Chopping boards and baby bottles

[kcress]

I expect the bottles to hold up but the lamps will fail soon. Days?

They are designed to burn base down in light fixtures which means cool air convecting up past the electronics. Not Base up sealed in an air tight container. I would not turn my back on that...

[ChrisD]

Sorry - I might have mislead people. I have chopped the bottom off the bottles so the end is open to allow air flow. They will be mounted horizontally so the hot air wont be trapped in the bottle around the lamp. If I were to use them hanging down vents at the top to enable air flow would be prudent. Decided not to tape the base back on because of things getting too hot. I've seen similar lamps used in almost every orientation in light fittings (I work in office management and have managed several large refurbishments) so I'm reasonably optimistic (and they are only £0.50 for 5 ) . kcress - I agree - I've seen another forum where someone put a lamp in a glass jar - massive heat build up would worry me. Just think of the day the plastic lid fails due to the heat , jar falls off and fitting now totally exposed til you happen to notice.

Re reflectors, I like the use of simple kitchen foil (shiny side of course!) as when it is formed around half the bottle you get a nice curved reflector. Ok, it's not parabolic or gull wing but it cost basically nothing and seems pretty effective.

Re the screen, I think I will be heading out for some plastic canvas and ditching the chopping board. Never thought I'd be typing that sentence :lol: . Maybe I'll keep it tucked away and try it one day. If this works, there will be space over the middle of the sump where the chaeto is currently. Should have paid more attention during my materials science degree and then I might know rather than be guessing if a polypropylene board is suitable!

Next post is the assembled lights... few holes in the chopping boards and some cable ties should do it. Might even do it now

[ChrisD]

Well here it is. The lighting rig is done. Gotta get hold of some proper screen to rough up etc and I'll be looking to mount in the cabinet... a few pics...
[attachment=2:2kyeby64]light board.jpg[/attachment:2kyeby64]
[attachment=1:2kyeby64]whole rig.jpg[/attachment:2kyeby64]
[attachment=0:2kyeby64]it's on!.jpg[/attachment:2kyeby64]

Did some pretty rough cutting out of background in photoshop so it's more visible. Not the finest work but it means the pics get posted quicker!

Any thoughts or concerns anyone (other than the screen)?

[SantaMonica]

How does the water get out of the pipe?

[kcress]

And in?

[ChrisD]

Design for water out is exactly as per a plastic canvas screen - slot in tube. Was quite nice as the edge of the centre section of the bard was slightly recessed from the edge so I just cut a slot equal to that width and the board pushed in firmly being held with just friction but the central section where the mesh was had a nice gap about 1.5mm each side. Seemed to work well when attached to the kitchen tap (faucet).

Re the 'water in', the far end of the tube as seen in the photos has an elbow and hosetail (wasn't properly attached and fell off for the photo ops: . Gonna be fed by 25mm flexible pipe teed of the sump return witha valve to adjust the flow.

Managed to pick up some mesh yesterday so will be making a new screen anyway. Will perhaps post some pics of just that before I install in cabinet. Also need to devise a way to keep everything hanging straight - the cable ties are a bit variable and the electrical flex has a big influence. Might have to look at some sort of rigid link between screen and light boards.
I can feel some chopped up surplus chopping board coming into play :lol:

Thanks for the help
Chris

[ChrisD]

Well it's finally up and running!

Chopping board changed for the tried and tested double-layer-of-plastic-canvas-roughed-up-with-a-holesaw screen inserted into a newly cut slot.

Set up a larger sump return pump with a tee-piece to feed the screen. Got it all set up and balanced using a valve to restrict the flow to the ATS with the balance going to the DT. seemed nice then the DT started to siphon. Turns out that some chaeto strands had made their way to the ATS and restricted the flow to the screen. Increased restriction to the ATS put more of the 3000l/h up to the DT which, sadly, my overflow can't handle. This highlights a design flaw!! If the ATS were to get totally blocked (wayward cerith through the restricting valve doesn't sound too far-fetched), the entire pump volume heads up to the DT. Not a risk that I want to take with my small capacity bulkhead as it will end up on the floor.

So, I have deployed a hydor 1200l/hr pump in the sump just to feed the ATS (8" wide screen). It does mean 2 pumps in the sump but once the ATS is established I should be able to get rid of the chaeto and DSB currently in sump so I will have more space. If the pipe gets restricted, it will simply throttle back the pump and no harm done. Also, the two lower volume pumps seem quieter than the one 3000l/hr even though it was a tunze! Added bonus and less likely to cause issues with the family

Done a set of tests and Nitrates and phosphates are reasonably low already - probably due to the algae in the DT. I'll try and get some photos (there's not much room in my sump tho) and show how the screen develops.