DIY Lighting

[Sunshine]

Hello all! I haven't been on here in a while but I wanted to show how I made a light for my 20 gallon viv. It cost around $30 to make which was more than I expected but I live in a small town in Canada and there isn't a whole lot of selection here. I'm sure this could be made for $20 or less anywhere else. This is customizable for any size tank too which is nice. I struggled for a while trying to find a decently priced light for my tank and I finally decided to make my own. I couldn't find a thread on do it yourself lighting on here so I hope this helps someone. I am not the greatest at explaining things but here goes...

Ingredients:

1 1"x8"x6' pine board $3

1 24" 4 light bathroom light fixture $20

1 piece of pegboard $4.50

Screws

Replacement lamp cord with switch $3

The pine board was cut into two 24 1/4" pieces for the sides and two 7 1/4" square pieces for the ends. A 1/2 inch hole was drilled in the middle of one of the long pieces for the wires of the light to go through. The light was screwed into place and the wires were put through the hole in the back of the wood. Small holes were drilled in the ends of the long pieces of wood and the square pieces were screwed onto the ends. (Drilling holes is optional. I did it so the wood did not split when the screws went in and it also helps the screws to go in easier.) Next the peg board was cut to fit the top of the wood box. I used peg board so the light fixture would have adequate ventilation since I am using CFLs. Next the cord was attached to the wires of the light fixture. The cord was pulled apart about 2 or 3 inches to keep the wires from touching. There is a positive side (smooth) and a negative side (rough) to the cord and the side of the cord with the ribbing goes to the negative wire on the light (black) and the smooth side goes to the positive wire (white). Then the bulbs were added and the light was turned on. Eventually I will get around to painting it black so it looks better and the inside will be flat white to reflect more light back into the tank.

[deranged chipmunk]

Looks great sherry! Nice job! Thanks for sharing [emoji1]


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[Sunshine]

Thank you Bill! It is a simple design but it works and if this helps one person I will be happy.

[deranged chipmunk]

Simple always seems to work best [emoji1]


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[joshua123]

Wow beautiful! Good job sunshine

[k5MOW]

Very nice.

Roger

[Sunshine]

Thank you Joshua and Roger! It will look better after it is painted, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[monster]

Hi Sherry, that box looks nice. Might have gave me some ideas. I was just wondering, what wattage are the CFL bulbs you are using. At the moment until I figure out what im going to do for light with my firebellies because I want to change up the lighting im just using a 13 watt cfl but im wondering if this is going to hurt my eyes. But if it doesn't I might try something similar to you. I was going to try the exo terra reptiglo over my 30 gallon but I might just stick with these. I have been buying the zoomed daylight blue bulbs but I find they don't last to long.

[monster]

That one part is supposed to say hurt the frogs eyes not mine. L.O.L

[Sunshine]

That one part is supposed to say hurt the frogs eyes not mine. L.O.L

Ha!!

[Sunshine]

Thank you Cory The bulbs are 13 Watts and are the GE Mini CFLs (6500k). They are pretty bright so maybe you could use a couple 9 watt bulbs or you could use a higher watt just over the land portion of the tank? My FBTs seemed to not like bright light and would turn dark green under it.

[deranged chipmunk]

Why not just cut the bulbs from 4 to 2 and/or add a light diffuser to the build it you feel they are too bright?


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[monster]

I went out today and bought this Aqueon 50/50 daylight/bluelight mini compact fluorescent 6'' 10 watt bulb and it isn't very bright at all. It gives off more blue then anything else so I hopeing they will like this one.

[Sunshine]

The light is finally painted and looks a lot better







You can see how much the flat white paint on the inside of the fixture reflects more light back into the tank. Here is the tank before the inside of the hood was painted:

[deranged chipmunk]

lookin good sherry!!


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[monster]

Nice, that looks really good forsure. Out of all honesty it looks like something you would buy at the store.

[Sunshine]

Thank you Bill and Cory! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.