Hello all this will be my first post so hope to peak some interest and as always get some feedback/input/ideas from all of you.
Been out of the hobby for several years but something peaked my interest and I got sucked back into the vortex. I ended up picking up a Biocube 14 and After cycling the tank and researching some of the available lighting options, I decided to do a mod that attached the AI Prime light all while keeping the hood. I have 3 dogs that shed like nobodies business and a toddler so an open top tank just didn’t seem like a good fit right now.
Enough about me. To the tank and the mods
Remove the Splash Guard
Removed bulbs and all associated electrical that I was not wanting to keep. I decided to keep the transformer that ran the LED moonlight strips. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to use the AI prime for moonlight or if I would use the cheaper LED strips that I already had. But anyways still kept it so that the original switch still works. I am thinking about also putting my return pump on one of the remaining switches for feeding but haven’t gotten to that just yet
I then used a T-square and some Fuzzy Math to find the center point of the Display tank in correspondence to the lid. It happened to be almost perfectly aligned with the first vent louvre. Then I drilled my pilot hole for my hole saw.
I chose a 2 1/4” hole saw for my mod the AI Lense is exactly 2 inches and I wanted a little wiggle room to make sure I don’t block out any light.
* when Drilling be careful with the louvres I ended up breaking one off which bugged the heck out of me because I’m a bit of a perfectionist but hey nothing some superglue and gorilla tape couldn’t fix.
Next I found me some of those handy command strips. This one took me a bit of tinkering to get it to stay right but I ended up using 1.5 large pairs and cut it down into smaller 1/4” ish strips that I then circled around the lens. The next picture was one of my first attempts but you will figure it out.
After figuring out how it would mount i then tried a couple things to get the power cord for the Prime tucked away. My first was to drill a little hole that I could feed it through but this ended up being too close to the prime and caused issues with the command strips. I ended up sliding it between two of the louvres and it worked great
Reassembled the acrylic splash guard and then for aesthetics I had a rubber floor mat that I cut in a strip to wrap around the base of the prime to hide the command strips. My initial thought was going to be door weather stripping but it was about midnight and I just used whatever I could find.
Before and after Shots of the lighting.However it is not fair as the AI is only on at 50% of the pirates of Caribbean setting during acclimation. I know I am awful close to the water to get spread but it still seems like an improvement over the PC’s. Once I get it fully ramped up and my settings figured out we will see!
Been out of the hobby for several years but something peaked my interest and I got sucked back into the vortex. I ended up picking up a Biocube 14 and After cycling the tank and researching some of the available lighting options, I decided to do a mod that attached the AI Prime light all while keeping the hood. I have 3 dogs that shed like nobodies business and a toddler so an open top tank just didn’t seem like a good fit right now.
Enough about me. To the tank and the mods
Remove the Splash Guard
Removed bulbs and all associated electrical that I was not wanting to keep. I decided to keep the transformer that ran the LED moonlight strips. Wasn’t sure if I wanted to use the AI prime for moonlight or if I would use the cheaper LED strips that I already had. But anyways still kept it so that the original switch still works. I am thinking about also putting my return pump on one of the remaining switches for feeding but haven’t gotten to that just yet
I then used a T-square and some Fuzzy Math to find the center point of the Display tank in correspondence to the lid. It happened to be almost perfectly aligned with the first vent louvre. Then I drilled my pilot hole for my hole saw.
I chose a 2 1/4” hole saw for my mod the AI Lense is exactly 2 inches and I wanted a little wiggle room to make sure I don’t block out any light.
* when Drilling be careful with the louvres I ended up breaking one off which bugged the heck out of me because I’m a bit of a perfectionist but hey nothing some superglue and gorilla tape couldn’t fix.
Next I found me some of those handy command strips. This one took me a bit of tinkering to get it to stay right but I ended up using 1.5 large pairs and cut it down into smaller 1/4” ish strips that I then circled around the lens. The next picture was one of my first attempts but you will figure it out.
After figuring out how it would mount i then tried a couple things to get the power cord for the Prime tucked away. My first was to drill a little hole that I could feed it through but this ended up being too close to the prime and caused issues with the command strips. I ended up sliding it between two of the louvres and it worked great
Reassembled the acrylic splash guard and then for aesthetics I had a rubber floor mat that I cut in a strip to wrap around the base of the prime to hide the command strips. My initial thought was going to be door weather stripping but it was about midnight and I just used whatever I could find.
Before and after Shots of the lighting.However it is not fair as the AI is only on at 50% of the pirates of Caribbean setting during acclimation. I know I am awful close to the water to get spread but it still seems like an improvement over the PC’s. Once I get it fully ramped up and my settings figured out we will see!
D) setup is not enough. I have the AI prime HD, Kessil A80, and Kessil 160 and have been experimenting with all three. They all work well when tested, but they all need to be at least 6-8 inches above the water to get a descent spread to fill the 29g Biocube. Having the light that close to the water doesn't seem to be a problem with spread in your 14g tank, but I get wicked shadowing when the light is held at the hood level (if I mounted it like yours). I'm still working on it...there is a way....and I will figure it out!....... Your post was very helpful. Seriously, thanks for sharing.
