DIY: 150MH BioCube Retro

[tjyoung]

Hey ARC family, I was sitting around the house on Saturday got bored and decided i wanted more light in my BioCube 14. My entire goal for this project was to maintain the factory look of the BioCube without altering the exterior case at all.Well I knew I had two Metal halide fixtures that were not being used so I took the one apart with the external ballast, since I knew i was working with limited space.

Here is were are started to gut the hood of the Cube.

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Here I am trying to mock up how i want everything to sit in the housing.

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After I got the setup I liked it was time to shave down all the plastic post mounts that i dont need anymore.

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Had to make a plastic plate for mounting the halide reflector.

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Halide and fan is mounted time to start wiring the one PC bulb and halide.

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Halide and PC light wired and working

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At this point I decided to add in some Auto Zone DIY Moonlights

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Hood remounted on Cube and ready for final test

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Moonlights working fine

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Halide is powered on and running strong.

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Well after about 6 hours my project is complete I have not experienced any heat issues yet. The tank was sitting at a steady 77 degrees before the halide was turned on and went up to about 79-80 degrees after running for about 3 hours. I figured i can setup a light cycle for the tank around that.
Thanks for your time and I appreciate any input that you all have on how to make this better.

 

[camellia]

I would love to hear back from you on the heat issues.
Thanks

 

[tjyoung]

The heat builds up to about 83 without a small fan and is at 77-79 with a fan with the light of it drops to 73

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[camellia]

Hey,
If you think you may be board one day this week or next weekend, please PM me. I would pay you to retrofit one of my nano cubes with Cree LEDs, dimmer etc. and the other with a hanging LED, I have 2 tanks one stock hood and one glass top.
Thanks
(unless you have a better option)

 

[greggreenberg]

Wow very nice. Let me know if you wanna help me upgrade my lighting in my 28 gal nano

 

[phishfoodie]

Tjyoung;797874 wrote: The heat builds up to about 83 without a small fan and is at 77-79 with a fan with the light of it drops to 73

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

Are you allowing the temp to drop down to 73 each night?

 

[camellia]

Tjyoung;797874 wrote: The heat builds up to about 83 without a small fan and is at 77-79 with a fan with the light of it drops to 73

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

I have an extra 50W Theo Hydro heater if your interested to prevent the temp drop.