Need help with light

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Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
4,916
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68
Monterey, CA
So I went and bought a 4 foot, 2 bulb, T8 fixture for my 29 gallon at lowes. The brand is utilitech. The fixture hangs several inches on each side. Plus its wide and obstructs the hood where I lift to feed the fish. They do have a fixture that doesn't have a dome/reflector type thing built into it, think that would be better? You think I should just go an buy some glass slabs and use those instead of the hood? I am not able to hang the fixture cause the ceiling is made out of stucco. I may be able to find a 24 inch fixture, but it would be short a few inches on both sides. What do you think is better in this situation, a 24 inch or 48 inch? Oh, and another sucky thing, I cant use my timer on the lights, it only has two prongs and the fixture has 3 prongs.

Heres what everything looks like. Give me your recommendations/suggestions. Thanks

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I say just hang it from the ceiling, just go to lowes and get the proper fasteners for the ceiling type and while your there get some nylon coated wire so you can hang it properly. I would honestly go with the shorter fixture and hang that but that's up to you.
 
The tough part is they have no 2 ft fixtures like these that are duel bulb. The only 24 inch fixtures I saw are the kind you install in your house, only wires and no pull chain or on/off button.
 
could have just bought a 30" light at the LFS . . . you saved some money, but now you've got a pretty ridiculous looking setup and a bunch of hassles . . .

I'd take that light back and re-think this from the beginning . . .
 
Yeah I am definitely taking the light back. I already have a 30 inch light for it, but its just a stock light, not really for growing plants. So I either have to buy 2 foot or 4 foot. I'm going with the 2 foot, but they don't have them like this one. I literally stood about 15 minutes in the lights section looking at every light fixture.

They have these 4 bulb fixtures but they use xenon bulbs, I don't even think those can be used on fish tanks.

I was hoping some of you guys can show me a link or give me a brand name to look for.
 
yeah, I'd definitely go with a 24" over the 48" . . . if you can find a good 24" and maybe switch to a glass top, you might have something

I ran 30" T5s on a 36" tank . . . worked fine and didn't look bad at all . . . it just doesn't look good when the lights overhang the tank . . .
 
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