Will these lights work?

equus_peduus

equus_peduus

Constantly Confused
May 8, 2007
110
0
16
Bay Area, CA
Got a 55-ish gallon tank recently. The light that came with it isn't very useful for plants (single strip bulb), and the housing for the light is cracked (and barely bigger than the single bulb), so while it's still functional, I don't think I want to try retrofitting it.

It's a 4ft x 15in x 17in tank. I want to keep relatively undemanding plants and move some of my bigger fish over into it. No CO2, but probably will fertilize (but need to do more reading on this).

I'm in the process of figuring out what I want/need for the tank. Ran across this ad on craigslist. I'm on a budget, so at this point don't need the best, just adequate (better can wait til after I've graduated, have a permanent location, and a job). Given that I don't have a current light that I think would work for retrofitting, the AH Supply route would also involve buying a canopy as well, so rather more money than I want to put into it at this point. Or I could go with what I have and use the large pile of plastic plants that came with the tank -.-;

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/grd/371041322.html

Contacted the guy, he will sell each double strip for $20. I was thinking getting one or two strips (2-4 bulbs = 80-160W -> 1.5-3wpg). He lives in my town, so not a big deal to go look and see if they'd work as far as something I can place on top of the tank. From some preliminary looking around, it looks like most double shop lights of that length are going to be in the $20-30ish range, +/- bulbs, so this seems to me to be a decent deal, but since I don't have any experience in buying these things, I thought I'd ask.
 
The pros of doing this though, is that the nearest Home Depot is about 15-20min away (and when I went a couple weeks ago, I didn't see anything that immediately popped out at me as being something I could put on top of a tank, and mostly didn't come with bulbs for a similar price), the nearest Lowes is who knows where (if there is one, probably Sac = at least 20-30 min drive away). The cons, of course, involve whether this is worth it at all, and if these light strips work as well as he says, and if the bulbs truly are "nearly new." (or more to the point, what exactly that means)

I've looked at AH Supply - if I get a canopy, that's $40+, and the bright kit of whatever size probably at least $60. So if I already had a light strip to retrofit, that'd be great, but since I don't, I'm looking at minimum $100, which I can't afford right now. I still have to get a filter and substrate, not even counting plants and any fish I decide to add (probably will just use some of the fish from my current tank cos it's a bit overstocked now, and get some free cories from a friend who breeds them). So I'm planning on doing this whole thing fairly slowly anyway, but if I find a good deal for something that'll work for a year or two, I should have a job after that, and be able to upgrade to whatever will work better then.

So the question is, would it be adequate? Or is there something better I can get for the same amount of money (and not $60 more money - I grant you that AH Supply is probably a great deal for the price, but that means I have to have the price first)
 
Save your money, pay bills, put it into savings, etc... Go with fake plants until you can afford the more expensive side of this hobby.
 
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