Anyone w/ "All-Glass Aquarium" 20 G long hood-what's your light set-up?

[lauraj]

My 20 G long hood only provides 1 wpg. I was looking for a cheap way to increase the watts, and the suggestion was given to me to go with a compact fluorescent fixture. I'm having trouble finding one that fits over the glass portion of my "All-Glass Aquarium" 30 inch hood. The glass area is about 28 inches long and just under 4 inches wide.

I'm hoping there's someone on this forum that has this particular hood that would be willing to fill me in on how you increased your watts.

I'm OK sticking with the low light plants I have now, but want to better the chances of them flourishing, so no need for huge wattage here.

Thanks for the help!

 

[MrJG]

Lauraj: I'm just setting up a planted 20G long but I purchased mine without the hood so I've done a little research into what you are looking for...

I decided on this for me as a med-high light solution:
30" perfecto glass top $13.99 here or $~20.00 most retail places
and for lighting
Current USA Satellite 30" 65 Watt Power Compact


It also comes with a really awesome looking white lunar light built in. The only drawback to this particular setup is you really should buy a dual daylight bulb for it and take out the 50/50 with actinic which adds a bit to the cost. I'm not sure if this falls into the "cheap" category but I was a little hesitant to set up a DIY fixture on my 10G hex and got an 18W PC from the same company and I really like it. I just posted this so you would see that if your current hood is what is limiting your lighting options its fairly cheap to get an all glass top to replace it.

I've also heard good things about the coralife line of power compacts and I think the pricing is close to the same. No personal exp with them though.

Granted this is probably more light than you want you could maybe do a 24" 40 W fixture and use the feet that come with it to spread the light pattern out by having it elevated over the tank. There might possibly be dead spots on the ends with that particular idea though.

Edited to add: When I was looking into buying the tank I just did a search here and on plantedtank.net for 20G long and checked out what everyone else was using to get ideas.

 

[lauraj]

Thanks, MrJG! Just one question though. Don't know much about the different bulb types...I need to read up on them on the Foster and Smith site. Why would I need to replace the 50/50 actinic bulb as you suggested?

 

[MrJG]

The main reason is that the type of light produced by half of the bulb does nothing for freshwater plants. From my understanding the wavelength actinic lighting produces is a very narrow range that only helps photosynthesis in certain coral types. Otherwise its only used to tone down some of the yellow hue that some of the lower light spectrum bulbs create and allow you to see more/bring out more colors in saltwater corals. I claim to know nothing about saltwater tanks so hopefully I'm giving you the right info here.

 

[seastaar88]

on my 20G-L i have a coralife 65 watt 6700K power compact light for my tank which provides me with over 3 watts per gallon. it ran me about $50 at big al's but totally worth it. it fits perfectly ono top of the tank.

 

[lauraj]

So Seastaar, do you also have one of those total glass covers on the tank and the light sits on top with legs to bring it above the glass a few inches? I was checking out your signature. Years ago we had a tank with a small bass and a blue gill that my husband caught. It was pretty cool, but we needed a much bigger tank and we had to let them go. There's an outdoor store in our area called Cabella's...they have a huge tank with fish of the area in it....really cool!

Any chance I could see a picture of your light set up?

It was very helpful to see yours, MrJG. Thanks for all your info....I learned a lot!

 

[seastaar88]

they're building a cabella's in CT and i'm so stoked about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah i have a glass top underneath the lamp. i'm paranoid haha. the light sits on top of the tank with legs that hang onto the sides... i donnow i cant explain it.. but here are some pics.

 

[lauraj]

Thanks for the pictures....I get it now and know what to look for. You got a good deal on your light. They're more than $50 now, but it will be worth it.*SUNSMILE*