lighting

[20gallonman]

So i had a 65watt 10,000k light on my 20g tank. From what i heard, that was too much. I had a store credit to home depot, so i decided to build myself a light fixture. They had a GE 25" "plant & aquarium brightstik 33". Has anyone ever used a light like this?? It's 33watts of 3050k flourescent lighting. Anyone have any opinions on this light? I was getting a ton of algae growth with the other light, so i decided to try this. Any comments/suggestions are welcome!! thanks!!

[mrmoby]

If you decide to try it, I'd like to hear the results. I am shopping for new bulbs, and I saw the one you speak of. The only thing that held me off from buying it was that it was like twice the price of a regular 48 watt shop light bulb.

[MyraVan]

I have a 20 gal tank and am even successfully growing plants with 30W (plants that don't need much light, mind), so 33W will be plenty. But will a 25" bulb even fit? My tank is 24" long. I suppose you could make a light fixture that's longer than the tank.

Another thing: most aquarium lights have "splash-proof" endcaps. With normal fittings I think you'd have to especially careful to avoid getting them wet, perhaps by putting them on top of a glass cover. But it certainly has been done, using normal bulbs for an aquarium. For an example, see October 2001 entry of
http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/plant/lotech.html

[Damon]

You can buy waterproof endcaps. They run about 10.00 a pair. As for your light choice, I wouldn't recommend it. 3050K is very low on the spectrum and probably doesn't peak in the red and blue spectrum. It will give your tank a very yellowish color which can be unappealing to the eye (more info on the CRI of the bulb would be helpful).

Also are we talking about normal fluorescents (T8, T12), power compacts like you had, or the screw in power compacts that fit into incandescent hoods?
I've never heard of a 25 inch fluorescent bulb so I have to ask. They come in 18 inch (15 watts) 20 inch (18 watts) 24 inch (20 watts) 36 inch (i believe 24 watts) and 48 inch. If you're going to build a hood, put the longest bulb you can in there, depending on your tank size (20 high, 20 long or 20Xhigh). You want to get as close to 40 watts as possible and spread out multiple bulbs for better coverage.

[20gallonman]

Well, I did buy the light and set it up. The color is yellow, and pretty ugly. They do sell a33 watt 25" bulb, it comes attached to the endcaps and has a power cord already attached, so all you have to do is plug it in and it turns on. I took some rain gutter downpiping and cut it in to fit, then screwed the light to it. It is 1/2" too long on each end, but that doesn't really matter much, it just hangs off a little. Does this yellow color have any bad affects on the tank, or just to my eyes?? The water level in the tank is about 1/2" below the top, the tank has a glass top above it, and the light is about 1/4" above that, so i don't think water will be a problem. Anyhow, like I said earlier, the light color is pretty ugly, I think I might have to supplement the light with a small actinic bulb (used in saltwater aquariums mostly) to make the tank look better. I suppose if anyone is thinking about doing this, just go to the fish store and buy a cheap light hood with a good bulb, because honestly this costs just as much, and looks terrible. The only reason why I did this is because I had a store credit at the home depot and wanted to spend it!

[Damon]

Some people believe the low K rating does promote algae. I don't think so. Just very unappealing to look at. You might try finding a replacement bulb with a higher rating. Or buy a less wattage PC bulb for your other fixture.

[20gallonman]

my other fixture is a jbj 65x2 pc. Could i put a lower watt bulb in there?? i thought that if i used a smaller/lower watt bulb, it would just get fried. I would love to put a smaller 50/50 bulb, maybe a 30 watt or something around that size. Anyone know if i could do this? my jbj has two switches on top, one for each bulb, and can be turned on/off seperately. Maybe i could put one small bulb in and only turn on that side. Please let me know if i can do this!! Thanks!!

[turtlehead]

the 65 w would have been perfect for all plants..

[turtlehead]

the 65 w would have been perfect for all plants..

[20gallonman]

I still have the 2x65 watt fixture. It's actually on the tank right now with only 1 bulb on. The one I made looked so bad that I am going to return the bulb/ballast thing. From what I've heard, the 65watt bulb alone is too strong for a 20g tank. I did have one anacharis plant in the tank, it seemed to grow really fast, then it would die as it reached the top of the tank. I broke one of the strands off and replanted it, and it started to grow again. Could my light be too strong for this plant? Do you think i should go out and buy a few plants for the tank? The thing that worries me is the substrate. I have really course white gravel, the crap you get at petco or wherever. Does anyone have any suggestions? thanks!

[MyraVan]

With 65W on a 2-gal tank, yes you would be able to grow anything, as long as you had a good substrate for plants (ie not plain gravel) and you had CO2 injection, and you added lots of extra fertilizer. If not, pretty much what you'll end up growing is lots of algae.

You really can't grow much in that substrate. What you can do, though, is put plants in pots. You can either use plain potting soil covered with a layer of gravel (I read about this once on a Web page, but didn't bookmark it so can't refer you to it) or buy this special (expensive) stuff called Flourite. I use the Flourite-in-pots method for my low tech planted aquarium, because I didn't feel like changing the substrate.

Another thing that you could do is grow things that don't grow in the substrate, like Java Fern, Java Moss, anubias, or floating plants.

I wonder if simply using a 65W 50-50 cf bulb would work. My guess is that the blue side would put out much less light, and so the total amount of light wouldn't be much more than you would get with a 33W bulb. (I'm sure Simpte will tell us if this guess is correct!) And then you would have a good amount of light for a low-tech setup, growing plants in pots or plants that don't go in the substrate. But I think that that amount of light would be still too much for a fish-only setup, and would just encourage algae.
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[Damon]

Grab either a 55 watt pc bulb or a 40 watt bulb. Be sure to check the pin-outs on you existing fixture. Buying a square pin configuration for a straight pin is useless.