Refitting an old hood for more wattage

PsyKick

PsyKick

AC Members
Aug 14, 2008
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Arcata Ca
I have an old fluorescent hood that has a single 24" NO tube in it. Its a 20W tube, and I have a 20 gallon tank. I would like to get some more wattage for my poor plants, but 24" NO tubes only go up to 20W it seems.
Does anyone know a way to retro these to either use PC tubes or maybe even standard socket CFL's?

The hood itself has a vent and 4 screw slots, its about 2 inches wide at its narrowest and 4 inches at the widest.
I am on a budget (otherwise I would just buy a new hood) so I was going to just make my own, but i figured I would check to see if anyone knows how to refit this...

Thanks!!!

-Seth
 
yes, there is a thread about using CFL's in old incandescent hoods, and 2 or 3 on making your own hood, but I dont see anything about converting an old fluorescent hood into PC or CFL...
 
Woops, thought i had looked at that already!!
Thanks MG

So I finished putting it together today. I replaced 1x 20w Fluorescent tube with 2x 26w CFL's. (That gives me 52watts total right? More than twice what I had?)

My main concern is heat. The canopy has a vent in the middle of it, but the bulbs produce a prodigious amount of heat. Should I coat the inside of the canopy in mylar or something to help reflect more light into the tank and cut back on heat?
I can post pictures later tonight if you all want to see.
 
Hi,

Thought I would chime in here.

I'm planning to do the same thing over my 55 gallon, replacing 2 actinic florescent bulbs with CFL's. The thing with the CFLS is that the input and output wattage are different. The 13 watt CFL bulbs I bought output 60 watts of light (Draws less wattage from cord but puts out the same amount of light as a regular 60 watt bulb). So, if im doing the math correctly, 60 watts x 4 bulbs = 240 watts over my 55 gallon tank or approx. 4 WPG (Give or take).

If I am incorrectly someone correct me.

SubluxT7:headbang2:
 
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