14 gal. Biocube lighting! I did it!!!!

[smartang22]

I finally did it! I upgraded my 14 gallon biocube's lighting. I changed from stock lighting to the Nanocustoms 3.24. Here are the details.

Factory Retro™ Lighting System 3 x 24w
Modified lighting system designed & configured by nanocustoms.
3 x 24w PC Lighting
High Quality Fulham Electronic Ballasts

Lunar Lights (I did not do the moonlightsl I kept those stock)

Cooling System
2 x 50mm Fans

Fan Power Supply
Nanocustoms Variable Voltage 3-12v/1200mA (OPT)

I had bought this like 4 months ago and was just too scared to try since I had never done anything like this before. But I just sat down and got to it and 4 hours later I was done and everything worked. I am sure it would take someone much less time to do this if they were more experienced.

But the lighting looks great and I think the mushrooms, xenia, rics, polyps, and clown will all be much happier to have such great lighting.

I just thought I would pass this alone!

Cheers and happy new year!

[Agu]

Congrats ..........

[friedkalamari]

nice man. are the fans any louder or quieter than the stock ones?

[stevelkaneval]

most of us here are visually stimulated. WE NEED PICS DUDE.

[dxtr]

bump - pics please

[smartang22]

Well, first off, I am a chick!!!

And second, I did not keep a visual record of the progress. To be honest I could only worry about actually putting it together. But in the end, under the hood looks exactly like it did, but with one more bulb. No wires stick out and the plastic gaurd fits back into place perfectly. Underneath the fans sit in the same place, the ballast is pretty much in the same place, and the moonlight panel just gets moved to the left. It all fits together very well.

The best part was that there were not many parts and there were not many steps to this mod. Nanocustoms has this 6 page instruction manual that includes pictures which turned out to calm all fears. Again, I have never done anything "electrical" so believe me when I say if you are thinking of doing this, don't hesitate. My mushrooms look so bright and may have even grown a bit. The tank looks amazing and so clear.

As far as the fans go...the upgrade is so much better. I got the adapter that you can control the speed of the fan and I love it. The fan is not noisy either even at the higher speed. When it gets colder in my house, I can adjust the fans to blow slower as to retain more heat or if it warms up I can just speed them back up. Nano tanks can sometimes become difficult to maintain the temp. so this works out so well.

I hope this convinces someone who may have been on the fence about doing this.

Best of luck!!!