I may have gone overboard on my lighting, he he he.

I went to Menards and bought a 36 inch long, antique brass 6 outlet bath fixture that will take 6 - 100 watt bulbs.
We are going to mount it to a 1X6 or 8, and build a deflector, possibly out of flashing, and hang it over the tank.
This light is capable of giving me 600 watts of light for my 55 gal tank.
If my math is accurate that's almost 11 wpg :laugh:

:laugh: strike n struth!

Just an idea here, rather than making your deflector/reflector/refractor from shiny tin why not try for something white, preferably a matte finish. The idea is that the white will reflect almost as much light, but what will be lost in intensity should be gained in a more even disbursal.

:hmm: :think: I'll have to mention that to Hubby.
I hooked that thing up with 4 100 watt bulbs and it's definatly overkill! :laugh:
The thing is wired so that I can put 2 plugs on it and only have to turn on 1/2 of it at a time. I think I've come up with a winning combination of bulbs.
On each side I want to put a 30 watt blue bulb, a grow bulb and a 60 watt bulb. It will still be slightly over 4wpg but much better than 11wpg. :laugh:

I only gave $17.00 for the fixture.

The $17.00 fixture, and the (freeby) board it gets attached to.


The wiring. Because this fixture is wired so that you can turn 1/2 on at a time I used a standard switch box and 2 standard switches. Box $1.25, Switches $0.57 each, switch plate $0.79 , 4 wire nuts $0.28 = $3.46 total




The globes I found at a second hand store, 4 @ 1.50 each - $6.00


Mounted on the board.




Suspended over tank.


$0.99 rope to suspend fixture from celing.
$27.45 total to date, improvements may follow.:whistle:

I will add better pics soon.

A beautiful work of diy art, that is a great price! I can't imagine anyone having that much wattage in a bathroom, could you imagine flipping that baby on first thing in the morning? I have a 5 lighter, with a couple of 40 watt globes, all 5 on at once is blinding. 600 watts would knock me out the bathroom door with permanant retina damage! :laugh:

:laugh: I know what you mean, my bathroom has a standard exhaust fan with light and a 2 bulb track light over the sink and that blinds me at 3am. :laugh:

Thanks for the compliment.
I am a firm believer that if I can buy it, I can more than likely build it cheaper and better!
I pull stuff out of garbage bins and from along the curb whenever I see somthing that might be usefull.
The blue/grey box that the light is sitting on in some of the pics started out as a pile of shutters we spotted along side the road with a free sign on them, my radial arm saw came from the side of the road too, it needed a switch, Hubby bypassed the switch and plugged it in to a power strip with an on/off switch and it works great!

I've scored old tools cheap at fleamarkets that only needed brushes.

That's one of my top 5 places to get stuff!

1. Next to or in trash cans or on the curb.
2. yard sales
3. Flea markets
4. Second hand and charity stores
5. Wal-Mart :laugh:


One of my favorite phrases is "If you can haul it away, you can have it" or better yet "I've got some stuff for you, when can I drop it off?"

I'm a scavanger and recycle things until they fall apart, then I look for a way to use the pieces! :laugh:

I have added 2 pullys at the celing hooks, I need to add some key rings and wooden macramae (sp?) beeds to it, I'll put up pics when it's done.
BTW all the above mentioned stuff was free :laugh: jay :smoke:

I have convinced Hubby that all we need for the reflector is 2 pieces of plexiglass and 2 cans of spray paint.
I'm going to paint it blue first then white over the blue, this way the white is tward the bulbs and the blue is tward the room. This way when I get ambitious I can paint a water mural on the outside and the blue background won't get messed up when I decide to scrub it all off and start over 6-8 different times. :laugh: :laugh:

Hubby convinced me to go with a piece of fiberglass wall sheeting, and plastic plumber's tape for the deflecter.
I personally think it turned out pretty good.




I have bought a 3ft wooden dowel that I will cut in 1/3's and use to prop the bottom open further.