Lights for a 30" 20 gal Long

[pitt420dude]

Hi everybody,

I am looking for lights for my 20 gal long aquarium. I have a plastic housing for the tank lights that came with the tank. I was thinking about going to Compact Fluorescent Lighting Kits to buy a retrofit for my lights but have a few questions.

1. What bulb do you think I should get? The 55w should be perfect but it is only 22" long, so wouldn't that leave dark spots on the edges of the tank?

2. Retrofit or build new DIY housing? I am a DIY-er but never work with wood much. I'm not sure if I could build a new housing for the lights, or if I would be better off trying to attach them to my already decent plastic housing.

Another issue to complicate the matter is that I do not have a tank cover. There is no hood or plastic or anything covering the top of the tank besides the black light housing itself. I've always had low wattage bulbs not worth protecting and never had fish jump out. But I suppose a third option is...

3. Do you think I should buy a whole hood/light kit and then just retrofit that with AH's supply?

Or I could fore-go AH supply completely and just buy a new light set up for a planted tank.

Please advise!!!

EDIT: I also want a moderate to high light planted tank. I have not yet decided whether I want pressurized CO2 or DIY CO2 but I do expect to have CO2 once I get set up. Right now I have a peaceful community tank with only a cypt and a fingerlace java fern.

 

[Razorback01]

I had a 20g long planted tank and quickly decided to move everything to a 29g to allow the plants to have more room to grow.



Here is what it looked like with T5 HO lights and DIY CO2. I got tired of the DIY part so I'm high pressure injecting now into my 29 gallon.





Here's my finished product with almost everything the same as it was in the 20g

 

[Billbug68]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...ompact-Fluorescent-(CFL)-Strip-Light-Retrofit
Did this mod to my my stock hood for my 10g, cheap and easy too.

Edit: here's a pic of what mine looks like.

 

[pitt420dude]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?147012-DIY-Compact-Fluorescent-(CFL)-Strip-Light-Retrofit
Did this mod to my my stock hood for my 10g, cheap and easy too.

Edit: here's a pic of what mine looks like.

Great looking fixture. I have a question. Those bulbs say they are 14w but the box says they're the equivalent to 60w. What is the wattage we are supposed to consider them for planted purposes?

My guess is that we go by the 14 watts. So how many bulbs do you think I could get in a 30" fixture? 4 might be ideal. It is a slick trick to use that white reflective spraypaint as a reflector. It looks like it works great.

 

[Link119]

They are 14 watt bulbs. Ignore the equivalent wattage rating...

 

[Billbug68]

Yup, make sure you get 6500k bulbs though, mine are only 5000 and I started to grow algae like crazy. My nice white sand is now tan/brown.

 

[JRMagno]

I just recently retrofit my stock light strip with the 55W from AH Supply for my 29 gallon. It is VERY easy to do as long as you have a drill, you only have to do 5 small holes. I highly recommend it! As far as a lid goes I am partial to the Versa glass tops. They are not too much and the back 2 inches or so is a plastic strip you can cut to accommodate equipment.

The 22in bulb works great, all of my plants on the edges are growing like crazy! No dead spots

 

[Peyton]

I used one of these over a 20g long for a while. http://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-Coralife-05618-Aqualight-Freshwater/dp/B0009YHU2I

With that fixture you could grow most plants and have bulbs that extend the length of the tank. The downside is that the bulbs it comes with are not the best quality so you would have to factor in replacements in the near future.

 

[pitt420dude]

Thanks JRMAngo and Peyton. I have heard incredible things about the AHSupply retrofit and their whole setup. You just can't beat that reflector they used. It really is the perfect utilization of the bulb. Very efficient and a whole lot of light into the tank.

Still there is something to be said about a professionally made fixture. I'm handy, so I'm sure the craftsmantship of the AH supply retrofit would be top notch and not too difficult. I have a few drills, just used my hammer drill today, lol. Aqueon is a good name and I like T5 and how they look and run cool. The one on Amazon has 6 five star reviews and 6 1 star reviews, so it is far from well received.

Also to Billbug I thought I read that anywhere between 5000k and 10000k color temp is usable for plants, and that so long as it is there, they will use it and that the specif temp is matter of color preference. Closer to 5000k is warm yellowish morning light where closer to 10000k is closer to bright noon whitish/blue light.

I think I will end up going with AHsupply. I think for the money, it is the best value, so long as you don't mind putting the time in (which I don't).

After all, the biggest satisfaction out of this hobby is that our tanks are a product of our time and creativity and attention. Isn't it even more enhanced when you put some DIY into the equipment you use?

 

[JRMagno]

The time really isn't bad either. I didn't keep track of how long it took, but I can't really image more than 2 hours, and I had never done anything like that before.

I completely agree, I think DIY makes it all that much better!!

 

[Billbug68]

Also to Billbug I thought I read that anywhere between 5000k and 10000k color temp is usable for plants, and that so long as it is there, they will use it and that the specif temp is matter of color preference. Closer to 5000k is warm yellowish morning light where closer to 10000k is closer to bright noon whitish/blue light.

I meant more that 6500 is ideal for plants? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, and I was also referring to the spiral cfl bulbs which I don't know if they actually make any daylights above 6500k, I couldn't find anything in stores higher than 5000 for the watts I needed. I can order some but I'm going to upgrade soon so best just save my money. The conversion kit looks legit, I like it and I think you'll be happy with it, but as far as the route I chose it was the quickest and easiest way without ordering anything online. Also I think t5s is too much for a 10g. I had a few links saved that had charts and articles on lighting showing the different lights in relation to height from the sand bed and it helped determine if you'd have low, medium, or high lighting. All kinds of research on kelvins and lumens and height and everything else that I used that when I figured I'd go with the cfls. Unfortunately they are no longer in my bookmarks for some reason or else I'd post them It's crazy how many factors actually go into proper lighting when you catch the planted tank bug! I just picked up a 55 yesterday I found on CL and I'm already stressing about light choices... Lol