Lighting Question

[saroberts]

I'm putting together a DIY rack that will hold 3 - perfecto 30gal breeder (30x18x13) tanks.

I currently have plans for two of the tanks. One tank for raising bn plecos and the other for blue rams. I'm willing to take suggestions for the third.

I'm trying to decide how much light I need for each tank. I've been looking at two different 24 inch shop lights. One with a single tube, the other is a double tube. The recommended tube size is T12 - 20 watt.

What would everyone suggest?

Steve

[dwilder]

if your gonna have tanks without plants one tube is plenty

[Apistomaster]

You might want to look into Current Nova fixtures/with 10,000K T-5 lamp. They are about $20 and put out as much light as the less efficient T-12 lamps. www.petsolutions.com sells them in all the common sizes up to 48 inches. A 48 inch lamp is 28 watts vs 40 watts for a T-12.
I use a white rain gutter with a couple inches removed from the flat side. I attach the fixtures with zip ties run through a pair of small holes in the rain gutter. Makes for a very low profile strip light and they can be connected with pig tails that come with them so up can run a series of up to eight fixtures off one plug in. I always can use any available plug ins so I'm a fan of these lights.