+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 I have an idea to use a glass tube to run lighting vertically inside the fuge. I happen to have some glass tubes and one of them turned out to be close to the right length and diameter. The plan is to silicone the glass tube to a base that will be siliconed in to the bottom of the fuge to hold it in place. I want the top of the tube to extend out of the tank so there is less of a chance that water will make its way inside. The glass tube is 1" short of being flush with the tank so I'm going to build my glass base 2" thick so that I get exactly 1" extending outside the tank. The water level should be 3" lower than the top of the glass tube once the tank is filled. The tank is an 18 gallon tall, I removed the top trim and center brace to make room for the tube. I'm eurobracing it for strength with 1.5" x 1/4" braces. I started today, got the trim off the tank and one side of the eurobracing done, and siliconed the tube to part of the base. I will add legs to the base and the other eurobrace tomorrow then let it all dry. Then I'll silicone the base inside the tank and drill holes for supply and return bulkheads. For lighting I'm going to drop in a single 18" fluorescent with a thin custom brackets holding it together. This way hardly any of th light will be blocked once its installed in the tube. Obviously the idea is to bring the light close to the macro so that it grows quickly. Another reason is to increase the sq in of growing area from 20" x 10" (200 sq in) on the top of the tank to 18" x 16" (288 sq in) which is inside sq inches of tubes. I think that its safe to say this should it should increase production of macro by 30%. It should look cool too, the macro will be glowing but you won't see the light bulb...at least that's what I imagine. I'll be adding a GFCI breaker for power, just in case...... Got any ideas? Maybe LED's instead? Lets hear them, this is all new territory for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinB Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Cool idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Very unique. Would have to see how they turn out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Oooo I like this!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offroadodge Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 we are gonna have to order more silicone....It will work like a champ i think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civais Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Great idea, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 when i was researching algae scrubbers some people had made "light boxes" to get the light as close to the screen as possible. Interesting concept. . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 Light output decreases substantially every inch you move the light away, just for an example that we have tested a 1000 watt light and the lumens can be increased 10% by moving the light 3" closer to the plant. My thoughts are that I will be able to use less light (power) and get greater macro production vs a traditional lighting setup. With a tradional setup all the light that bleeds out the side of the reflector and that is lost inside the reflector (reflector inefficiency) is all wasted....this is at least 25% or more depending on the qulaity of the relfector. Plus that light is also further away from the macro mounted above the tank. No more dealing with dirty glass over the fuge blocking the light either. With all things considered it could be 50% more efficient. The only drawback is that more heat will be transferred in to the water this way, but if I'm able to use 1 bulb it shouldn't make that much heat, and the top of the tube will be open so much of that heat will be able to escape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 I have an idea to use a glass tube to run lighting vertically inside the fuge. I happen to have some glass tubes and one of them turned out to be close to the right length and diameter. The plan is to silicone the glass tube to a base that will be siliconed in to the bottom of the fuge to hold it in place. I want the top of the tube to extend out of the tank so there is less of a chance that water will make its way inside. The glass tube is 1" short of being flush with the tank so I'm going to build my glass base 2" thick so that I get exactly 1" extending outside the tank. The water level should be 3" lower than the top of the glass tube once the tank is filled. The tank is an 18 gallon tall, I removed the top trim and center brace to make room for the tube. I'm eurobracing it for strength with 1.5" x 1/4" braces. I started today, got the trim off the tank and one side of the eurobracing done, and siliconed the tube to part of the base. I will add legs to the base and the other eurobrace tomorrow then let it all dry. Then I'll silicone the base inside the tank and drill holes for supply and return bulkheads. For lighting I'm going to drop in a single 18" fluorescent with a thin custom brackets holding it together. This way hardly any of th light will be blocked once its installed in the tube. Obviously the idea is to bring the light close to the macro so that it grows quickly. Another reason is to increase the sq in of growing area from 20" x 10" (200 sq in) on the top of the tank to 18" x 16" (288 sq in) which is inside sq inches of tubes. I think that its safe to say this should it should increase production of macro by 30%. It should look cool too, the macro will be glowing but you won't see the light bulb...at least that's what I imagine. I'll be adding a GFCI breaker for power, just in case...... Got any ideas? Maybe LED's instead? Lets hear them, this is all new territory for me. Stephen, I use Home Depot PC 6500K bulbs. The bottom glass of these bulbs are placed 1" below the water. Considering the coating on the side of the bulb, light only leaves the fixture through the bottom glass which is 1" below water. Every week or so, I have to remove bulb and scrape algae off the glass. I have six 24W bulbs crammed into a 10G refugium, it grows abundant seaweed. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teresa Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 "The bottom glass of these bulbs are placed 1" below the water" How dangerous is that? I have the same light. My refugium got backed up once and the light was in 2" of water. Nothing bad happened, but it scared me. I'm glad the light was encased in glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 Patrick do you have a picture handy? I'm having a hard time picturing this in my head but it sounds interesting. That's a lot of light in a 10 gallon! I want to come buy and pick up some macro from you when I get this filled up and ready to go. I've got culerpa taxfolia in my fuge on my DT but I would like to get rid of it and go with something that my tangs will eat. Any suggestions of what kinds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 I plan on using one of these bulbs, I didn't realize it but these are 125w. http://www.amazon.com/Hydroponic-Spectrum-Power-Compact-Fluorescent/dp/B004JOKJIG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 http://live-plants.com/prolifera.htm Caulerpa Prolifera. I can not keep this growing in my display