Shop lights

[pacu mom]

For tank lighting, we were going to go with recessed lights above our new tank. We changed our minds when we came across a really great shop light that takes four T5 bulbs. Today, the electrician rigged up one light so we could see how it would work out for us in the equipment/filtration room.

The light was 14 1/2 feet up above, where the ceiling will be. It was so bright, it was difficult to get a picture of it.

Changed the camera setting so the light fixture could be seen

Being evening here, it was very dark outside and inside our new build. Here is my soon to be filtration room illuminated with the one light fixture 14 1/2' up above.

The tank will be sitting just left of the line running across the floor

Like these lights so much, we're going with 5 over the tank, 2 in the filtration room, 9 in the garage and now we've decided to put 1 in the new utility room. The tank lights will be mounted less than 2' from the top of the tank, and we are anticipating that they will work well for us.

 

[broken]

Shop lights are just as good as those expensive aquarium lights(unless you are into plants or photography) and are a small fraction of the price.

ps, I cant wait till your tank is running so you can show us some pics.

 

[nes999]

if you dont mind me asking, where did you get those lights? that looks like what i need over my 900

 

[pacu mom]

if you dont mind me asking, where did you get those lights? that looks like what i need over my 900

We've never seen a light like this before. Got ours at Grover Electric and Plumbing Supply (locations in OR and WA)

Been trying to get more info for you from off the box. Lights are made by Simkar Corporation (www.simkar.com)

http://www.simkar.com/reflect/reflect-a-bay.html

http://www.simkar.com/reflect/Reflect-A-Bay.pdf

# on the box is: REF454-SSR-B12-UNV

Series # REF
Lamps 4
Lamp Type 54 = F54T5HO
Aperture S = Solid
Reflector - SR
Ballast B12 = T5 HO
Voltage UNV

I'm sure Simkar can direct you to a vendor that carries this light.

We were planning to go with ten 6" recessed lights over the tank--5 incandescent and 5 LED. When they turned this light on for us, we no longer wanted the recessed lights. There is also a remote device available to turn the light on/off.

Now that we've seen what this light can do in our space, we are elated that it will do far more than we had hoped for. This is definitely not an ordinary "shop light", it's some kind of industrial light. We're very glad that we stumbled across it.

 

[pacu mom]

Looks like there is a Miro 4 reflector series that reflects 10% more than the ones we bought. We went with 4100K lamps, as that was the only T5 lamp Grovers carried. It's a very bright, cool white color with no hint of yellow. Supposed to last thousands of hours.

 

[CLDarnell]

lol, those are bright! I am sitting here on the laptop with the living room lights off. When I scrolled down, I got blinded lol. I still see spots...and that's just from a photo

Very impressive. I am anxious to see the final set up!

Nice job...

 

[pacu mom]

Lights were finally installed. Wrong camera setting doesn't show how bright these lights are)

Lights over the tank have acrylic covers. Four lights still have plastic wrapping on them.

They are really beautiful lights (there is also a sky tube in the equipment room)

 

[sfdvlam]

Very nice! the last picture shows the lights way up high. Ooh, changing those light bulbs would be a challenge.

 

[pacu mom]

Very nice! the last picture shows the lights way up high. Ooh, changing those light bulbs would be a challenge.

14' 6" ceiling, or something like that. Since this DIY project involved drywalling, taping, mudding and sanding that ceiling, I guess we can manage to change the lightbulbs....

 

[cmjdjm1]

I feel your pain. My garage has 14' high ceilings. For someone who is petrified of heights like me, changing the bulbs up that high are a pain in the butt. Just get a really good sturdy ladder, although I'm guessing you already do if you've been mudding and taping up that high.