# Lighting



## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Just got a bunch of plants for my 125g. Java moss, java fern, and other low light plants from a local guy who knows his stuff. Plants have been in for a week, and a few are growing. I have a 72" light, with two single 36" bulbs. Its 30W a piece, so that would make it only about .5 WPG. I want to get it up to about 1 WPG, but I have no idea where to get light fixtures. I cant find anything that is 72" like I have so I was going to get two 36" shop lights. Can I just get some cheap shop lights and put them on my tank? I dont want to spend a crap load of money for a light, but would like to know what others have done on a budget.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

One of two ways:
1. Search the internet for Power Compact (PC) lighting, or VHO (Very High Output), or T5 fixture. They come in 72" lenght, so they should not be hard to find. This is your best way.

2. You can use a shoplight from Home Depot. I have seen some very nice planted tanks with shop lights. Home Depot also has PC, VHO, etc... to beef up your lighting.

I will move this to the Planted forum, and I am sure the guys there will be able to help more.


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## j66213b (Jul 29, 2006)

the right lihts make a world of a diff i didnt have the lighting for about 2 weeks and my plants just started looking like crap and im about 2.5 wpg with a c02 tank and the look AWSOME!!! but i did use the DIY co2 listed here for a while and it worked great but i was given a free 11.9lbs tank and regulator but do it right and get some 67000k 240watt fixtures....

oh and i dont know why but it was cheaper for me to get 2 24" rather than a 48" for my tank not sure if it will be the same in you sit.


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## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

Walmart man thats where I got all my lighting and my plants grow too fast heh. I have a 125 gallon tank 6'X2'X17"tall. I use two 36" shop lights with GE aquarium/plant lights. Each bulb is 40 watts. I spent a whole $40 where if I got anything like that at the LFS it would have been more like $400. I got tank pics on here and a couple full shots where you can see them sitting on top. Nothn fancy but I look inside the tank not the top of it hah. Eventually Im going to make a canopy maybe even somethn like an atrium above the tank so the top water plants can grow out more.


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

You can go to Homedepot and buy their 36'' shoplight kit that will accept 4xT12 40watts light and buy another set exactly the same.

That way you'll have 8x40 watts 320 watts total.

The 36'' Shop light kit is about 47.99 x 2 
The T12 Light is roughly 4.97x 8

I actually went there and wrote down a ton of information about light combinations and such.

I went with their 48'' x 4 T12 40watts Lighting Kit on my planted tank. Plants are loving it like crazy.

As I was told, they don't carry any T5 Shoplight Retro kits yet, only the T5 bulbs. So I bought the T12 instead.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

I found some nice T8 36" shop lights at Lowes, and I just didnt know what to get. I might search walmart to see if they are cheaper. The T12 bulbs are 40 Watt and the T8 bulbs are 32 watts. Will I get the same effect, because I heard T8 are stronger.

Ibanez247, can you post some pics of your setup?



Coldfire said:


> You can go to Homedepot and buy their 36'' shoplight kit that will accept 4xT12 40watts light and buy another set exactly the same.
> 
> That way you'll have 8x40 watts 320 watts total.
> 
> ...


I dont think they 4 light shop light will fit on top of my tank. Its too wide, got any suggestions?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

maknwar said:


> Just got a bunch of plants for my 125g. Java moss, java fern, and other low light plants from a local guy who knows his stuff. Plants have been in for a week, and a few are growing. I have a 72" light, with two single 36" bulbs. Its 30W a piece, so that would make it only about .5 WPG. I want to get it up to about 1 WPG, but I have no idea where to get light fixtures. I cant find anything that is 72" like I have so I was going to get two 36" shop lights. Can I just get some cheap shop lights and put them on my tank? I dont want to spend a crap load of money for a light, but would like to know what others have done on a budget.


Hi
If you are growing strictly low light plants, I think you should be ok with what you have.
I don't know of any 72" fixtures either, but if you want more light, shop lights are great.

T8's or better yet, T5's are what you want. Bulbs should be in the 5000k to 10000k range

T12's work too, but Im just saying the T8's and T5's are better


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Just got a bunch of plants for my 125g. Java moss, java fern, and other low light plants from a local guy who knows his stuff. Plants have been in for a week, and a few are growing. I have a 72" light, with two single 36" bulbs. Its 30W a piece, so that would make it only about .5 WPG. I want to get it up to about 1 WPG, but I have no idea where to get light fixtures. I cant find anything that is 72" like I have so I was going to get two 36" shop lights. Can I just get some cheap shop lights and put them on my tank? I dont want to spend a crap load of money for a light, but would like to know what others have done on a budget.


