10 gallon Lighting

HAMsmith · Post by **HAMsmith** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:22 pm

Is anyone selling lighting for a 10 gallon?

I'm looking for something like the Coralife 96w quad fixture. I would like to stay on the cheap side too, maybe 50ish bucks.

I tried to use the setup shown below and it just isn't working out. I've blown two of the bulbs in two weeks and the output (when working) is less than stellar. The setup is a standard AGA hood (made for incandescents) with Coralife 20w 50/50 screw-in compacts.

Thanks,

Martin

Amphiprion · Post by **Amphiprion** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:26 pm

The 96 w quad tubes are alright. What exactly are you trying to do with the tank?

HAMsmith · Post by **HAMsmith** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:12 pm

It is a tank I have in my office. It has zoos, mushrooms, GSP, button polyps in it currently. I might want something like a frogspawn as the centerpiece coral.

The tank will also have 1 or 2 fish, most likely small gobies.

It is mostly just a fun tank that I put together with some non-reefing coworkers.

Amphiprion · Post by **Amphiprion** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:37 pm

Sounds like a plan to me.

redpheonix · Post by **redpheonix** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:26 pm

You could manufacture a small canopy and still use the 2 20w 50/50's and put a small marineglow or power glow bulb in there. I had a 2.5 gal nano that had probably 10-15 different frags in it and it had 8 wpg in it using a 50/50 20w. you could buid a small hood or canopy and use the double fixture you already have and buy a small floresscent strip lite from lowes for like 10 bucks and then get a power or marine glow. should give you more than adequate liighting and not produce to much heat and still have a good viewing spectrum.

HAMsmith · Post by **HAMsmith** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 1:32 pm

I like the canopy idea. I may do that in some form or fashion.

One of my 50/50s went out so I replaced it with a cheapo GE 6,500k bulb for the time being.

Here is what the tank looks like now with the 20w 50/50 bulb on the left and a 13w 6,500k bulb on the right. For comparison the pumps should be the same color as they are identical Maxi-Jets.

redpheonix · Post by **redpheonix** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:57 pm

i like the 50/50 light better... but i have used them before... they seem to have better color and are still bright... thats why when i had a little larger tank i added the florescent just to add to the spectrum.