Help with lighting on my DIY hood?

[AR_Clint]

I just made a hood with lighting for my 125 gallon, but now I can't decide on the bulbs. For lighting, I have a 48" Shop Light in the middle that can take either T12's or T8's. I also ran an extension cord to each side of the shop light and plugged an adapter into them for a typical bulb. I figure I'll use compact fluorecents in those.

Well, I figured this would be an easy project, but I've run into a wall. Here is where I need help. I have a 55 gallon saltwater tank and know about saltwater lighting, but I don't know anything about freshwater lighting. I don't plan on putting plants in the tank. Just native fish. I want the lighting to make the fish look as nice as possible. So, here are my specific questions

1. Should I use T12's or T8's and why?

2. What color spectrum should I be looking for? (I know that 10,000k -
14,000k is great for saltwater, but do the same rules apply to freshwater?)

3. What wattage should I use for the compact fluorecents on each side
(60, 75, 100, 150)?

Thanks guys,
Clint

 

[schaadrak]

1. Don't know the difference between the two except one is thinner than the other.

2. If you're not using the light to grow anything, I would just experiment. Some people like a warmer light, some cooler. 4 ft lamps are cheap enough that you can buy a few different temps and find out which one you like best.

3. I assume those values are the incandescent wattages that the CF screw-ins are campared to right? If so I would go with the 100 since I believe they match the brightness of the 4 ft lamps.

 

[Plecosterone]

For plants you want between 5,000 and 10,000K bulbs. It is a matter of preference in color variants after that. Anything in that range witll work. T8 - T12 is the diameter in 1/8" increments (T8 = 8 x 1/8" = 1" diameter - T12 = 1-1/2" diameter). I personally use overdriven T8s on my 75 and 90 gallon planted tanks. If growing plants you want to get up to at least 2 watts per gallon which makes it about 250 watts of lighting over your tank. With 2 wpg you should be able to grow most plants.

 

[King Edward]

For fresh water plants your fine with a lower colour temp, in fact some research has been done to suggest that normal GE cool white tubes are better than the 'special' plant growth tubes for growing submerged plants. The 'special' tubes were designed for hydroponics, not aquariums.

I have 2 76 gallon planted tanks, both with custom hoods with dual 4ft shopfitting striplights. The first is running on GE cool whites and I have a veritable forest of crypts, the second runs on one GE cool white and one GROLUX tube. I have the grolux on this tank as it has my blue rams and neons in it that look sweet under the blue light!

I wouldnt bother adding the compacts too, at least to begin with, see how you go with the strips. Compact bulbs are a bit dear and the other great advantage of the GE's is they cost NOTHING for replacement tubes, so if you want you could change them every six months and they would still be far cheaper!

 

[King Edward]

Oh and T8 or T12? I use T8's because they are cheap and T12's are rare round here hence expensive, the T12's produce more light though so if you can get the T12's at near the same price I'd try them....

Sorry, just read you dont wanna grow plants....then Definately forget the compacts, they'll just eat the leccy, go for T8's as they use less power ~(river fish generally dont like light) and choose light scheme to reflect the colours on the fish or your personal taste... I like high colour temp bulbs (blue) over my neons and rams and warmer bulbs over my red fighters.....

 

[Wolf3101]

I love the look of the daylight bulbs sold in the home improvement stores....6700k and inexpencive for two.

 

[WyldFya]

You will have to ditch the side 'A' base lights, as they will corrode and burn out quickly. Weather proof light sockets will work here, but they take a little bit of work.