Supplemental lighting for rimless cube. How?

eskymick · 03/25/2010, 09:00 AM

Has anyone come up with an effective and attractive way to add supplemental moonlight and/or actinic lighting to a rimless cube?

I have a 36" rimless cube, and I can't seem to find a way to add such lighting without spoiling the beauty of the rimless design. The tank is now lit by a single Hamilton Cozumel Sun pendant (20" x 20") suspended from the ceiling.

Please share any photos and descriptions.

cstires · 03/25/2010, 10:08 AM

This is how I handled it. My wife didn't want a hanging fixture so I came up with this setup:

Navyblue · 03/25/2010, 10:27 AM

I am going from a canopy to a rimless open top with pendant and ditch my supplemental T5s. And like you I can't think of an elegant solution for supplemental lighting.

I am going with MH because IMO the look of a T5 pendant hanging close to the water surface doesn't make it look too different from a canopy. This is especially a problem because among all the lighting choices MH needs the most supplementation.

The most elegant solution is perhaps one of those 2-3' long MH pendant with T5.

I don't know if your cube is viewable from 4 sides. Personally, I intend to build a light hanger attached to the back of the stand with MH pendant hanging on it. In theory I could hang additional T5 on it but I haven't think of a way that wouldn't kill the look too much. In my case, the prettiest option seems to be having additional MH pendant to do overlapping coverage with a different colour temperature bulb. But I imagine a 250W 20000K bulb is easily overpowered by a 150W 10000K bulb.

LED would work as moonlight but it appears that it would have coverage issue if used as supplemental blue light.

eskymick · 03/25/2010, 12:06 PM

One of my friends came up with the idea of building and suspending a frame (think of a square picture frame) to surround the pendant. Of course, that means another set of suspension wires. Then, we thought it'd be cool if we could attach that "frame" to the perimeter of the pendant ... like a brim of a hat. The moonlights or actinics could then be mounted on that.

Now .... how to attach the frame to the perimeter of the pendant ???

Navyblue · 03/25/2010, 08:01 PM

How about having a horizontal bar in the middle of the square frame, have the bar drilled in the middle and let the cord that hangs the pendant run through it and have this frame sit on top of the pendant? Extend the frame lower so that the LED or whatever does not hang above the pendant. So it is more like the frame of a box instead of a picture frame.

03/25/2010, 09:00 AM	#1
eskymick Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Pulaski, WI Posts: 1,368	Supplemental lighting for rimless cube. How? Has anyone come up with an effective and attractive way to add supplemental moonlight and/or actinic lighting to a rimless cube? I have a 36" rimless cube, and I can't seem to find a way to add such lighting without spoiling the beauty of the rimless design. The tank is now lit by a single Hamilton Cozumel Sun pendant (20" x 20") suspended from the ceiling. Please share any photos and descriptions. __________________ SG - 1.025 pH - 8.1 NH4/NH3 - 0 mg/L NO2 - .003 mg/L NO3 - .2 mg/L Calc. - 420 dKH - 8.0 Flow ~ 80x Current Tank Info: 24" cube SPS Reef, 15 gal sump, 1- LumenBright Pendant with 250w 20K Phoenix lamp, 1 - Vortech MP40, ATB 840 v1.5 skimmer.

03/25/2010, 10:08 AM	#2
cstires Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Orlando, Florida Posts: 1,143	Here's what I did... This is how I handled it. My wife didn't want a hanging fixture so I came up with this setup:

03/25/2010, 12:06 PM	#4
eskymick Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Pulaski, WI Posts: 1,368	One of my friends came up with the idea of building and suspending a frame (think of a square picture frame) to surround the pendant. Of course, that means another set of suspension wires. Then, we thought it'd be cool if we could attach that "frame" to the perimeter of the pendant ... like a brim of a hat. The moonlights or actinics could then be mounted on that. Now .... how to attach the frame to the perimeter of the pendant ??? __________________ SG - 1.025 pH - 8.1 NH4/NH3 - 0 mg/L NO2 - .003 mg/L NO3 - .2 mg/L Calc. - 420 dKH - 8.0 Flow ~ 80x Current Tank Info: 24" cube SPS Reef, 15 gal sump, 1- LumenBright Pendant with 250w 20K Phoenix lamp, 1 - Vortech MP40, ATB 840 v1.5 skimmer.

03/25/2010, 10:27 AM	#3
Navyblue Low maintenance first Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 2,790	I am going from a canopy to a rimless open top with pendant and ditch my supplemental T5s. And like you I can't think of an elegant solution for supplemental lighting. I am going with MH because IMO the look of a T5 pendant hanging close to the water surface doesn't make it look too different from a canopy. This is especially a problem because among all the lighting choices MH needs the most supplementation. The most elegant solution is perhaps one of those 2-3' long MH pendant with T5. I don't know if your cube is viewable from 4 sides. Personally, I intend to build a light hanger attached to the back of the stand with MH pendant hanging on it. In theory I could hang additional T5 on it but I haven't think of a way that wouldn't kill the look too much. In my case, the prettiest option seems to be having additional MH pendant to do overlapping coverage with a different colour temperature bulb. But I imagine a 250W 20000K bulb is easily overpowered by a 150W 10000K bulb. LED would work as moonlight but it appears that it would have coverage issue if used as supplemental blue light.

03/25/2010, 08:01 PM	#5
Navyblue Low maintenance first Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 2,790	How about having a horizontal bar in the middle of the square frame, have the bar drilled in the middle and let the cord that hangs the pendant run through it and have this frame sit on top of the pendant? Extend the frame lower so that the LED or whatever does not hang above the pendant. So it is more like the frame of a box instead of a picture frame.