Need some recommendations for new lighting

aunt kymmie

Hi Everyone-

I picked up a 75 gl today and have decided that the two fixtures on my 100gl will work better on this new tank so I need some help for lighting on the 100gl. The 100 gl is five feet long and the current two fixtures are 24" across and now I'm wondering if there isn't a five foot long fixture or am I going to have to go DIY? I am NOT a DIY gal by any stretch of the imagination. The B/F is but he's not really being to supportive on the new tank, as in, "Oh yes, you really had to have another tank" and then walks away rolling his eyes.

Is there such thing as a five foot long fixture? That will take energy efficient 6500 K bulbs? Maybe Home Depot or Lowes, something along the lights of a shop light, that will do the job? I've seen the rain gutter DIY lights, and while I really like them (can even be painted to match) the retrofit wiring business is way over my head. Help?

iamntbatman

You might want to have Byron take a look at this as I'm pretty sure one of his tanks is five feet long. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a five foot fixture but I have seen plenty of 30" fixtures, so two of those should be perfect. Your tank is acrylic and has those weird sort of braces across the top, right?

aunt kymmie

It's acrylic (good memory!) and it has two openings on the top (no braces) and the openings measure 7" by 23". The lighting fixtures currently on the tank measure 7" by 24" and I'm not kidding when I tell you that once when I was moving them to feed the tank a fixture fell into the tank while it was on! It immediately shorted out and destroyed the fixture. Expensive lesson on being more careful. For this exact reason is why I want to put one single fixture over the top. Every day when I feed the tank I have to be ultra careful to make sure this doesn't happen again. I tried laying down a section of plexi glass under the fixtures, then egg crate under the fixtures, nothing works well as far as these openings and the way in which I must feed the tank. Hanging the fixtures is not an option due to how the tank is situated. What a PITA!

zof

Your best bet would probably be to go to your LFS and see if they can custom order you a 60" hood, researching manufactures web sites I can find a product every once in a while but can never find where to order. I'm sure they sell shop lights 60" long which will probably be way cheaper the hardest part would be to find the 6500k bulbs but it may not prove an issue.

iamntbatman

Well, if you do a wood canopy you may as well get a standard 48" shop light with regular T8 bulbs and mount it in there. There's no way you could put a 30" light over each opening? They'd be less likely to fall in that way and would cover the whole tank pretty well.