Well, after a year of operation my 120 gallon
tank was the only tank where the algae would not go away and plants seemed
not to grow well. I noticed the tank was dimmer than my 10, 20, and
30 gallon tanks and decided to build a proper hood with 4 floursecent lights
instead of the 2 lights my rain gutter hood allowed. My hope being
that if I can provide better conditions for my live plants they will out-compete
the algae and drive it away (I have had prior success with this strategy).
To minimize the weight on the tank, as the electronic
ballasts for those big bulbs get very heavy, I wired the ballasts remotely
so that they could be mounted on the stand below the tank.
I connected the ballasts to the wiring of the hood using 4-wire "trailer-hitch connectors" to allow them to be easily disconnected form the hood and remain under the stand should the hood need to be taken down momentarily. It would be very awkward to remove the ballasts from the stand and pull them up by their wires behind the stand, just to try to balance holding them while moving a 6' hood. It also makes it easier to replace a ballast, should it be necessary, without having to cut wires and resolder connections. |