# New Stand And New Led Diy Progress



## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

Hey guys, I am moving in a couple months and I am upgrading 33 reef to 75 and my 180 FOWLR is getting custom stand to hold my 75G sump! So I am building a stand currently and did all the hard wiring of leds today here is my progress. also the 33 reef current and 180 fowlr have always been separate systems, but they will be joining forces in new place utilizing a shared sump. Specs r 3600gph will stay same for fowlr and 1800gph for 75 reef. Super REEF OCTO Skimmer 500 and 2 giant filter bags atop 2 tubs of LR and Macro. My 75 reef will be new home to my mangroves, with glass enclosures holding them at mid water line in back of tank. I currently use that idea for my 40breeder fuge attached to 33 reef. So what I needed for lighting was cheap and affordable electrically, so what better thing to do than build my own LED light. SO here are pics of my custom stand since no stand produced holds a 75/90g sump. Stand will have removable sides in case of sump swap or problem down the line. Let me know what u think.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

fixture now has brackets and fan mounted. This particular one will be built into a canopy so it will be rugged looking. But either way check out the brightness with the light suspend 4" over glasstops. My aim is to be 7-9inch area. Very excited


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

build is looking good keep it up









although why did you choose to make the light fixture out of tiny led bulbs? why not choose larger ones, would make alot more sense. never seen anyone use such small bulbs before.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

Tiny led? Sounds oximoronic. The heasink is smaller that's for sure. I am making 2 fixtures, one intense fixture. And one very long heatsink with 36 leds. For the 75gallon but its how u make led fixtures the ones they sell pre made are small. Leds have huge par for little output.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

tiny fixture big light


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

His Majesty said:


> build is looking good keep it up
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What Led's are larger? Pretty much every quality led array I have seen use an array of bulbs like this.

Where did you get the kit from? If I do a retrofit kit I want eitehr prewired strips or a predrilled heatsink as I don't have a drill press nor the correct bit to use.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

Dude rapidled is the bomb they offer predrilled heat sinks for descent price and u can also order solderless wiring adapters that utilize butt connectors. I strongly recommend going with simple constant voltage kits since how many of us have dimable lights now!? This way u can perfect the light and in future swap out drivers for dimmable ones. For fan and brackets I bought aluminum brackets for 7buckz from home depot and drilled and screwed them in. And fan is a computer fan and radioshack transformer and regulator for less than 10bucks or just purchase fan kit from rapidled. Either way I would be happy to help u or n e one with wiring leds. This fixture was/is ghetto butit was my cheap learning curve that works.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Ghetto yes but something like a canopy would be sweet. If I do diy I would probably either do a canopy or build it into the a fixture body. Still not sure if I want a couple par38's or a a retrofit kit. Did you do the soderless connectors? I saw them on their website as an option but I was not exactly sure what they were.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

I soldered the connections and its not bad or that hard. The canopy is where im heading but the brackets can be mounted to anything. Solderless connector are adapters that screw on top of the led puck and u connect them to each other with crunch connectors


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## Piranha-Freak101 (Dec 8, 2010)




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## dcp5082 (Feb 14, 2011)

i agree, cool photos, I want to build a custom stand/tank too, looking good


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

TY for kind words. Here are updates. The top is mounted and the floor for sump has been cut edged and installed. I decided to reinforce the base of stand under sump floor area.







I already had wood. thing weighs a ton


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

stained, almost done!


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

just need some stain work on front cabinets and the stand is done. I know I built it like a tank. I know its huge, but tell me its not hot!? LOL not bad for a mochanic!


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

Finally done!


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Looking good man!


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> Looking good man!


Ty heres the pics to prove, and some other parts received for it, and a picture of my Clown who is now healed after an infection and hospital tank for 3 months!


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## bob351 (Oct 23, 2005)

redbellyman you look like a woman









beautiful looking stand









nice looking tank looking forward to some shots in the future


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