand being the bottom of the tank, so I needed something that would allow me to attach the LED accent lighting. I tried magnetic tape, but it wasn't strong enough as the LED light bar is quite heavy. Cue the industrial strength velcro tape!
I left the tape off the screws so I have access to the internals of the LED light bar in case I need to get into it for some reason, ya' never know...
Ta-Da! I had to let it sit for a while for the glue to dry, but I did a test attachment, and the velcro was so strong it nearly completely removed the back panel of the LED light bar when I went to remove it! So yeah, this stuff is rather strong
That's all for now!
Well, I did this on my 60P, so I figured I would do a photo tutorial since I was doing it again for this tank. The light I'm using is the double bright version, but this would work equally well for the other models, its all the same...As a side benefit, this is all reversible if you do it as I do, so you can always switch it back to factory style if you don't want to hang it anymore.
1. Remove these two screws! There's two on each side... Start on the end without the wire and switch...
2. After the screws are removed, simply slide off the end cap. It has a little bit of resistance but is easy enough to remove...
3. As you can see, the legs are quite long! This is what allows to it to fit tanks up to 48"
4. There's these two little white stoppers on each end. They prevent the legs from coming out of the fixture. These are easy enough to slide off on this end, but you'll need pliers of some kind to give you some extra grip and leverage.
5. Replace the end cap. You can then replace the screws, or leave them off if you really want or need to for some other reason. The end caps are secure enough without them, just don't go swinging from your light fixture and you'll be fine. That being said, I put the screws back as I like for it to look factory finished.
6. This end is slightly harder to do as a result of the wires and switch. Remove the screws but DO NOT pull the end cap off with force, remove it very slowly. If you do not remove it very slowly, you will severe/rip out the wiring and render your expensive LED light useless. The wires do NOT have a lot of slack, hence the need to be gentle.
7. This picture shows the wire, and the very little slack available on the wires. This is why you need to be careful!
8. Because there isn't much slack on the wire, before removing the end cap I recommend pulling the legs out about half way. This way you don't accidentally yank the whole end cap back accidentally/mindlessly while attempting to reach the white stoppers. A mindless accident here will rip the wires.
9. For some reason the white stoppers were much harder to remove on this side, which I don't remember being the case with the light on my 60P. Regardless, I got around it by using a mini screw driver wedged in between the gap in the stopper to separate it a little and widen it so it could be easily slid off.
10. Slide the end cap back on and replace the screws.
11. Four eye bolts. I used the 5/8" size, which is a perfect fit for the original leg holes.
12. Simply place the eye bolts into the holes where the fixture legs were. They come with nuts, but theres no easy way to attach them to the bolt and the lack of space in the slim fixture is an issue, so I leave them off. Note that the eye bolts simply slide into the leg holes with a bit of resistance. Therefore, theoretically they could slide out of the fixture and send it crashing into the tank if you insist upon using your LED fixture as a swing. That being said, I've never had an issue with it on my 60P, even after bumping into it violently multiple times, and I actually prefer it as if I want to remove the fixture to clean the tank or do some scaping, all I have to do is remove these bolts and put the fixture elsewhere instead of taking down the whole hanging setup.
13. S-Hooks. I use these to hang from the shelf brackets which then hold the chain which is connected to the light. On my 60P, I used hooks which are probably better. You can use whatever you want!
14. S-Hooks in Action...
15. S-Hooks in Action 2
16. Shelf, with shelf brackets and S-Hook Hangers.
17. Black Plastic Chain. Super cheap, somewhere around 61 cents a foot. I got two feet to be safe, and then trim later. You can get less if you want, just keep in mind it helps to have some extra in case you want to lower your lights.
18. More S-Hooks to connect the chain to the fixture. I used smaller S-Hooks for this, but you can use whatever size you want.
19. Attached and in action...
20.
21.
22.
23. Done! Just have to cut the excess chain!
Thats it for the Marineland LED Hanging Tutorial! :smile:
--------------------------------------------------------------
-Tank Progress-
I've grown to love the LED accent lighting below my stand on my 60P, so I decided to do the same with this tank!
This stand doesn't have anything to drill into with the "top" of the stand being the bottom of the tank, so I needed something that would allow me to attach the LED accent lighting. I tried magnetic tape, but it wasn't strong enough as the LED light bar is quite heavy. Cue the industrial strength velcro tape!
I left the tape off the screws so I have access to the internals of the LED light bar in case I need to get into it for some reason, ya' never know...
Ta-Da! I had to let it sit for a while for the glue to dry, but I did a test attachment, and the velcro was so strong it nearly completely removed the back panel of the LED light bar when I went to remove it! So yeah, this stuff is rather strong
That's all for now!
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Very sorry to hear about losing your other tank.
Looking forward to watching this one get set up. Great tutorial on the lights!
Looking forward to watching this one get set up. Great tutorial on the lights!
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1,348 Posts
Very nice tutorial! Any plans yet for what will be going in the tank plant/fish wise?
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Thanks!
Thanks man
I'm keeping it low-light/low-maintenance, it'll be nature scape style with a little bit of manzanita driftwood.Plants will be only be E. Tenellus, Bolbitis, Java Fern, and some moss.
Not sure what I want fish wise, but it'll very likely be a larger number of one type of schooling fish. Sick of the 5,000 different types of fish I had in my old 40B. Want to keep it clean and simple
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9 Days without power or heat and a total lack of water movement, and the temperatures outside were in the high 20's, 30's and low 40's if we were lucky. So yeah, everything died. (Except one big bad-ass cherry shrimp that I found today while draining the tank. I put him in the 60P until this tank is ready again
roud:
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Progress! I removed the black background today...what a hassle! I could have sworn I used latex based paint, but apparently I actually used oil based paint because it was super tough to remove. Had to use a glass scraping tool with razor blade and and it was more efficient but still took a while.
Remind me to never do that again lol...
Remind me to never do that again lol...
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As said before, you take great photos! I am going to use your light tutorial! Thank you for sharing
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Hahahaha! That is a cool shrimp!9 Days without power or heat and a total lack of water movement, and the temperatures outside were in the high 20's, 30's and low 40's if we were lucky. So yeah, everything died. (Except one big bad-ass cherry shrimp that I found today while draining the tank. I put him in the 60P until this tank is ready again
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