Plant Tank Lighting Help

[aquanick]

I currently have a 33 gallon plant tank setup.

My first attempt at lighting worked great for about 3 weeks exept for a heat problem.

My question is, I would like to make a dual or more bulb flourescant fixture for my tank.  I don't mind doing it myself (ie. Home Depot) and just wonderin how other people have done it. I really don't wanna go out and spend a bunch of money on a real aquarium light if I can do it myself.

I was thinking along the lines of a 2-4 bulb shop light?

Thanks Alot,

Nick

[luvfishies]

Home Depot/Canadian Tire should have 2' and 3' fixtures, which will work well over the 33g.

Believe it or not, what I use over mine is 2 INCANDESCENT fixtures, with the screw-in compact fluorescent lights, for a total of 100w. The colour temp of the lights is a little "warm" (read: yellow) but the plants don't seem to care at all.

Another option would be to get some ballasts and endcaps, and go that route.

An "old" pic of the planted 33g, a couple of months ago:


Full size pic can be found Here

[valiko]

That's what I have over my 20 gal aquarium. It is just sits on the top of the tank with the plexiglass cover.

Check out product # 52-3233-4 @ www.canadiantire.ca (direct link does not seem to work).

Which gives me 40 w over 20 gallons.  GroLux + Philips Natural Light.


Here is the photo of the fixture on the tank
http://valentine.mail333.com/Feb22.jpg

[Anubias]

AHSupply.com sells power compact retrofit kits. They are highly regarded by aquatic plant enthusiasts. You retrofit a typical fixture, and the reflectors reputedly get 160% of the total light output of an watt-equivalent fluorescent fixture. Ron Barter apparently had some success with one.

Regards,

[manytanks]

Can I ask everyone for some confirmation before I jump into thi$ project: your plants seem to do just fine using regular flourescent bulbs instead of the expensive ones sold specifically for aquarium use?

I've checked out the links everyone provided (thanks!) including Aquarium Hobbyist Supply in Rochester, NY, and everyone here seems to have considerable success, even though I've never really seen/heard this being used anywhere else. Just want to be sure before shelling out the bucks!

Thanks,
Manytanks

[DARKPHREAK]

I went to a local lighting contractor, bought 2 (2*40watt 48 inch) shoplights and asked if they had any of that reflective metal laying around. They had tons of it and gave it to me for free. After bending it to fit my canopy, the output is much much better then expected, granted its not AHSupply quality but for 30$ its good enough.  My plants are doing great with normal flor tubes and they dont cost 50$ like the 48 inch do at LFS.

[dpatte]

a rule of thumb is 1.5 to 3 flourescent watts per gallon with a colour spectrum as close as possible to daylight. The brightness in my opinion is more important than the 10,000K bulbs

Anyway you can do that works, including using screw-in flourescents in your old incandescent canopies.

[manytanks]

The idea of approaching local contractors for reflective metal is a great one - I'll look into that tomorrow, as well return to SuperPet those two as-yet unused 48" aqua-grow bulbs. ($80 worth!)  We have to complete this lighting project asap, since all those plants we picked up at today's auction for our new 60 gallon tank need some light!

//Manytanks!