Good, Cheap 24" Light fixture???

I am also looking into cheap lighting for my 20 gallon tall and I have found online that you can use a strip light or shop light that they sale at lowes or home depot. Get a piece of glass cut to put on top of tank and use the shop light above. I am not sure yet how to put the light if you just place on top or if you have to hang it.
You can go on lowes and they have a 24" for around 12 dollars but I am not sure if it comes with a bulb or not.
I also thought about building a wooden canopy and getting a under cabinet light and screwing it into the canopy. That would not be expensive as long as you can have someone build the canopy for you.
Good luck
I will post back when I finally decide what I'm going to do
 
if your not big on the DIY lighting, you can pick up an all All-Glass Aquariums Twin Tube fluorescent strip lights, which give you a total of 30w. not a whole lot but you'll be able to manage low light-med light plants pretty good. costs $39, but with shipping should clock under $50.
 
The shoplites at lowes and home depot do not come with bulbs. But the GE daylights 6500k bulbs are quite good and only like 4 or 5 bucks.

However the shoplites in the 24" length will require you to rig a good reflector.

65w is actually just the minimum needed to keep a 20g high well lit for plants. I put a 65w pc on my 20g long and thought it would rock. It really didn't. I got great growth, yes, but it was also very shady at the bottoms and I ended up with that tree-trunk look. I opted to put a 48" shoplite on along with it, raising my over-tank watts to 115. Now my plants are pearling like crazy and I no longer have issues with spindly legs.

Okay I go on tangents...anyway, if you are looking to keep a low-light tank in a 20g high, I would aim for at least 2wpg. The reason is of course the distance between the bulbs and the substrate. You would be surprised at how much light is lost in the water. And the only light that filters through a body of water is the blue spectra - the algae producing spectra. That is why higher light is important on taller tanks.
 
Thanks.

Could you give me some pics or info on the daylight or shoplite bulbs. I will be going to Orchard's Suppl Hardware. So, fo the DIY lighting, what will I need? Is this all I need? 1 empty hood, wiring, 2 bulb sockets, and 2 fluorescent bulbs. Would 2 bulbs at around 20 watts each be suitable for my 20 gallon high??? Will low light plants be fine in this? That would be around 2 wpg, is that medium light or what? Also, is it fine if there is some space between the bulbs? How should I attach the new bulbs and bulb sockets onto my hood? Just glue them or screw them in or what? How far apart should they be? Please post pics of you own DIY light system :) Also, doesn't more light mean more algae?
 
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Will any fluorescent bulbs grow live plants?

I'm doing the DIY lighting, so I was thinking around 40 or 50 watts for my 20 gal high tank. Will any bulbs be fine, or do they have to be some specific type?
 
I got a ton of OEM lights forsale.
 
Oem?

What's that?
 
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