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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Mounting lights on a Clearseal aquarium hood

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27 Feb 2012 14:40 #1 by ghart (Greg Hart)
This may seem a silly question but I have just taken delivery of a new 5' Clearseal Tank with hood.
I know some of you guys have Clearseal tanks.
Can you advise me on the best way to mount 2 x 4ft T5 lights in the hood.
Do you mount them on the flap that opens for feeding or can the lights be left resting on the tank glass panes and not be attached to the hood. Also the ballast unit I have is an Archedia water proof , can this be safely attached to the back resting bar inside of the hood.

Any advise on how you managed your lights in a Clearseal tank hood would be appreciated.

Greg

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27 Feb 2012 15:53 #2 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Mounting lights on a Clearseal aquarium hood
Hi Greg, yes, you mount one on the flap and the other behind it on the non opening side.

A hint, seal all joints of 90 deg. I don't trust Clearseal when they say they have re-engineered things and that the water soiling problem is fixed, I got sealant, any will do, I put it between thumb and fore finger and sealed any 90 degree joints I could find and to date , no swelling of the MDF Wood.

I leave the ballast outside the tank, it rests on the floor of the Cabinet.

Kev.

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27 Feb 2012 16:13 #3 by davejcollins (David Collins)
I have a 6ft with 2 arcadia units (4 bulbs)

I leave mime attached to some plywood resting on tank glass panes

The ply wood and brackets give it a couple of inches clearance over the tank

Is this a good / bad thing?

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27 Feb 2012 17:42 #4 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Kev,
Can you explain more about the reseal of 90deg joints.
Are you talking about every inside corner of the tank :unsure:
The instructions on the door also say to use polystyrene to seal the two side holes where the filter tubing goes. I assume this is done once all cables and tubing are in place. :unsure:

Is any one out there doing this on their Clearseal tanks?

Greg

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27 Feb 2012 18:23 #5 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Mounting lights on a Clearseal aquarium hood
Here you go.



Kev.

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27 Feb 2012 18:34 #6 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Thanks Kev for the sound advice re-sealing the wood angles on the hood with silicone;)
Also for the picture showing your lights mounted.

You need to start charging for you professional advice :P

Greg

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27 Feb 2012 18:42 #7 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Mounting lights on a Clearseal aquarium hood
No probs at all Greg, cheers.

Kev.

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28 Feb 2012 13:03 #8 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
i am in the same boat as your self the way i was going to do it is stick the reflectors to the hood usen tex7 or some thing and the chips the bulbs to the reflectors with the chips that come with them that way no messin up the hood with screws or anything

there are two things stoppin me from doing this

1 STILL WAITIN ON THE REFLECTORS:(

2 i am usen 4 x 5w bulbs and by lookin at it i dont this there is enough space for 2 on the back hood and 2 on the front hood that lifts up

anyone use 4 on a 5 foot clearseal before would be great wat way yas done it

also since i got the tank the kights have been sittin on glass panes

and kev are your ballast long enough to rech to the floor mine are not and will need to raised up again thingin off a way to stick them on the back off the glass some way

Sean

Sean Crowe

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Location: Navan

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28 Feb 2012 13:59 #9 by BillG (Bill Gray)
There is a double sided foam tape made by "No more nails", costs about €9 for a 1.5M roll of it. The stuff is incredibly strong, used it myself to attach some electrics inside a cabinet. You could use it to attach the ballast to the back of the hood itself. Could also be used to hold the reflectors to the inside of the hood. True, with 4 light, it could be expensive if you used the tape along the whole length of the reflector. But to be honest, given the holding power of the tape, there is no need for any more than a few 10cm strips along the reflector, one each end and one in the middle would be perfectly ok.
One advantage over tech7 would be if you ever needed to remove it. Simply rum a piece of braided fishing line along the back of the ballast or reflector to cut the tape in 2, then any cleaning solvent could be used to remove the residual adhesive. And NO, I AM NOT SUGGESTING USING A SOLVENT OVER A STOCKED TANK :)

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28 Feb 2012 14:10 - 28 Feb 2012 14:11 #10 by Mike53 (Michael)
Hi Greg,

I have Clearseal with 2x no 1m long Acrcadia LED lights, I screw fixed the light clips into the hood as Kev says, one on the flap, and one on the fixed piece. It gives you much easier access rather than having to move lights sitting on the glass.

Had my tank nearly a year now and small peices of the veneer on the underside of lid has just started to peel off in the last few weeks and there is a slight bulge forming in the lid.
Wish I had had Kevs advise on the sealing of joints a bit earlier :-(( going stick the veneer back on with a bit of glue.

Make sure you dont get any water on the lid edges when doing your water changes as I think this is the reason mine is starting to bulge at bit, I always put a cloth to cover the lid nowadays when changing water.

One other tip, if using sand substrate, try to avoid getting grains of sand anywhre near the glass lid as best you can, they are very hard to clean once the glass sliders are installed.

The grains get trapped between the two pieces of sliding glass and make an awful scratching noise when sliding. No matter how much I try to avoid this all it takes is a couple of grains.

Best of luck !
Last edit: 28 Feb 2012 14:11 by Mike53 (Michael).

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28 Feb 2012 15:06 #11 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Thanks Mike35 for the advice.
I am not using sand in the tank.
I will be using the new ADA AQUA Gravel.

Kev's advice on sealing the hood is great.
This is where the forum come into it's own and invaluable advice is obtained at the right time.

I am still planning around the lights setup and ballast in the Clearseal hood.
I want to be able to fully take off the hood at times when doing work on the tank.
To do this I will want to have the ballast lose and not attached to the cabinet so it can all come with the hood including the lights when lifting the hood. I am also trying to avoid putting a bulb on the flap part that lifts to feed the fish.

Greg

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28 Feb 2012 17:53 #12 by ghart (Greg Hart)
BlueRam said..
i am in the same boat as your self the way i was going to do it is stick the reflectors to the hood usen tex7 or some thing and the chips the bulbs to the reflectors with the chips that come with them that way no messin up the hood with screws or anything

I have JBL double-ellipsoid reflectors as I am using JBL T5s but the reflectors attach to the bulbs and are not attached to the hood. I got the reflectors in Seahorse.

Greg

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28 Feb 2012 18:11 #13 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Mounting lights on a Clearseal aquarium hood
URGENT MESSAGE !!!

Dont take the backing paper off the sticky strips that stick the runners to the lid, the runners the glass slides along, if you do, you will not be able to get larger pieces of bogwood in, the aperture/opening will be fixed to only one of either sides, i didn't and I can slide the whole thing out, leaving complete access to the Tank.

Kev.

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28 Feb 2012 18:43 #14 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Kev,
The runners I go with the tank do not have a stick edge. They must have changed this with the current models. So no problems on later access. :)
To get both T5 bulbs attached to the non lifting part of the hood I am looking at attaching a couple of one inch wood blocks for holding the plastic light grips so the the lights will hang below the metal brackets on the hood and teh lights can then stretch the full length of the hood unimpeded.

Thanks!
Greg

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28 Feb 2012 19:17 #15 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
yeah mines the same no sticky stuff on them

as for the bulbs yeas there is lots off ways to do it it is just tryin to fit 4 off the on to the hood should be tricky ill have a go when i get the reflectors

if u use the reflectors to hold the bulbs then when u wanna take off the hod from the tank all u have to do it chip the bulbs out and leave them sittin on the glass

sean

Sean Crowe

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Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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21 Feb 2013 22:47 #16 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
How did the silicone work on the clearseal hood after all ?

Just wondering..due to purchase soon :)
Gavin

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