plant lighting

[playaslk]

hey guys and gals,

So another odd question: Im trying to find a cheaper way to get some decent plant lighting into my 55 gallon for medium light plants. Here is a bulb i found from sylvania. I was thinking of having 2 of these bulbs about 1.5 feet above the tank (one on each side of the 55 with the plastic brace being the cuttoff point. I realize that i cant exactly funnel all of the light into the tank and some will go wasted. I was planning on not having a top for the tank and keeping angels in it. Any ideas? suggestions?

http://www.sylvania.com/ProductCatalogs/

Part: 14898

120 watt spot-gro


Abbrev. With Packaging Info. 120BRGRO 120V 6/CS 1/SKU
Average Rated Life (hr) 2000
Base Medium
Beam Type SP
Bulb BR40
Class C (gas)
Color Rendering Index (CRI) 100
Color Temperature/CCT (K) 2850
Diameter (in) 5
Diameter (mm) 127
Family Brand Name Spot-GRO
Filament CC-6
Lamp Finish Spotgro
Maximum Overall Length - MOL (in) 6 1/2
Maximum Overall Length - MOL (mm) 165.1
Nominal Voltage (V) 120.00
Nominal Wattage (W) 120.00

[Moon]

Looks like an incandescent halogen type of lamp. These are not very efficient and you will probably need 2 or 3 150W lamps. They also put out a lot of heat. I would recommend fluorescents compact type. These are now available in reflector types and are more efficient and last longer. You can get these with built in ballasts. Alternatively, there are also metal halide types and these are expensive.
Joe

[playaslk]

a CF light found: http://www.bulbs.com/products/product_detail.asp?page=products&inventory=12598

any better?

[Alight]

The watts per gallon rule is for standard fluorescent lights, not incandescent lights. So 23 watts is not much light. You would need 5 or 6 of these to get a low-moderate light tank.

[yeomans]

Hello Playaslk, There are a few options availible, flouresent is probably your best option, If you don't want to deliver a bunch of light to the tank I wouldn't use metal halides as they are high output lamps, but on the other hand they are very efficient, provide tons of light and your plants will grow extreamly fast. You can get small wattage mh bulbs like 150 watts or so and construct the ballasts yourself, I can link you to some good how to wire ballasts if need be,building the ballast yourself makes halide lighting affordable, but if you don't need, or want a lot of light I'd go flouresent.

[wpegden]

Plasylk,
A great way to light a 55 gallon (and for cheap!) is to get shoplights from Walmart. They take 2 48 inch bulbs, which are 40 watts each. So two fixtures gets you 80 watts, 4 fixtures gets you 160 watts; They sell GE plant and aquarium bulbs as well, which are good. The fixtures are under $10 a piece I think, as are the bulbs.

This was first recommended to me by the guys at freshwateraquariumplants.com. It's a great way to light any of the 4 foot long tanks (55, 75, 90).

-Wes

[yeomans]

I got my four foot shop lights at my local hardware store fixture and 2 bulbs for 25 dollars. A very cheap and effective way to light a tank. The bulbs I use are Philips home light Natural sunshine, they are 40 watt bulbs at 5000k, and they are apparently considered full spectrum.

[playaslk]

awesome,

After following some of the advice posted here, i realized i already had 2 shoplights at the house. They are the "shoplight" all white (no great reflectors). I suspended them on top of the tank with 2 6500 and 2 5000k 48 inch bulbs obtained from lowes for 6 dollars each. i am using no glass top (since i dont have one) and so far have just 1 of the fixtures working (80 watts of light) and its fairly bright. When i am ready to put plants in here, i'll fire up the 2nd fixture. So far things went well. I'd post a pic but my lovely camera is at a friends house.

Thanks again

[Alight]

160 with shoplights should work fine with DIY CO2. You can always cut in down to 120, 80 , or whatever by taking out one bulb, etc.. Should give you lots of flexibility.

[wpegden]

Mine don't have reflectors either, but white paint is actually pretty good... definitely above 90% reflectivity. Reflectivity is sort of counterintuitive---for example, some people are tempted to try something like aluminum foil. White paint is much, much better though (although I forget the numbers).