Home made lights from Home Depot?

I've calculated the costs of doing it two ways:

The home depot shop lights that hold 2 - 48" bulbs are just under 20 with tax. So that's 60-80. If you do it correctly, you'll need to add in the cost of water resistant end caps. This raises the price significantly. Also, the shop lights use tar ballasts that get very hot, not electronic ballasts.

Ahsupply.com has a 4 X 55 watt retrofit compact fluorescent kit for 124.99. This gives you all the mounting hardware, endcaps, electronic ballasts, etc. all in one kit for 220 watts for not much more than you'd pay to do the home depot version.

You can't skimp on the bulbs, so they'll run you the same 14-15 either way.

You may need to build a custom hood. There are plans where you build it so the front half tips up and back so you can access the tank for feeding and cleaning.

Q

It's pretty much a matter of personal choice, but 192 watts (2x96) is less than 220 (4x55). I think there's more selection in 55 watt bulbs as opposed to 96 watt bulbs, but I'm not certain.

You can by good electronic ballasts at Home Depot, and sockets for the tubes, and incorporate them into your own custom built hoods. That may be a better route than using the el cheapo "shop lite" fixtures, with their correspondingly cheap ballasts.

I've been using the Home Depot shop lights for several years for growing garden plants. They are ~$8 (not $20), and they DO have an electronic ballast, albeit a cheap one. They will happily run T8/T10/T12 bulbs. Out of a dozen I have around here, I've had two fail in the past 3 years...but for $8 I just buy another.

The Phillips Daylight Deluxe bulbs are cheaper than 'real' aquarium bulbs, if you want to be really frugal. I have not tried those on aquatic plants yet, but they should be good enough.

I also have made one into a 36" lamp for my 30g Breeder tank by re-homing it's guts into an old 36" fixture. Works great. I have 2 ~30W T10 bulbs over the 12" deep 30g; 2 amazon swords, 3 java ferns, 4 anubias, 3 crypts. All are doing well.

hmm...these are 5" wide, three (6 tubes) would give you ~1.5Watts/gallon. That would give you a wide choice of plants...and you will probably find it to be plenty bright, too.

I'm planning to use a couple of shop lites for a 48" 75G tank, too.

--Don