Lighting Question

[silverarowana]

Can anyone tell me the different of proper light(not Tubes) for Aquarium and light that you can buy from hardware shop.? My friend is electrician and he told me it is the same just change the tubes. I saw many aquarium Shops using normal light, but they just change from normal tubes to be aquarium tubes.

[ashhhh]

ok, from my understanding of your question... :? so here goes....
you want to know if there is any difference between buying a flourescent light setup from the hardware as compared to an LFS.....?

there is a big difference in price, but from aan LFS they are purpose built

hardware store i.e bunnings do sell the bare batten flouros, but as the name suggests, they are just that a bare batten with no housing or reflector to direct the light into the tank...
These are great if you have a timber hood as they are cheap and easy to screw into the underside of the hood - and relatively easy to wire-in.

The lfs ones are great if you dont have or want a hood - they come complete within a housing and a reflector...but they are more expensive than the above described 'bare batten', but once again they are purpose built....

I have seen a diy reflector setup and was quite simple to make if you are up to it

all it involved was a length gutter cut to size with stopends in either end, turned upside down and a bare batten flouro installed into it, paint the gutter the desired colour on the outside, and paint the inside with chrome coloured paint......voila

anyways hope this helps :D

[Savage_roo]

i  just got a blank from bunning yesterday
It cost $25 for a four foot
I just wired it up with my old cord
I'm building a hood soon so I just got a bit of aluminan foil folded it in half and layed the blank on its side and lated the foil over so the light goes into the tank and not in your eyes this is just till i build the hood

[bryce2003]

You can also glue alfoil to the inside of your hood making sure the most reflective side is facing down.Just means you have to keep the hood down for asthetics but a very easy and extremely cheap way to direct light. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Bryce.

[nemo1981]

that's what i did in my 6 foot hood.
i just got two 2 foot double battens from bunnings and wired them up with a cut extension cord.
easy as.

i also thought about chopping a bit of pvc storm water pipe down the guts with a saw and using that for a reflector.
dunno if it'll be a pain in the arse but i'll try it anyway :wink: