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Re: light ideas please
Dennis8425 at aol_com sez:
> After reapeated requests my wife is getting her 60 gallon Hex tank for
> Xmas. I have already started working on the custom oak stand but am
> a little puzzled on how to properly light it. The width of the tank is
only
>
> 27 inches between long points and the longes bulbs I can see fitting in
> a hood would be a single 24", two 18" or about four 12" . Any any of these
> combinations I cannot see getting enough total wattage to handle some
> plants. The standard hood for this tanks only take a single 20 watt bulb
> again way to little.
>
The "classic" solution would be a 150 to 175W metal halide pendant. Or maybe
a PAR-38 metal halide or "deluxe" mercury vapor lamp. (I don't know about
price or available color temperatures for MH floodlights, so the PAR38 thing
may be a stupid suggestion). If you have room for 2 18" lamps, you could use
two 16.5" 36 to 39W compact fluorescents. This is less than the magic 2W/gal
figure, but these are very efficient lamps. From the specs I have looked up,
you should be able to drive a pair of 36W CFL's with a ballast that is
intended for F40T12 or F40T10 lamps. You may even have a spare ballast like
this in your junk box. You can use aluminum foil to line you reflector.
See if you have room for two 22.5" lamps (plus another 3/4" for the
lampholders). If so, a couple of 50W CFL's ought to work well.
GE makes all of these lamps in 5000K, but they anything higher than 4100K is
hard to find; Philips only has 3000K, 3500K, 4100K. I don't know about
Sylvania/Osram. HTH
bob