Reef Discussion

[rosechaser]

I am in the process of planning my tank and looking at a whole heap of information that is out there and came across shadow light box for the rear of the tank.

The basic idea is to have a light box at the rear of the tank with muted light and silouhettes and it really gives the tank a feel of depth.

For those interested take a look here http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1868825 there's some great ideas and really achieves some depth in the DT

I couldn't work out how to paste the pic of the best one but they look sensational much like looking into the distance when scuba diving

I have a weir across the back of my tank and I wanted to try to make the back look like a swim through when you dive...something like a combination of these two shots to make it look like a cave.

Has anyone tried this here?

 

[rosechaser]

Reefcentral not going but here is some of the back ground...a german sketch, my sketch and a pic of a tank with one

 

[Synodontis]

Great idea! only wish I'd seen it before we installed the tank. It looks very effective. If you do go down this path and make one up for your tank, please keep everyone informed. I'd love to see how it comes up.

 

[jashay]

the older axelrod books show this idea, it has its use thats for sure, what you are planing has more depth to it then the ones in the older books, would you be able to make the shadow box work as an overflow aswell?

 

[rosechaser]

Good idea...the only thing is you would need to keep it clean and I think for the size (only 100mm wide) that would be very hard to do.

 

[jashay]

100mm would be plenty as an overflow I reckon. it only has to be enough to fit a pump or syphon in to then go down to a sump. I think VB's over flow wasnt that big either, then there is ofcourse the HOB too.

as for keeping it clean I dont think that would be to hard either, would just need the access to it and use a long handled sponge ;)

 

[Dynamic]

That is an awesome idea. It will look great I think.

 

[rosechaser]

So have finally made a start with prototype for my shadow box which hopefully when positioned at the rear of the tank will look like you're looking through a swim-through.

Final size is 1400 x 750 with the top 150 hidden behind a weir which runs fully across the tank about 120mm x 150mm but model is 500mm x 300mm, the artwork which I will get to is full size so the idea is to sea the effect on a small portion of the box.

So one side has semi translucent acrylic sheet the other black acrylic. Model is spaced by timber but the real deal will be a full acrylic box open at the top for the light and at the bottom so it doesn't fill with crap.

So far I have tried out different acrylics and that bit works fine.

The artwork is just a section of the overall picture printed on old overhead transparency film.

So have this bit together and now have to work out the lights.

Here are a few bad shots, difficult to take with different lighting.......I haven't tried LED or anything the right size but these give you the idea

This next one is actually through my QT and gives the best idea of how it will look minus the hotspot....particularly the top half so imagine it getting darker and darker and that's how I hide the full width weir across the back as the light will come in under it like looking through a tunnel with light at the end

The colour in this is wrong as one of the earlier ones due to the light I'm using, but you can see the effect

Any suggestions on lighting gladly appreciated

 

[MagicJ]

Good to see this idea move onto the next phase - most idea's don't go any further :). You would need a diffused sort of light like a T5 - I am not sure that LED's would work unless you could spread the light.

 

[rosechaser]

No point just thinking about things...have to do!

Also have my NSW pump setup underway for picking up water in my ute.

So I need to find a 1' or 2' 24w T5 light fitting...just the holder with reflector and tube...nothing fancy...where would be best to go for this?

 

[MagicJ]

12" tubes will be rated at 8w - should be available at any lighting shop. I would just buy the cheapest fitting that you can find. Might be a bit more difficult to find an 8w blue globe - you may need to need to have it shining through some painted acrylic to get the colour you want.

 

[rosechaser]

24" 24W I think is fine then as I want to have a play around with different tubes....do the T5 tubes go in any fitting or are they a special size?

 

[marineclass]

looking good - well done

 

[MagicJ]

I think you will find the T5's are a different size to the T8's. They are certainly a shorter tube compared to the equivalent T8 and I think the pins are also slightly different.

 

[rosechaser]

Today I picked up a couple of lights to try out the model and straight away the look was terrible.....I put some white cardboard in the back over the black backing which made a huge difference.

I also angle the lights so they were shining on the back face of the box

So firstly I tried a 60W compact strip light which I tried first....judge for yourself......

Very drab and changed the colours...it looks worse in real life.

Then I tried a 6W T4 (about 25 cm long) plain white...what do you think....

Very happy with last one so then I put it at one side of my QT tank which is about 50 cm wide so only 10cm off the actual distance when full size one is made.

The brightness at the top won't be as bad in the final box as it will be about 20cm above the first point you see it....it will still be brighter at the top which is the intention, just like sunlight coming in from above

I like this even though hard to set up with small tank and small model in real life the effect works fantastically.

I am thinking of using T5 lights...can anyone tell me if these would be similar to the T4 fitting....the tube size looks the same

 

[MagicJ]

The T indicates that the shape of the bulb is tubular, and the last number is the diameter in eighths of an inch (sometimes in millimeters, rounded to the nearest millimeter).

T4 are 12.7mm in diameter - T5 are 16mm i.e. slightly larger in diameter but both use the same pin size (G5).

 

[rosechaser]

Thanks for that....the two guys in Bunnings had no idea...they're obviously not reefers. LOL

So it's pretty close in size, then the T5 is only 8w instead of the 6w I tested with

On that basis I should be able to get a 56w T5 to do the job at the 4' that I need.

I'll try Bunnings then for a simple single T5 holder if they don't maybe Guppy's

The other problem with the other fitting is that it created so much heat even for the few moments I had it going, the T4 was fine.

BTW...what do you think...bear in mind it's only a mock up, sticky taped lights and cardboard, all screwed together..

 

[jashay]

do you think the heat will transfer to the water being that it isnt that close? it would need to penetrate the acrylic and then the glass of your tank, which I presume is 10mm thick. I think it wouldnt raise the temp to much but if it does you should be able to adjust to this with a little playing around of your heating system.

keep up the good work :D

 

[Synodontis]

Things have progressed rather well Sven! coming together nicely.