# Placing ballasts under the aquarium...



## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

Hi people,

This is my first post to this forum. :

After I've decided to switch to a only plant aquarium I realized that I need to provide more light for plants. I had a ratio of 0.3w/l , It seemed impossible to me with 2 fluorescents. So I decided to increase the bulbs, but there was another problem there was no room for extra bulbs. I could only place two bulbs.

So after a few days of brainstorming I've found that I could take all the ballasts and control panel to aquarium cabinet. Again I needed to brainstorm for days to find the best-fit scheme to build it. I went to industrial area to a CNC work-shop. First I cut a big piece of plexiglass to close the top of the aquarium %97, there are holes for only cables and filtrer outlets. This piece was to prevent the wapour to damage the bulbs or in case of a bulb falls down, it would be an extra-safe environment.

2 other pieces of plexiglass is cut to cover the ballasts and hide the cables. Also I drilled it with a driller to mount the switches for fluorescents.

Last but not the least, I added 6 fluorescent bulbs instead of 2 bulbs. I precented the damage of water vapour, and controlled the heat.

Here are some pictures, hope you like it... :smile:









A view of the aquarium with 4 bulbs on(plant color, 2gro-lux, aquastar):


After a huge alge-problem and long days of school, and projects other stuff, I had to clean everything and start from the beggining:


Now 3 flurorescents are on to grow a dense carpet of CUBA...

Good night everyone,

(forgive my mistakes about language..)


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi ata326,

Welcome to APC! My wife and I went to Istanbul around 2000 and had a great time. Excellent food, friendly people, lots of things to see like the Grand Bazaar and Blue Mosque!

This a great site with helpful information and friendly people to help you if you need it. That is a very good Do It Yourself (DIY) project, it looks like it turned out very well!


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

Oh cool, Istanbul is an amazing city: East and West Culture, Europe and Asia... It is the city of antinomys, that's why I like it a lot. :mrgreen: I liked this site a lot, the content is high-quality.. Thanks, for your concerns... :smile:


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## majstor76 (Feb 11, 2010)

I have done similar thing, taking ballasts out of hood










But mainly because of lowering temperature in summer aquarium.

With your design i see few problems

- cramming lamps under hood without reflectors isnt really effective. Ive done some research and found that plain kitchen alu folie boosts reflectivity for more than double in compare to just black/gray paint. So if you made reflectors you could put just 3 lamps and had a amount of light you have now with 6 lamps

- protective plexiglass isnt relly needed. In my young fullish days I had a water dripping all over endcaps and lamps and never had a problems. Now had waterproof endcaps. And if lamp falls to aquarium, well, then is something *really* off. There should be nothing between light and water

- all those zip ties will block some light and changing lamp will be major pain


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## blue thumb (Mar 30, 2010)

How big is your tank! Six bulbs is alot of light! for a small tank. I take it there just standard output not HO bulbs. Placing the ballast under the tank is very acceptable. It keeps some of the heat that the ballast may create away from the tank. The only thing I see that might not be needed and can restrict the light output is all those zipties holding each bulb. I think I would just use two ties one on each end would be plenty strong and not block the bulbs light.


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Welcome to APC, ata326!

Yeah, I got a chuckle from all those plastic zipties as well. You must be an engineering student! I have many engineers in my family, and am used to Do-It-Yourself projects being quite OVER-built, but you even managed to surprise ME with all those ties! Yup - those bulbs are going NOWHERE!

I'm just teasing you. Really, I'm impressed. It looks like you've put a lot of thought into this setup.

I would second the opinion that 3 lamps/bulbs would probably be more than sufficient on this size aquarium. And increasing the reflector ability would go a long way towards increasing the efficiency of the system, and then you might even consider just two lamps, or, even if you went with three lamps, you could probably have fewer ballasts, and less heat to worry about. 

Aluminium foil is a good reflector, but some DIY'ers did some side by side tests (old stuff from The Krib forum) and made a strong argument that matte white paint is just as effective. I've used aluminum foil to increase efficiency in older hoods, and its kind of difficult to get it to stay up - the electrical tape I used held up to the heat, but lost its stickiness. Also, when you change the lamps/bulbs, there is the risk of ripping it. Painting the inside with a water-resistant matte white paint might be the easiest way to increase reflectivity, in a low-maintenance way. Just make sure the paint can withstand the humidity.

