aquarium lighting

[alkad mzu]

I have just made a plexi glass hood for a 20g tank.
the plexi glass hood is composed of two panels
(29x7, and 29x4.5)joined by three hindges. the measurement
i provided dont include the cuts for the filter(aquaclear500)
and the air tubing.

I built this hood because i wanted to focus the spending more on the
actuall lighting. I found the right size bulb
( http://store.yahoo.com/indoorsun/flourtub.html )for my project online,
but I need any ideas as far as fixtures. I havent yet took a walk to any
of my nearest hardware store.
its hard for me to narrow the question to a specific concern cuase its my
first time dealing with flourecant light strip. I no there are issuse
to concider like the on and off button but Im going to need some help
from someone that's done this before.




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[Rikko]

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 09:26:21 -0500, "alkad mzu" >
wrote:

>I have just made a plexi glass hood for a 20g tank.
>the plexi glass hood is composed of two panels
>(29x7, and 29x4.5)joined by three hindges. the measurement
>i provided dont include the cuts for the filter(aquaclear500)
>and the air tubing.
>
>I built this hood because i wanted to focus the spending more on the
>actuall lighting. I found the right size bulb
>( http://store.yahoo.com/indoorsun/flourtub.html )for my project online,
>but I need any ideas as far as fixtures. I havent yet took a walk to any
>of my nearest hardware store.
>its hard for me to narrow the question to a specific concern cuase its my
>first time dealing with flourecant light strip. I no there are issuse
>to concider like the on and off button but Im going to need some help
>from someone that's done this before.

First thing you might want to do is decide what kind of tubes you want
- namely, T12, T8, or T5. If you want T12 or T8, just head to the
hardware store and pick up a 24" fluorescent kit and assemble it, or
even hit up Walmart and grab one of their cheapo fluorescent strips
(10 bucks or so and you can just replace the bulb). Making a
shield/reflector is a bit more of an issue, but if looks aren't
critical, just use aluminum flashing. If looks *are* important, you
can pick up some plastic gutter material for the outer casing and
attach the electronics inside. You can even get endcaps that fit it
perfectly. There are old fixtures that use this exact material.

If you want T5 (I'm currently a big T5 fan), you'll need to do a
little fancier footwork. The Envirolite T5s are full spectrum and
produce more light than their T8 counterparts (with lower wattage too,
I might add). There's a bit of info at www.fearlessgardener.com on
them - a local hydroponics shop should probably carry them.
As far as the electronics for a T5 setup goes - you may just want to
buy a T5 strip light and get some T5 tubes. If you want to do
something more advanced, you can buy a larger load-sensing ballast
(like a Workhorse) and wire it up yourself with as many bulbs as you
want.

A third option, if you're not too fussy, is to pick up a Hagen Glo Mat
- find a knowledgeable LFS and they ought to have it and know what it
does. It's a simple light system for do-it-yourselfers - you get a
ballast with power switch (in a plastic case - it looks good), plus 2
or 4 endcaps that you simply plug onto the ends of your light tubes.
Then you can suspend the lamps over the tank, build them into a top
cap - whatever. It's a fairly decent-looking system if you're willing
to be constrained by their bulb requirements (ie. ONE 20W tube or TWO
20W tubes).

Finally, here's a site that has a forum full of people who know more
than I and more than you'll ever want to know about lighting:
http://www.plantedtank.net/

[alkad mzu]

cool!
I gave up on this thread cuase it totaly got ignored
i still havent done the lighting thing and am going to
take your advise. on my search for lighting I found this sight
http://www.bghydro.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv? maybe you find it
interesting. when im ready im definately going to grow some plants
in the goldfish tank I here there are plently of land plants that will do
just fine submerged in a tank.







On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 07:16:13 +0000, Rikko wrote:

> On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 09:26:21 -0500, "alkad mzu" >
> wrote:
>
>>I have just made a plexi glass hood for a 20g tank.



>
> Finally, here's a site that has a forum full of people who know more
> than I and more than you'll ever want to know about lighting:
> http://www.plantedtank.net/



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