# How I mounted my Tek light



## Marauder (Apr 17, 2006)

I've been meaning to post this for about a year. At least it's been thoroughly tested! (Click pics for larger views).

This is for my 75g All Glass Aquarium in the living room and I had to have NO light seepage. Hanging it was out of the question. I didn't want to use chains, or curved electrical conduit. I don't like the look of power cords hanging down either. That's when I noticed that my tank is 48.5" long and the Tek is 47" long.

A 3/4" thick peice of wood fastened to each end will allow it to sit on the aquarium. When done, the light will be the exact same length as the tank. Bingo!



This pic shows me sizing things up. When done the Tek will fit up to the NOF fixture and look great. Here, the Tek is sitting on an ice cube tray as I take measurements. In front of the Tek is my old 48" 36 watt NOF light strip that came with the aquarium. I believe in "Mores Law"; _If some is good, and more is better, then too much must be just right_. This light turned out to be somewhat unnessesary. You can barely tell when it's on! At least it looks cool.

Notice the cooling slots in the Tek. I don't want to cover them since this light doesn't have any fans.



Twenty minutes with the table saw and I have two peices of scrap 3/4" thick oak cut to size. Total dimensions are 4" x 12" x 3/4". These will be the end peices. Lightly sand with fine sandpaper. That gives the paint something to attach to. These were then rattle canned semi-gloss black. Wood will soak up paint! Give 'em a bunch of light coats, especially the end grains.



There! A little cleaning and I'm done! This step required some guts. I paid $310 for this light and I just drilled 8 holes in it before I even plugged it in! I drilled the holes with a Dremel. I used 1" stainless sheet metal screws. Since the screws are 1" and the lumber is 3/4", the screws only protrude into the light by 1/4".

Two of the screws on each end were 'blind'. Well, sort of. I could see into the cooling slots and knew I wasn't going to hit anything. The other two screws went through the sides into light and between the bulbs. Measure twice. Drill once!

It's plenty strong and I didn't hit anything. The screws were staggered. Putting them in a strait line would have caused it to be much weaker. Notice how the cooling slots are still 90% open. I've had absolutely NO heat issues with this set-up.



Not much light seepage here! It may look iffy, but that's just a crummy night time picture with a crummy camera.



For feeding and maintenance I just set the 36watt light strip atop the Tek. The Tek can be slid backward too. It easily clears the filter and heater. With this set-up I can put different spectrum bulbs in the NOF strip to change the look of the tank. I HIGHLY recomend glass lids to keep water/condensation off the lights and reflectors.

My cost? $0.00


----------



## MARIMOBALL (Jun 20, 2007)

nice! if you run into ventilation problems, then you can cut out a piece from the wood like this \___/ to uncover the rest of the vent.


----------

