shop lights?

[Yoemen]

Is there any reason not to use shop lights with aquariums? I was looking today at lowes and I can get a 1 bulb 40 wat 4 ' with reflectors and a 2 bulb 40 watt 4' with reflectors for about 25 $ I then will need to buy the bulbs but they have 6500 T-12s for $5. So for $40 I can get me 120 watts of 6500 lighting for my 55 gallon aquarium with no DIY.

I discovered this looking into ODNO. However this would be with magnetic ballasts, so I can't odno them.

So is there any reason I shouldn't do this?

 

[Hound]

There isn't really a reason this won't work, but you have to keep in mind a couple of things. First you won't want to have water spash onto those bulbs / fixtures. If you have glass covers on top of the tank that shouldn't be a big issue. The second thing to consider is how you are planning to mount the fixures. The further from the water the less light is going to penetrate to the substrate. I actually use a kitchen light fixture over my 50 gallon tank that has a valance covering it. I have it mounted about 4" above the water and the 80 watts it provides is enough for low light plants.

Also I don't know which t-12 bulbs Lowes has, but I know Home Depot carries Philips 6500k / 2350 lumens bulbs for about $6 per 2 pack and Wal-Mart has some GE 6500k / 3050 lumens bulbs for like $5 per 2 pack.

 

[wesleydnunder]

I use the shop lights on a 55 with the 6500K lamps. Work great.

Mark

 

[RockabillyChick]

i have a 48" shop light on my 20g Long with two T8 6000k bulbs and i am getting great growth and color on my pink plants

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

glad to hear that it works. I have a covering on it. As for the lights. I got the fancy GE Plant/Aquarium 6500 lights, so they were a little more.

 

[Cathy G]

I have twin 40wt full spectrum tubes over my 50g long. I hung the fixture on black decorative chains and attached the chains to the shop light fixture with these locking hooks. SO... I can unlatch the hooks and raise them up higher on the chains when I want to clean my tank and still have lights to see what I am doing. They work great, oh I also spray painted my shoplight fixture black so it goes with my black trimmed tank and my black wrought iron chains. I also have a glass cover... you really need it.
Cathy

 

[Mgamer20o0]

There isn't really a reason this won't work, but you have to keep in mind a couple of things. First you won't want to have water spash onto those bulbs / fixtures. If you have glass covers on top of the tank that shouldn't be a big issue. The second thing to consider is how you are planning to mount the fixures. The further from the water the less light is going to penetrate to the substrate. I actually use a kitchen light fixture over my 50 gallon tank that has a valance covering it. I have it mounted about 4" above the water and the 80 watts it provides is enough for low light plants.

Also I don't know which t-12 bulbs Lowes has, but I know Home Depot carries Philips 6500k / 2350 lumens bulbs for about $6 per 2 pack and Wal-Mart has some GE 6500k / 3050 lumens bulbs for like $5 per 2 pack.

i have had shop lights over my open tank for years. i never once had a problem. i got the 2 t12 fixtures for like 5 bux. i think you should spend the extra money and go with the T8 bulbs. thats what i have. here is a page on lighting that might explain things better.

http://woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/Lighting.htm

 

[coupedefleur]

Like they said, shoplights work fine as long as you've got something between them and the water.

The ballasts on most shop lights are really cheap, and a lot of them are set up to only use the "miser" bulbs that put out ugly light. I suspect the bulb life is shorter with them as well. I get a 2-bulb T-8 electronic ballast from Lowes, and re-wire the lights with that. I screw the ballast to the top of the light, so it's out in the open to cool. They're in the basement, so I don't care about the looks.

I've also gotten 4-bulb ballasts and rigged up a double shop light fixture. There isn't much price difference between a 2-bulb and a 4-bulb.