Hi
If you are growing strictly low light plants, I think you should be ok with what you have.
I don't know of any 72" fixtures either, but if you want more light, shop lights are great.

T8's or better yet, T5's are what you want. Bulbs should be in the 5000k to 10000k range

T12's work too, but Im just saying the T8's and T5's are better
[/quote]

Will the updrage to about 1WPG make a difference in how fast my plants grow?


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

Here's what I would do if you can't decided on what to do.. Not sure if your heart is set on T5 or T8 Shop light kits, but tons of people have used T12 shoplights to grow plants also.

What I would do is write down the dimensions of your tank, go to home depot or lowes and look at every T5, T8, T12 Shoplight kit and do some brainstorming base on your tank's top dimension of having it covering the whole top and not having any light stick out. Do some math about the wattage of what you can get with either this shoplight kit or that shoplight kit.

If the 4 T12 shoplight don't fit because of it's exclosure, then go with smaller capacity unit of maybe 2 T12 and another 2 T12 unit that's exactly the same. The single 4 T12 Shoplights are huge, not sure what the dimension are but they're pretty big and I do understand your point about it not going to fix on your tank.

I myself literally, stood there and brainstormed about a good 45 minutes on what shoplight I should get. Wrote down my options, my wattages outcomes if I chose this setup or that setup.. at the same time having in mind if it will completely cover the top of my tank or not. Hope that helps.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

would two of these work well? http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl36...blestriplight36

It would only be about 84 wats total compared to 60.

I also like these. http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl36...mpactlight1x96w

This would be a total of 192 watts. Which would be better?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

the 84w one should work if you wanted to keep it low light


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Thank you. If I decide to upgrade my lighting to around 1.5wpg some day, will low light plants be okay with higher light levels or will they die? seems like you need to have plants that work at certain light levels. Too high or too low and they wont grow?


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

With a high light tank, it seems to run with less issues with faster growing plants, but some low light plants can be very fast growers.
It should work fine


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Java moss being one of those plants that will grow faster? If it grows any faster than what it does now, I might have to take it out.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

maknwar said:


> Java moss being one of those plants that will grow faster? If it grows any faster than what it does now, I might have to take it out.


It's quite a monster.. But laugh if you may, I can't grow java moss for crap in a high light tank..








It grows out of the tank in my 10g w/.5wpg lol


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

I hear it likes low light. Maybe light is its kryptonite? I think I am going to try to add some light little by little until I get a good amount.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

check out my DIY topic operation overdrive and you can get approx 120W of light for 25$.... i am running 2 of these now and love it! with a little research you could find an appropreate 72" ballast, or do 2 of the fixtures i made that are 48" long with an overlap in the middle...


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## ZOSICK (May 25, 2005)

http://www.daybritelighting.com/day-brite/
http://www.metalux-lighting.com/


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Skunkbudfour20 said:


> check out my DIY topic operation overdrive and you can get approx 120W of light for 25$.... i am running 2 of these now and love it! with a little research you could find an appropreate 72" ballast, or do 2 of the fixtures i made that are 48" long with an overlap in the middle...


I think I will try it. I was thinking about buying the AH Supply kits but I might as well start out cheap.


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## ZOSICK (May 25, 2005)

http://www.daybritelighting.com/day-briteh...ure.cfm?ID=3095
t-5 ho
4x54 strips
daybrite and metalux also make 72 and 96inch strips in NO HO and VHO

HID floodlights can also be modified for plants.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

maknwar said:


> check out my DIY topic operation overdrive and you can get approx 120W of light for 25$.... i am running 2 of these now and love it! with a little research you could find an appropreate 72" ballast, or do 2 of the fixtures i made that are 48" long with an overlap in the middle...


I think I will try it. I was thinking about buying the AH Supply kits but I might as well start out cheap.
[/quote]

yeah man, easy project! takes about 15 minutes per fixture if you know exactly what you are doing.... if you use the same ballast i talk about in my topic, the one thing that confuses me every time is how to jumper one end of the caps (instant start VS rapid start ballasts)... when you get your parts and are ready to rip drop me a PM, and i will pull one of my working fixtures apart and take step by step pics for you, well mainly for my other forum because i havent done it yet, but... get to home depot and let me know!


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