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
Aquarium hood & lighting
I have been meaning to give this a go for some time ,to match unit i made below
I machined up all the Southern Yellow pine using my router set into router table( i wont bore you with that )
Set up my trusty mitre saw
Cut the various mitres only 4 so far
And assembled main frame with a 60mm screw and 2x52mm 15 gauge pins (epoxy resin glue)
made a some plugs with 9 mm plug cutter to fill screw holes
Marked out for centre support rest
and fixed it in place with a 60mm screw and 2x52mm 15 gauge pins (epoxy resin glue)
Now i have to make up 2 x boxes which will house 3 x T5 25w THO bulbs with JBL Reflectors
with 9mm ply top and 4mm glass bottom
I cut the half tenons on mitre saw by setting depth ,and finish off with sharp chisel later.
And assemble with 52mm pins as earlier on , here they are in main frame
That`s all for now , i hope to get some more done in next few days
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I rounded off profile face edges with hand plane
Clamped up remaining supports for light frame boxes
Light boxes
Main frame
With boxes in place
All needs a good sand down ,then will be ready for stain and spraying
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Stained it with rustlins Brown Oak and Sprayed with 2 pac Laquer (Acid Catalyst) similar to whats used on bar tops
I installed Bulbs + Reflectors into boxes 3x24w + Ballast wired upto T5 ends , So 144w total ouput
Placed Piano hinge onto main hood frame
I hinged boxes to hood frame
Nearly Done
Installed on Aquarium
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"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
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Amazing job, can't help but wonder. - how close to the water are the ballasts? I can see them rusting pretty quickly.
But christ, I'd love to have your carpentry skills!
Yeah the ballast are 50mm away from surface behind sealed glass , im gonna have to install a 12v Fan to each hood compartment 60mm-90mm PC type would do it, to help remove any excess heat and moisture / condensation , that may occur. As it is i dont need a heater any more which is bad i supose
Thanks Darkslice
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