An Aquarium Lighting System

A few weeks back the lighting of my aquarium went for a toss. Well, it was a primitive system with the tube light, that included a choke, a starter,a huge holder. I was frustrated having to go to the market almost every month to get a new tube or a starter and the dumb system used to get wet with the bubbles of water that used to burst while popping out of the water. So there, I decided to get rid of the entire system and fit in some of my own ideas, well my dad is an innovator so he gave me a lot of advice, so i decided to get started.

If you want to see what my aquarium looks like, well here it is. This was an old snap and the fishes are different now but the point here is the lighting for the aquarium so this was it before my new lighting was in place.

I took out the cover of the aquarium to which the lighting system was attached to and banged out the entire system, including the wiring. It was a messy job but I hope the final result will be worth it.

Ok now i needed a list of things that i needed to buy, first the top was made of aluminium, and the paint was peeling off, so I decided to give the cover a paint job too. Mercedes red was the colour, of the tank, and obviously needed to paint it the same shade. I found out that yellow zinc-chromate was ideal for aluminium, I found out that it was first used in the 1940s it is anti-corrosive adhesive as well as highly toxic, so no organic matter could grow on it, so perfect.!
Then I need to coat it with the Mercedes red colour oil paint. I started out with scrapping out the old paint on the aluminium top. most of the paint came off but a major part was still sticking on. I googled on how to remove the old paint, but apparently the solution was pretty dangerous so I decided not to go for it. I painted one side of the top with the yellow zinc-chromate primer. I couldn't rush this as it needed to dry. My dad suggested I dilute it with thinner so the coat of primer would be smoother, mine was quite rough. I'll did that for the next coat of paint. There the cover of the tank, freshly painted, I must admit wasn't a very neat job.


I decided to use the new Philips CFL genie bulbs to save energy and radiate more brightness. A soldering iron would be a necessity, of course. I realised that 2 plastic jars of mayo would be ideal for 2 CFL bulbs. A little adhesive would be needed and if i'd stick a simple aluminium foil for the transparent jar, it would reflect the light into the water, thus not wasting any light in scattering. So I went & bought the stuff I needed.

 Meanwhile I made holes in the tops of the mayo jars to fix the bulb holders. I also used aluminium foil for 50% of the top so the light reflects into the water. I figured out a way to mount the jars top the top of the aquarium. I completes the wiring for the lighting. There was a switching system that I decided to retain. I used it for controlling the two CFL bulbs separately, this becomes better for troubleshooting, in case of some fault in the years to come :) The switching system fits snug into a rectangular shaped grove for the aluminium top, came equipped with a temperature monitoring system that doesn't work, I assume the sensor has gone bad. The switching works! now just the fitting together and waterproofing.

I cut a slice out of the previous aluminium plate that was there, in the second image. This would help me to make the wiring and mount the mayo jars to the top. So I fitted the old switching system in the groove that existed earlier,here's the switches, pretty neat.

I completed the wiring and fitted it in the groove and managed to mount the mayo jars under the hood with the help of the 2 plastic strips that fitted in the aluminium wire housing.

Finally mounted it on the cover and placed it on the tank.! It's amazingly bright now and got rid of the choke, starters and the painfully long glass tube light.
:)