View Full Version : how could i fit 8 4ft bulbs on my 55g???
K_S_W_I_S_S
03-30-2003, 9:14 PM
i want to fit 8 4 ft bubls right next to each other (touching each other) and put them in like a homemade hood or something.... any ideas how i should go about doing this? if anyone has any ideas about how i can accomplish this, please feel free to reply....
NJ Devils Fan
03-31-2003, 4:14 PM
Buy several ballast kits and make a hood like this.
http://nediger.www2.dotnetplayground.com/fish/canopy.jpg
K_S_W_I_S_S
03-31-2003, 5:16 PM
thats thi kind of hood i was thinking cuz i have already made 2. i made one last year for a 10g and one just last month for my 125g... but where should i put the ballasts? my dad said i should just keep the ballasts under the tank and only put the lights on the hood (to make enough space for the bubls) and i was thinking put the ballasts on the top of the hood....
Hebdizzle
03-31-2003, 7:09 PM
I'm not challenging your idea or anything but why do you need 8 bulbs above a 55 gallon?
IMO it would be much easier to go compact fluorescent instead.
rdelbalso
03-31-2003, 7:57 PM
how wide are your bulbs. i just built a hood for my 55g and put in 4 4' 40 bulbs and have no room left. they are about 1/2" apart. i have about another 3" towards the back, but my filter is there and the fixtures are 4.5" wide. this setup also gives me roughly 3w/gal. which is a good amount. 8 bulbs seems a lot excessive.
when you do build a hood, make sure you do some sort of hinge setup. i forgot to do this and it is a pain because i have to lift the whole hood everytime i feed.
K_S_W_I_S_S
03-31-2003, 9:21 PM
are you challenging me hebdizzle?? im just playin' i dont know why i wanted 8 bulbs, i dont need 8. should i go w/4 bulbs which would be 160 watts and almost 3w/g? or should i do 6 and it will be a lil over 4 w/g? what do you think would be better?
NJ Devils Fan
03-31-2003, 9:42 PM
Yea, I think 8 is a bit much, those fish are gonna need sun glasses. ;)
If you are talking T12 NO tubes, the inefficiencies of restrike and blocked light are so great that going over 4 may lose you light rather than gain.
If you are talking T8 tubes, especially the newer higher efficiency 32W ones, you could fit more.
T5 could potentially be more effective still, but I have no personal experience there.
Beyond 4 T8s, I'd go power compact.
K_S_W_I_S_S
04-01-2003, 12:07 AM
i dont know what t8 and t12 bulbs are, so is there anywhere where i can read about them???
carpguy
04-01-2003, 1:07 AM
8 bulbs definitely seems like lunacy.
T12, T8, T5 are bulb sizes. Lower numbers are thinner bulbs. According to Slip the T5s are extremely efficient.
More info here (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=t8%2C+flourescent&btnG=Google+Search) .
I'd just go CF or T5 and use the fewest bulbs I needed to reach a target light level (that target would be much lower than 6 wpg).
The T#s are tube diameters, where 1 = !/8 inch, so T12 = 12/8 = I 1/2 inch diameter; T8 = 1 inch; T5 = 5/8".