Lighting

T

TAFKARojo

AC Members
Nov 17, 2004
40
0
0
40
Leominster, Ma
I was at Home Depot today and was thinking, if I got a shop light to fit my tank could I use that drilled to the top of a canopy? Would it work or be strong enough? Right now I only have a FOWLR but plan when I have the money and experience to go reef, or at least a little reef. Would there be a shop light situation I could use for a reef tank? I was looking at a product with 2 T8 lights. If anyone could tell me if this would work or how i could make it work I would really appreciate it.

Thanks
Chris
 
You could make it work probably not on a reef. The real magic is in the bubs/tubes. Nothing they have at home depot would have enough output in a small size to sustain a reef. As the shop light would probably be 30X2 max. That is no where near enough output.

The problem with home depot (mine anyway) is that they don't sell HO/VHO lights. And when it comes to aquariums you are really trying to jam the watts in on a small area.
 
Ok, I am starting to understand more. And I know that I'm being a jerk by asking these basic questions about lighting instead of looking them up. But for some reason I get confused and frustrated when reading about lighting. I'm also more DIY oriented. What would you sugest for lighting (watts per gallon, how many bulbs and what kinds of bulbs) I read that full spectrum lighting is suggested, I have a friend who sells full spectrum lighting to businesses would one of those light bulbs be the same? And what is VHO lighting? In the last few months I have learned ALOT about the hobby and it feels like the more I know the more there is to learn.

Thanks for the help
Chris
 
You're not being a jerk that's what this forum is all about, getting your questions answered. The whole watts/gallon thing is just a basic guide and it really depends what you want out of your tank. Fish don't really care what light they have, but all corals do. As a base line about 2 watts/gallon is the start of the basic corals/sponges, and it goes up from there. A good thing to do is check out what you would like to keep first and find out what their needs are. As far as bulbs goes metal halide packs the most punch out there as far as size goes. For example I have a 29G tank that I could fit 3x250W metal halide bulbs over. that's a lot of light.

VHO (very high output) is a type of flourescent that is very high output compared to NO (normal output). For example a VHO tube of the same size as a NO would put out 110W(VHO) vs 30W(NO). They also require special ballasts. VHO is slowly being phased out by PC (power compact).

Full Spectrum tubes probably wouldn't work, as they do the "full spectrum" where the tank only needs the upper to high spectrums. And thus requires tubes that consentrate on the upper spectrums only. For an example a 30W full spectrum is 30W over the entire spectrum while a 30W 10,000K is 30W in that on spectrum.

Hope this helps you out.
 
Actually Vdub that last post was a lot of help, I actually made some connections in my head that I couldnt make before. I just have a desire to understand why for everything that I do, it actually can be quite irratating.

Thanks for your help
Chris
 
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