Its great to see a DIY'er! Best of luck with this tank!
-Jane


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## majstor76 (Feb 11, 2010)

Jane in Upton said:


> I've used aluminum foil to increase efficiency in older hoods, and its kind of difficult to get it to stay up - the electrical tape I used held up to the heat, but lost its stickiness.


For every problem theres solution , i taped my foil on dual sided tape and it aint going nowhere










I did tests with white gloss paint and reflectivity was lower than foil

white paint 1720 lux
foil 2000 lux


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

majstor76 said:


> I have done similar thing, taking ballasts out of hood
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I was down to south for a few days, now I'm back... 

I know the issue about reflectors but actually I realized that I do not need that much light, so now just 3 bulbs are on and it is pretty enough. If I have time I'll be painting the inner side of the hood with metallic/glossy gray or white. So that will increase the efficiency of the whole system.

Plexiglass is just for extra protection, I'm working on electronics and I know/experimented how water and electricity reacts when they get together. So I'll lose some light, but increase the security.

Zip ties are not the correct solution actually, but I couldn't find any better idea. That is not the best solution beacues with the heat those zip ties get harder which causes them to get fragile. They react like thin glass. 

There is a problem with the photo, I can not see it...

Thanks for interest...


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

blue thumb said:


> How big is your tank! Six bulbs is alot of light! for a small tank. I take it there just standard output not HO bulbs. Placing the ballast under the tank is very acceptable. It keeps some of the heat that the ballast may create away from the tank. The only thing I see that might not be needed and can restrict the light output is all those zipties holding each bulb. I think I would just use two ties one on each end would be plenty strong and not block the bulbs light.


The light is actually 2 times more than my need but I just wanted to have the sufficient resources for growing high-light-required plants... 

The zip-ties are a problem, I know. I just need a better idea...


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

Jane in Upton said:


> Welcome to APC, ata326!
> 
> Yeah, I got a chuckle from all those plastic zipties as well. You must be an engineering student! I have many engineers in my family, and am used to Do-It-Yourself projects being quite OVER-built, but you even managed to surprise ME with all those ties! Yup - those bulbs are going NOWHERE!
> 
> ...


Hi Jane, 

Thanks for your concerns.

I was readin' down the posts, you just wrote down my ideas :mrgreen: by the way I'm not an engineer, (at the moment) but I will be soon 

I have read about white paint or white paper too, it sounds pretty logical. I will try, I have a luxmeter and experiment how it works...That might be the best way to decide for the best...

Maybe I must find some heat proof zip ties...


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

majstor76 said:


> For every problem theres solution , i taped my foil on dual sided tape and it aint going nowhere
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your experiment data looks nice, what about the total area of reflectors, did you paint the same area white or?

I might try some kind of thin mirror or extra-glossy stainless thin metal sheet. I will drill the metal to get the zip ties and heat it up to give shape so that I can get the best efficiency...

I must do some research on it..


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## majstor76 (Feb 11, 2010)

ata326 said:


> Your experiment data looks nice, what about the total area of reflectors, did you paint the same area white or?


Here are all my data so if oportunity comes check them up

no material (just gray pipe) 850 lux
white paper 1650 lux
white paint 1720 lux
mylar 1850 lux
alu foil (bright side) 1930 lux
alu foil (dark side) 2000 lux

I tried to have same conditions for test (dark room, same height of luxmeter, same position etc) and reflector was whole covered in material. So, reflector was whole painted in two layers of white paint and alufoil was taped on whole surface of reflectors. Luxmeter was about 50 cm from lamps


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## ata326 (Jun 30, 2010)

majstor76 said:


> Here are all my data so if oportunity comes check them up
> 
> no material (just gray pipe) 850 lux
> white paper 1650 lux
> ...


Thanks for your data, if I have the time I'll try, I have a luxmeter. I'll prepare some test system with ballasts and try which is better...


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