diy lighting questions

[oddball13]

hey all I'm going to be converting my single tube hood into a 2 or 4 cfl and was wounder do I use the out put rating on the cfl or the watts used.

I can find lights that use 14 watt lights but the out put is 60 watts.

thanks for your help

[The Zigman]

what size tank is it?

I use 4 14 watt CFLs on 20 Long tanks, and its almost perfect.

in a deeper tank I might use the 23 watts bulbs..

[clb2196]

in a deeper tank I might use the 23 watts bulbs..

Yeah, I have 4x 23 watts on my 36 gallon. I have 2x 14 on my 10 gallon.

oddball- you want the actual watts, not the equivalent.

[DoctaQ]

the actual watts is the wattage you want to go by, the other number is incandescent output equivilant which is junk because no one uses incandescent on tanks for plants anyways. make sure you have cool white or daylight bulbs because lower spectrums will give you more algae growth, plus they look cooler anyways

[oddball13]

thanks for all the input it is a 36 gallon (30 long, 12 wide, and 23 tall) I'm planning on running about 65 Watts because I dont yet have co2

[customdrum]

you could use 3 of the 26 watt bulbs on the 36g and be fine, these lights loose alot of reflection because of there shape so 3x26= 78 watt but really around 60watts due to shape.

[clb2196]

thanks for all the input it is a 36 gallon (30 long, 12 wide, and 23 tall) I'm planning on running about 65 Watts because I dont yet have co2

That's the same as my 36 gallon, and I have 4x 23 watts. I dose Excel, no co2 yet either, and no problems. Every plant I've put in that tank seems to thrive. :)