Needs new light/fixture recommendation for 55 gallon tank

[godzen]

Hi,

I have the standard 55gal breeder tank that's 48" wide. It came with two removable fixture with two T8 18 watts flourescent. I'm relatively new to this hobby. These two lights are a little dim for viewing pleasure. I currently have no live plants. Just gravels, several logwood and a couple of fake plants. What do you recommend to bring out the colors in my discus and yet doesn't break the bank. I assume I will need to replace the fixture to hold the lights too or is that not necessary

[Laborator]

do some research on a single bulb Hagen Glo t5 with the life glo bulb, looks great on mine!

[scottishbloke]

do some research on a single bulb Hagen Glo t5 with the life glo bulb, looks great on mine!

+1. Just one of these Glo single-lamp fixtures with a T5HO Life-Glo bulb will also let you grow low-light plants like Anubias, Java Fern and even some Crypts in a 55g. If you want higher light plants, you might want to check out the double unit instead. Dump the lids and light fixtures that came with the tank and get yourself glass lids for the 55 also, you can get them cut to the exact size you need at any local glass shop for a minimal fee. I have this tank too and the lid/light fixtures are crap IMHO, got rid of mine years ago.

Colin

[pepetj]

For non planted tank you could go with hardware store T8 lamps listed as daylight (5,500 to 6,700K). Another way of putting extra light is by replacing your lamps with Hagen's Power Glo T8 lamps (only needs replacement of the fluorescent tube).

You could go with DIY retrofitting and upgrade to either 24" long T5 (normal output) [14W T5 = 21W T8] or as stated before go with 22" long T5HO [24W T5HO = 48W T8]. The electronic ballast you would need can be placed remotely [I just screw it to the rear of the wooden stand; one designed for T5HO will run both types of lamps but not the other way around]; I remove everything from the plastic housing and paint its interior with as bright white spray paint I can find [I let the paint cure for at least 24 hours]; I use tie wraps to hold the fluorescent lamps in place and insert rubber (or plastic) end caps [used as "stopper" for cylindrical legs of chairs and tables] to insulate connections I made with a soldering iron [following the wiring diagram of the manufacturer of the electronic ballast].

If you're not going planted I would consider the easiest option as upgrading to T8 Power-Glo which have some extra light output in terms of lumens, which is what we see as "brighter" light after all. I truly like the looks of these 18,000K lamps.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

[kaffeene]

I just picked up the Marineland hoods with LED lights. I had to have the fish store order them, as apparently they aren't carried anywhere. My fish seem to love them compared to what we had before. On the 55 gallon, if you have that middle bracer, you need 2 of the 24x12's. All told, it was about 100 bucks, and so far well worth it. Its got the lights for daytime, and then the blue lights for nighttime. Which is really cool.