Fish Bound
New Member
Hiya
Reading through the forums I thought I might share this idea I had when I first set up my tank.
Back then all I knew was that plants needed good lighting, and I knew having a small tank and hood restricted me somewhat when it came to light.
My tank is a 18”w x 12”h x 12”d
The maximum tube I can get to fit is a 15” (360mm) 14w Tropical Tube, thinking this was not enough I wanted to buy a reflector, but I’ve never found a reflector small enough for my tube.
So I purchased the smallest they did (Arcadia) designed for an 18” it is just over 15” in length, it fits in the hood, but there is no way of getting the end caps for the tube round to fit on.
Tin snips or a pair of good strong scissors (providing you don’t mind wrecking them) are needed, and all I did was cut a notch out each side, this way there is enough room for the wires and end caps to go round to connect up to the tube.
To make things safe I used some ‘blow hole rubber edging’ (available from computer modding shops – it’s some I had left over after I installed some fans in my computer case), the wire then won’t get caught on the sharp edge that is left after cutting the notches out. It’ll also save your fingers !
Plants do really well in my tank, it also helps keep up the water temperature.
This idea has work for me really well, I polish the reflector every couple of weeks when I do water changes, this keeps it clean and working at it’s optimum.
Hope this can be of benefit to someone…..
Btw if anyone knows how can improve on this, or get better lighting then please post
Many thanks
T.
Reading through the forums I thought I might share this idea I had when I first set up my tank.
Back then all I knew was that plants needed good lighting, and I knew having a small tank and hood restricted me somewhat when it came to light.
My tank is a 18”w x 12”h x 12”d
The maximum tube I can get to fit is a 15” (360mm) 14w Tropical Tube, thinking this was not enough I wanted to buy a reflector, but I’ve never found a reflector small enough for my tube.
So I purchased the smallest they did (Arcadia) designed for an 18” it is just over 15” in length, it fits in the hood, but there is no way of getting the end caps for the tube round to fit on.
Tin snips or a pair of good strong scissors (providing you don’t mind wrecking them) are needed, and all I did was cut a notch out each side, this way there is enough room for the wires and end caps to go round to connect up to the tube.
To make things safe I used some ‘blow hole rubber edging’ (available from computer modding shops – it’s some I had left over after I installed some fans in my computer case), the wire then won’t get caught on the sharp edge that is left after cutting the notches out. It’ll also save your fingers !
Plants do really well in my tank, it also helps keep up the water temperature.
This idea has work for me really well, I polish the reflector every couple of weeks when I do water changes, this keeps it clean and working at it’s optimum.
Hope this can be of benefit to someone…..
Btw if anyone knows how can improve on this, or get better lighting then please post
Many thanks
T.
