On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:45:13 -0800, Larry Blanchard
wrote:

Thrifty wrote:

Yes.**I*replaced*all*the*bulbs*in*my*reflectors*wi th*them*and*they
work fine.**There's*also*a*lot*less*heat*-*important*on*goldfish
tanks.


I thought they might give off less heat.**I*am*going*to*try*a*couple
on a ten gallon and see if they are strong**enough*to*grow*plants.*I
bet*I could get 4 of them into a 20 gallon I have.

Go to the fish department at Walmart and get two of the 10 watt plugin
fluorescents they have there. They have U-shaped tubes instead of
spiral ones. I have two in a 10 gallon jungle :-).

If you don't have access to a Walmart, BigAls has some also, but they
cost a little more.

I plan on putting 4 in a 29 high (30" hood) but don't know if they'd fit
in a 24" hood - it'd be tight.

PS I plan on using aluminum flashing to make the reflectors for the 30"
hood.

I'll second that. I've used the long, approximately 6 or 7 inches,
u-shaped screw in fluorescents both in a plastic rain gutter hood as
well as in an old aquarium strip light from which I removed the guts
and installed a simple pull chair 2 socket fixture. Lining the inside
of the hood with foil or mylar or that really expensive reflector
material they sell in the aquarium catalogs gives pretty even coverage
throughout the tank. If you go rain gutter, simply leaving the inside
white will reflect the light pretty well. I suppose if I measured the
reflectance with a light meter I would find some parts of the tank
brighter than other parts, but that's true anyhow when using strip
lights - the back of the tank is brighter than the front, or the other
way around depending on where you place the fixture - and it's very
true when looking at how nature does it. I also use traditional
fluorescent tubes as well as coralife compact fluorescent lights,
different lights work differently for different tanks. I have a tank
with all albino corys and Espie rasboras. I'm using two screw in
Coralife plant lights. I was initially ticked off when I discovered
the bulbs were GroLux pink, but it's turned out that they reflect
beautifully off the fish, especially the subtle colors of the
rasboras. The screw ins are also manufactured to produce plant
friendly light temperatures, full spectrum, 5500K, etc. They are more
likely to be found in aquarium catalogs and plant catalogs. I've found
the best selection in farm and greenhouse supply catalogs.

-- Mister Gardener