Cheap Lightsing Needed!

steal the lamp fittings from lamp posts cost 2 hours and a possible night in a cell

I built my own hood years ago when compact fluorescents first came out and I just use common household CF bulbs now that they are available in daylight temps. Mine are medium base which need more clearance than you may have but some of the pin type should work.

What you might do is remove the existing cover and replace it with a box with medium base recepticles and household daylight CFs. You can also get medium base "proper" bulbs. Line the box with a reflective material or paint the interior with a good heavy white enamel (mine is 8 years old and just now needing to be repainted). You may also put a plexiglas "shield" to protect the socket from splashes if there isn't already a glass between the existing fixure and the water. And use brush on marine electrical waterproofing on all connections!

Here is mine with the bulbs on opposite ends. Not a lick of trouble in 8 years but it does need a paintjob. The nice thing about using medium base or other screw in type recepticles is that you have more options for bulbs.

So whats cheapest at the moment? Hehe

P.S Im thr "friend"

the thing is with house hold CFL's yo dont get much useful light from them because of poor reflection.

truckasauras123 said:

the thing is with house hold CFL's yo dont get much useful light from them because of poor reflection.

Click to expand...

80 watts of 5000K light is 80 watts of 5000k light. That's the physics of it. Once it is clear of the bulb (the 80 watts is the comparative output of the bulb, not the actual wattage which is 9 watts each), it is all the same. You also have the option of using whatever wattage you want vs. being tied to whatever your sockets will accept. That is the beauty of this lighting system. If you want to use the overpriced bulbs from the petshop, you can because they have a lot of medium base stuff available, too. I had to alter the image I posted because it was a total "whiteout" because of the reflection of the humble aluminum foil. These 80 watts make my 70 gallons brilliant. Will post an unaltered image of the interior later. Gotta get out the door.

I use 1x Daylight energy saver mini spiral 6500k over the sump of my marine aquarium.
[URL="https/www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=209"]https/www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=209[/URL]
3 of these might be worth looking at, use in conjunction with sliding coverglasses.

3 bulbs = £25 inc postage
3 Batten lampholders = £5
Some electrical cable and plugs
4 way extension lead
3x cheapo Timers

Well under £60 M8

Jeeez we used to use 25w incandesants when I was a lad. LOL

Regards
C

jschlosser said:

truckasauras123 said:

the thing is with house hold CFL's yo dont get much useful light from them because of poor reflection.

Click to expand...

80 watts of 5000K light is 80 watts of 5000k light. That's the physics of it. Once it is clear of the bulb (the 80 watts is the comparative output of the bulb, not the actual wattage which is 9 watts each), it is all the same. You also have the option of using whatever wattage you want vs. being tied to whatever your sockets will accept. That is the beauty of this lighting system. If you want to use the overpriced bulbs from the petshop, you can because they have a lot of medium base stuff available, too. I had to alter the image I posted because it was a total "whiteout" because of the reflection of the humble aluminum foil. These 80 watts make my 70 gallons brilliant. Will post an unaltered image of the interior later. Gotta get out the door.

Click to expand...

compared to linear tubes theyre useless. as allot of the light is lost, albeit having reflectors. it still gets lost.
you can get three linear 38 watt T8s for £8 or 2* 39 watt T5's for £5

BigC said:

I use 1x Daylight energy saver mini spiral 6500k over the sump of my marine aquarium.
<a href="https/www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=209" target="_blank">https/www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=209</a>
3 of these might be worth looking at, use in conjunction with sliding coverglasses.

3 bulbs = £25 inc postage
3 Batten lampholders = £5
Some electrical cable and plugs
4 way extension lead
3x cheapo Timers

Well under £60 M8

Jeeez we used to use 25w incandesants when I was a lad. LOL

Regards
C

Click to expand...

Hmm sounds good

Batten lampholders? What are these? Could you link some?

£8 is the cheapest.

4 11W EC lamps will be more than enough light, trust me. 1 over my old planted tank led to my plants growing faster than I wanted to proone them

All the best
Rabbut

jschlosser said:

truckasauras123 said:

the thing is with house hold CFL's yo dont get much useful light from them because of poor reflection.

Click to expand...

80 watts of 5000K light is 80 watts of 5000k light. That's the physics of it. Once it is clear of the bulb (the 80 watts is the comparative output of the bulb, not the actual wattage which is 9 watts each), it is all the same. You also have the option of using whatever wattage you want vs. being tied to whatever your sockets will accept. That is the beauty of this lighting system. If you want to use the overpriced bulbs from the petshop, you can because they have a lot of medium base stuff available, too. I had to alter the image I posted because it was a total "whiteout" because of the reflection of the humble aluminum foil. These 80 watts make my 70 gallons brilliant. Will post an unaltered image of the interior later. Gotta get out the door.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but it's spread really unevenly, and with all the restrike and poor reflection, a lot of it will turn into heat.

I'm sure it looks great, but they aren't the best for plants. Fantastic over the short run saving time and money on sourcing and installing linear fluorescents, but will cost more in the long run due to energy expenditure anyway if you wanted as good a result as florescent tubes.

truckasauras123 said:

jschlosser said:

truckasauras123 said:

the thing is with house hold CFL's yo dont get much useful light from them because of poor reflection.

Click to expand...

80 watts of 5000K light is 80 watts of 5000k light. That's the physics of it. Once it is clear of the bulb (the 80 watts is the comparative output of the bulb, not the actual wattage which is 9 watts each), it is all the same. You also have the option of using whatever wattage you want vs. being tied to whatever your sockets will accept. That is the beauty of this lighting system. If you want to use the overpriced bulbs from the petshop, you can because they have a lot of medium base stuff available, too. I had to alter the image I posted because it was a total "whiteout" because of the reflection of the humble aluminum foil. These 80 watts make my 70 gallons brilliant. Will post an unaltered image of the interior later. Gotta get out the door.

Click to expand...

compared to linear tubes theyre useless. as allot of the light is lost, albeit having reflectors. it still gets lost.
you can get three linear 38 watt T8s for £8 or 2* 39 watt T5's for £5

Click to expand...

All I can think of is that you may be concerned that the light isn't uniformly spread across the length of the tank because they are bulbs and not tubes. Here are a couple of pics of the tank - one goes the entire length from one end to the other and the other is the whole tank. The images are not retouched or enhanced - plenty of light. Water is low because I am doing some fussing with it right now but will top it off when I am done.

well your tank is very shallow so alot of the restrike will get to the tank because of the width.

and draceana is not aquatic

^ that plant in the left most picture is non-aquatic (regardless of what the LFS say).

...oh I see Truck has already spotted that.

Andy

I thought draceana was a bog plant and semi aquatic providing it had access to air which it currently doesnt but still

saltynay said:

I thought draceana was a bog plant and semi aquatic providing it had access to air which it currently doesnt but still

Click to expand...

needs full air access to leaves and stem, yet the roots should be wet at all times