MagicAfra
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I was looking around for some way to get aquarium lights cheap when I went to Home Depot. Luckily the light salesperson owned several aquariums and was quite knowledgeable. I ended up getting a simple extention cord with two adapters that plugged into this and then I screwed the two lightbulbs into these. Now all I need to do is create the hood out of wood and use tin foil to reflect more light. I did this all for about 18 dollars and some extra wood.
I recently read an article that said that lumen was a better way to judge light for the aquarium than watts because the different types of lights now days make for different efficiency's with the same wattages. This article (Lighting for Planted Aquariums (watts per gallon, LSI, lumen, lux, what ????) - Fotohobbist Blogs) also said that it is advisable to at least get 16 lumen per square inch of surface area for a low light planted aquarium. So I bought 2 100 watt equivalent compact flourescent bulbs that had 1600 lumen each. With a 10 gallon tank this would be 3200/(20*10)=16 I noticed that the light got hot fast and it was very bright. I actually like that it was really bright but I wonder if there might be something bad with this set up.
I recently read an article that said that lumen was a better way to judge light for the aquarium than watts because the different types of lights now days make for different efficiency's with the same wattages. This article (Lighting for Planted Aquariums (watts per gallon, LSI, lumen, lux, what ????) - Fotohobbist Blogs) also said that it is advisable to at least get 16 lumen per square inch of surface area for a low light planted aquarium. So I bought 2 100 watt equivalent compact flourescent bulbs that had 1600 lumen each. With a 10 gallon tank this would be 3200/(20*10)=16 I noticed that the light got hot fast and it was very bright. I actually like that it was really bright but I wonder if there might be something bad with this set up.
