Help with custom light hood

[reignman40]

I need some help in a good design for a custom light hood. I have a standard 20 gall tank with live plants and was hoping someone could give me some direction on a nice looking but cheap way to light it. My current thoughts are using 3 18" bulbs at 15w each which would give me 45 watts of lighting.

Thank you,
Curtis

 

[Mykayel]

I bought a 2x55 kit from http://www.ahsupply.com/ You might want to go a similar route instaed of trying to fit 3 bulbs under there. One 36 watt with their reflector will probably get you more light.

 

[reignman40]

Mykayel that is a pretty good setup. I like that they provide links to DIY hoods for their equipment as well.

Since you're actually running this type of set up I wonder. Do you just have one piece of glass that you put over the canopy area? Do these lights give off any heat that may cause problems?

Thanks for the help,
Curtis

 

[Mykayel]

Actually, I just put a pice of glass over the lights themselves, I built it into the canopy. I wanted to be able to lift the door to the canopy and not have to lift/slide a pice of glass to feed the fish or do maintance. I just finished it today so I can't really comment about heat, but I took a few pictuers of it http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53745

 

[chefkeith]

I use AH Supply light kits also. I don't use any glass tops on my tanks to protect the lights (IMO, the lights don't need protection unless there is something splashing water in the tank). I have no heat issues because the surface water dissipates any heat given off by the lights.

 

[neon7]

if you whantto build it yourself 24in. 20w will fit perfectly I have 4 over my 20 planted 1000 light bulbs.com or fulsum.com might help.