Buiding a fish room-Lighting question...

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

Not sure where to put this thread, but illl try it here...

I intend on moving my "fishroom" (which is basically the whole house) down to the basement...Now my basement is this 100 year old dungeon, strait out of Silence of the Lambs...I have 2 puny windows I couldnt even shove a cat out of and that is it...I intend on building a separate insulated room within the basement, but I am stuck on the lighting issue...My breeder tanks have no lights, just plain glass tops..What kind of lighting would I need in order to fullfill the spectrum required for my Bettas? If I am not mistaken, certain types of light enable living creatures to utilize vitamins and minerals...I wouldnt want a bunch of vit. D. deficency fish on my hands...Also, how many hours should they be left on???

Oh, hubby is going to just LOVE this project lol

Any imput is greatly appreciated-as always

 

[Hannys_Papa]

I am no specialist on this issue but i just recently did hours upon hours of research (for many weeks) concerning aquarium lighting.
A good and economic thing would probably be to get some shoplight fixtures from HD, Lowes etc and use high CRI full spectrum bulbs. (i think there are GE and a few other companies that make these and they are not expensive compared to "real" aquarium lights. Thats why many people use them directly over their tanks)
The CRI value describes how something looks under that light compared to being viewed under natural light. The higher the better (85-90).
At least thats what i i'd do.... now lets hope someone who really knows what their talking about will give you some ideas.

 

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

I was sort of leaning that way HP Thankyou for the imput...Lighting is one of those areas that is still kind of a mystery to me lol!