tanks. The Drawf Angels devour it. You are welcome to all you want. With respect to my PC lighting I often use the $7 spring clamp with cheap light socket with on/off switch. I throw away the reflector and cheap socket and replace socket with a damp proof pigtail. I do not recommend it, but I have had these pigtails go under water with no problems. In the case of these Home Depot PC bulbs, I have drilled holes through a 1" X 4", mounting bulb through the bottom with the rubber socket squezzed together at the top of the side of the 1" X 4". When you don't care about cosmetics, it is a very functiuonal light fixture. I have actually used it as the only light on a 55G mushroom tank which I operated for years. I think that I used ten 16W PC daylight delux bulbs. Recently, at Lowe's the PC bulbs are 24W and if you look hard, it says 5000K. The kevin rating on these bulbs is closer to 6500K with no yellow that is usually associated with 5000K. Come on down and visit. I will be visiting you within the month. Many irons in the fire at this time. I am going to be out of town for a few days playing Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 I plan on using one of these bulbs, I didn't realize it but these are 125w. http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/B004JOKJIG Five times the W for three times the $. Good find. This bulb would require a reflector to be effective. Your vertical sealed lamp holder under water would effectively transfer light to plants with minimum escaped light. Much heat from this fixture will go into the water, however. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 "The bottom glass of these bulbs are placed 1" below the water" How dangerous is that? I have the same light. My refugium got backed up once and the light was in 2" of water. Nothing bad happened, but it scared me. I'm glad the light was encased in glass. The electricity for this bulb is located in the socket at the top. The corkscrew electrical filiment ends at least 1" above the bottom glass which encases the filiment. This is no different then submerging heaters into the water to heat water. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tavio Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 I think this is pretty nifty idea. I've tinkered with a similar idea. I had 2 thing come up though. After a while the algae began to grow over the container holding the light that is to be submerged under water. The green hair and most of the micro algae were no big deal to remove but once the coralline kicked in it will be a pain to remove and i think it will probably suck more so on the glass tube. Good thing though is it looks like your idea is a drop in application. So you could probably pull it out periodically and maybe soak in vinegar? Another thing I though about is that tube if dropped into water will probably float, maybe anchoring it down? Just some observations. I do thinks its a great idea. I'm thinking for my next design i might try to add a removable sleeve so that I can clean of any algae that begins to block light Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 I think this is pretty nifty idea. I've tinkered with a similar idea. I had 2 thing come up though. After a while the algae began to grow over the container holding the light that is to be submerged under water. The green hair and most of the micro algae were no big deal to remove but once the coralline kicked in it will be a pain to remove and i think it will probably suck more so on the glass tube. Good thing though is it looks like your idea is a drop in application. So you could probably pull it out periodically and maybe soak in vinegar? Another thing I though about is that tube if dropped into water will probably float, maybe anchoring it down? Just some observations. I do thinks its a great idea. I'm thinking for my next design i might try to add a removable sleeve so that I can clean of any algae that begins to block light Good points. My plan was to silicone the base in to the bottom of the tank. This fixes one of your points about it floating but would make it nearly impossible to remove easily to clean it. I should be able to reach my hand inside the tank and clean the outside of the tube though. I didn't consider coraline and it will be interesting to see if it will be a problem or not. IME I have noticed that coraline does not grow well under strong MH lights, it does better in lower light areas. However the most coraline I've been able to grow is with low fluorescent lighting...in my fuge (it won't hardly grow in my DT). So,,,,,,will the fact that the light is bright stop the coraline from growing or will the fact that its fluorescent make the coraline grow out of control...I guess I'll find out. In my DT fuge now I have a pair of urchins that keep the coraline cleaned off, maybe I'll put an urchin in there if its a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Animal cruelty. The urchin might sunburn himself on your glass light tube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Maybe you've already thought of this but it seems like you could get PVC or acrylic pipe the right diameter to fit over the glass tube at the top to act as a splash guard, it wouldn't have to be attached just fit closely around the outside and have some kind of lip or stop inside to keep it from sliding all the way down. To help further complicate things (your welcome ) you could probably mount a fan similer to this: http://www.mpja.com/24VDC-6in-Japan-Servo-Blower/productinfo/18207+FN/ on it to blow air down around the bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 The splash guard I'm going to try and add, that is a good idea and should be easy. I've thought about adding a fan but I want to wait to see if its necessary. If the tube gets too hot inside it could overheat the bulb or it can overheat the water in the fuge,I'd say its a 50/50 chance that I might need it. I'm hoping that since heat rises and the top will be open that it will be fine, I won't know for sure until I try. I do have some smaller DC fans that I could use for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 I ordered the bulb today, put in the other piece of eurobracing in the tank, and made the stand to raise up the glass tube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 One glaring problem I can see in this picture is there is visible surface area on your work bench! You clearly do not have enough projects going to keep you occupied! I'm dissapointed in you Hydro! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Whoops, back glass busted while drilling it. While cutting away the glass to replace it I busted the bottom glass! Ordered new glass, should be ready tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I realize that this is more of a proof of concept thing, and it is admittedly pretty cool. But what about LEDs that are designed to be submersed, ala http://reefbuilders.com/2011/08/31/submersible-refugium-light/ but on a bigger scale? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Biocubed suggested that too, just wasn't sure I was going to get enough light out of them. I only spent $25 for 125 watts, not sure if LED's can compete with that price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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