I have no experiance with actual assembly of lighting systems, but have noticed while at Home Depot, picking up cheap fixtures, that they sell all of the individual parts to assemble a fixture. I'm curious about just how hard it would be to get a couple of the end pieces (where the bulb rests) the ballast, and just size things as appropriate in a diy hood?? when I have been assembling the fixtures I have, they sure dont look like there is much to them, and sure would seem to be a cheaper method of building a hood then even buying the twin strip shop lights.. just looking for feedback.
Constructing Flourescent lights
- Thread starter Steve Ballee'
- Start date
you can get an already assembled twin tube shop light for $7. the diy hoods are pretty easy to do with some lumber and a little bit of carpentry skill. good luck
I dont like the pre assembled lights they use a cheap balist that are likely to hum eventualy.
The balist kit and end caps are the way to go
IMHO
The balist kit and end caps are the way to go
IMHO
This is what i have done. I got the kit for the lights at my LFS ($65.00 CDN x2) I got the plans from the net for the rest of the cabnet. It took me 3 hours to build it and 3 days to finish it (varnishing and painting) I hope this pic works
Thanks for starting this thread Steve. I also wanted to eventually build my own hoods. Dabbler that is a really nice hood. Great worksmanship from what I can see.
Okay, is there any problem with running these lights that you put together yourself in a moist environment?
Any special ballast you can get from Home Depot, Lowes, etc. that will work better than others?
I have glass over tanks but want to make sure. Would love to do a similar setup on all of our tanks.
Any special ballast you can get from Home Depot, Lowes, etc. that will work better than others?
I have glass over tanks but want to make sure. Would love to do a similar setup on all of our tanks.
The setup that I installed, I bought the fixtures from the LFS and they are made for this type of enviroment. They are called GLO-MAT 2 ELECTRONIC BALLAST KIT. I put 2 of these in my hood. You can get them in different wattages and one and 2 bulb configuration. You can find them at Big Al's.
http://www.bigalsonline.com
http://www.bigalsonline.com
This sounds like a good idea. I have been doing research on lighting for my soon-to-be plant tank and would like any info I can get my grubby paws on.
Thanks!
Thanks!