On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 05:34:11 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:

Richard Sexton wrote:
For my 2.5 G tanks I use 13W bulbs. Each tank gets half of an
AHSUPPLY 26 watt bright kit. I just build a new hood from rain gutter
parts, I like it so far.


Seven watter per gallon ought to work :-)

I tried rain gutter too, white plastic stuff. The problem I had is the
heat from the lights (not insignificant) makes it hard, brittle
and over time turns the inside brown. I ened up grabbing a bunhc of
cheap incandescent hood from garage sales, they have a metal plate
to diddipate the heat. You can scavange a bit of the otherwise waster light
if you add some reflector material.

I'm doing the same for my 2gal - using the incandescent hood that came
with the tank. I've got the fixture sitting on eggcrate so that the
tank evaporates more water to keep from overheating.


The incandescent hoods that came with my small tanks were pretty much
junk. The fluorescent lights melted holes in them.

the bright kit comes with a metal reflector, so I didn't need to do
anything there. I've only had the first one running for a week or so,
I'll wait to see how it works out. The plastic is PVC, so it will
probably get brittle over time, if too badly or not, we'll see.


--
Charles

Does not play well with others.