That is the unit all layed out ready for paint. Sunday came around and the frame felt nice and dry so I began with installing and wiring up the T5 retrofits. This is the frame all painted up ready for wiring
The retrofits went pretty smooth I mounted the ballast to the frame rails and was able to use some flex loom and zip ties to make it look pretty
Next I flipped it over to mount the V4s to the cross braces I was able to use the mounting hardware that was already on them so it worked out very nice.
Now for the tricky part making sure everything works and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it all worked first try.
Man was that thing bright. Next step was to remove all the old lighting from the canopy to make room for this amazing setup.
So that was the mess I got to remove 2 sets of T12 vho bulbs a MH and a led bar. Did have one mishap while removing all the old stuff last screw came off my drill as I was pulling it out and plunk right into the drain overflow section in the corner. A few choice words came out but it was resolved pretty easy with a magnet and some string. Finally the moment I had been waiting for since I hit the order button last Sunday. Time to hang the fixture in the canopy. First try didn't go so well with the provided hanging kit I could get it up high enough the fixture was almost on the top of the tank maybe an inch in between the 2 so I had to rethink how to hang the fixture quick trip to lowes to get some ferrules and a few snips and crimps and we were ready for try number 2. I ended up cutting the hook section in half and just using those instead of the vertical drop section of the hanging kit. Try number to was successful had the perfect height I was looking for about 10" off the water surface.
Took a bit to run all the electric but got it done and went from this.
To this which was just plugged in and all lights on
Once I got the Atlantiks connected I took a couple quick par readings and at the top of my rock work in the middle of the tank with the t5s and Atlantiks on 100% I was getting 950 par. To say the least I was a little surprised at the numbers. I was reading 350 -400 par on the sand bed. I was hardly at 250 at the top of the rock work before . After that I was tired and turned it to slow acclimation mode and made sure I wasn't going to burn up everything in the tank with the jump in lighting. I'll work on some more par numbers. And post them here but needless to say I am quite amazed at the difference
