Vinyl gutter light hoods?

[pingpong]

I'm using regular single tube 2' & 4' fluorescent fixtures on my tanks but there's too much light escaping into the room. Has anyone ever used vinyl rain gutters to make light hoods? You can cut the stuff to any length up to 10' and add a couple end caps. Seems easy as long as the light fixture fits inside. Does anyone think I'd run into any problems?

 

[muckieman]

i don't see why not sounds good to me.

 

[will-kib1]

did this years ago on afew different tanks never had any probs

 

[Dr Joe]

You may have a heat problem with the ballast (they use the metal for a heat sink, and I've had some lights that wouldn't start without the metal backing. (you can find the metal ones too, and they're not hard to cut either).

But then again I've made several that worked great, I just used standoffs for the ballast.

I wouldn't overdrive them tho .

Dr Joe

.

 

[vanilla__gorilla__]

i have used medal ones before and they worked great

 

[DasArab]

Yea did this 2 years back and it worked fine. Very quick and cheap way to do it too i might add.

 

[pingpong]

Thanks for the input guys.
I'm going to give it a try.

Dr. Joe, I was thinking of squeezing the entire fixture into the gutter with small shims between the metal and plastic to allow some air circulation. If they don't fit then I'll try your method which would probably be better since the metal housing for the balast and wires takes up a lot of space.

 

[schaadrak]

You don't have to have the ballast in with the lamps, it can drive them remotely from somewhere outside the fixture like your stand. Gives you more room for bulbs, too.