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Re: 36 inch light setup



On 22/12/97 6:48 PM, T Borich <tborich at usa_net> wrote:

>Hi!  I'm looking for a 36 inch light set-up that is as CHEAP as possible. 

If you've got the space, I'd consider using 4 ft tubes. They'll hang over 
the ends of the tank a bit but you'll get better light since fluoros are 
weakest in output at the end of the tube and strongest in the middle.

My setup is now two 4 ft tubes mounted about 8" above an open top 3 foot 
tank and it's working well. Light at the ends of the tank measures more 
than twice what it was with two 3 ft tubes and light at the centre is 
probably about 25-30% brighter. That gives you an idea of the falloff in 
illumination towards the ends of the tubes.

You can probably get a better choice of tubes in 4 foot, and outputs in 
lumens per watt seem slightly better than on the same tube in 3 ft 
lengths. I've noticed a tendency on this list for those who've looked 
around to feel that 4 ft tubes are more cost effective and I can't argue 
with that. I replaced two 3ft Coralife trichromatics at around $45 Aust 
each with 4 ft Auvlux high output 5,000 degrees Kelvin tubes at around $5 
Australian each and got a lot more light. Hard to argue with that kind of 
result. I'm back running one of the 3 ft tubes as well to get even more 
light, but I'll be looking at other tubes rather than the Coralife 
trichromatics when I've used up the 2 I have.

David Aiken