Bought a tank with a hood, but no light fixtures?

[manooosie]

ok, so i got the hood for the lights but no light fixtures,, let alone flouresent lights. Here is the light fixture he sells in the store for $45, and one 36 inch flouresnt light is 20 bucks (36' is what I need for a 55g right?). My question is, do they sell light fixtures online? Are the prices better? Thanks.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

My 55 gal tank is 48 inches long. Big Al's sells them but it depends on how many bulbs you want. I bought a triple tube 48 inch strip for $100. But that also depends on if you have glass or plastic hoods. Or do you just want to mount the light fixture in the canopy?

 

[severum mama]

Yes, the prices are much better online. Try:
www.bigalsonline.com
www.petsolutions.com
www.thatfishplace.com

Of course, the cheapest light strips would be the single bulb flourescent lights. If you don't want to grow live plants, you should be fine with one of those. If you do want plants, you could get a double or triple bulb strip light, like FF was talking about, or you could go for a compact flourescent strip light. I have the Current USA Satellite CF light on my 20 gallon planted, with a moonlight, and it's awesome.
To use the double or triple bulb strips, or the CF strips, you will need a glass hood.

 

[manooosie]

Ok, that clears a lot of things up. Looks like most single bulbs are around 40 and doubles are 80. I found these doubles for 47 on bigals

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=32853;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=32841;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=

can someone explain the difference between the bulbs in these two? Also, these prices for two bulbs are like the prices of having just one bulb? Seems like I would get these even if i didnt plan on plants, since i could just keep them if i decided to grow plants in the future...

 

[manooosie]

A bunch of these are going on ebay, and if I were going to buy a 2 bulb fixture this seems like the best deal

http://cgi.ebay.com/48-inch-JEBO-HI...706374191QQcategoryZ46314QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

however, isnt 260 watts way to much for 55g? isnt 1w per gallon ideal and anything over two causes algae?

 

[severum mama]

They seem to be the same light, just with different bulbs. The second link you posted uses one 10000K bulb and one actinic. The actinic spectrum is used mostly for SW I believe, and it does not benefit plants. The first link you posted is the same light, just with a full spectrum bulb and a 6700K bulb. Plants will be able to use this light, so I would choose that one. However, that still only gives you about 1 watt per gallon, so you would still be very limited in what plants you could keep. Some people say that you can't even grow java fern or anubias in 1 wpg, but this has not been my experience. But you probably wouldn't be able to grow much else.

 

[manooosie]

So is more wattage than one ideal? couldn't I just add more later, perhaps buy a more powerful bulb?

 

[PBirdsong]

If I could just add to your shopping here:
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=9

This is the light I am looking at for my 55gl FW.

 

[PBirdsong]

The only problem is I don't know how WIDE it is. It's 48" long, but the width eludes me.
I emailed the website asking, but no reply yet. Good luck and let us know what you get.

 

[manooosie]

that seems like a great deal. I think I will get that, unless you have found something better. The wattage is much higher than bigals for the price. also it says this:

"FREE items include two 65W bulb 50/50 & one set of flip top leg

- This system includes an external remote ballast"

does them mean extra bulbs and a remote to turn it off and on? And what the heck is a set of flop top leg?

 

[manooosie]

oh wait i just noticed pbirdsong that yours is only a single, while the one on bigals can hold two lights. I think that is better, since you can always upgrade the bulbs in the future and they are the same price.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The 50/50 bulbs are 50% "Pure" light and 50% Actinic. So you will only have 50% of the total wattage going towards plant light. You can't increase wattage in bulbs. You have to replace the entire light strip. For example, if your tank comes with a 48 inch strip where each bulb is 30 Watts, you can't replace the bulb with a 60 Watt Bulb. It doesn't work. You can only use the 30 Watt.

 

[manooosie]

Well thats lame. Is there any other light that I could possibly grow plants in or has more watts for the same price? There seems to be a jump in price of about 20 bucks if you want something better then this one...

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I just went through the same thing a few months ago and ended up buying the All Glass Triple tube strip light. It was $100 but worth every penny.

 

[PBirdsong]

Sorry, didn't check this earlier. The reason I was going to go with the light I posted was so that I COULD upgrade later when I'm ready (with CO2). Meaning: Buying the light you get the 50/50 bulbs, so like Fishyfanatic said, you will only harness 50% of the wattage from THAT type of bulb in a FW setup. Which will keep me just above 1 watt per gallon. But later on I could replace both bulbs with the 65 watt 12,000K. Then I will be above 2 watts per gallon.

Again, let us know what you do. I'm especially curious because I still haven't bought my light yet. So if you find something better I would certainly like to know.