Shop Lights

2577 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by epicfish, Jan 8, 2008

w1dude

Discussion Starter · Jan 8, 2008

I know this is probably a stupid question, but i am wondering if you can use the 4 foot dual floursent tube shop lights for a planted tank and see results? I have a 55g i am wanting to set up. Is that a big no no? It would be alot cheaper is my thought.

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Wasserpest

· #2 · Jan 8, 2008

You can, many ppl do, with okay results. Drawbacks are (non-optimal) shape of the reflectors, if there are reflectors at all. Shoplights often come with magnetic ballasts, electronic ones are better. Plus some are really ugly to put over your tank.

I used a shoplight with overdriven T8 bulbs before, but nowadays I prefer T5 bulbs with nice reflectors, building a little canopy isn't a big deal.

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jinx©

· #3 · Jan 8, 2008

I've actually had quite a few tanks over the years that had shop lights.
Most did an ok job but they are a far cry from putting the amount of light into a tank as the aquarium specific reflectors and bulbs available now days.

As Wasserpest pointed out, the reflectors are the biggest drawback normally. If you can find one with a decent reflector and some bulbs in the 6500-10,000K daylight range theyll work decent enough, or at least better than most lights supplied with generic factory hood setups.

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guppyramkrib2

· #4 · Jan 8, 2008

w1dude said:
I know this is probably a stupid question, but i am wondering if you can use the 4 foot dual floursent tube shop lights for a planted tank and see results? I have a 55g i am wanting to set up. Is that a big no no? It would be alot cheaper is my thought.

Not a stupid question at all.YES you can use a shop light on a 55.I have 3 40L's and a 55 with nothing but a cheap $10.00 shop light with 2 "cool" bulbs i change every 6-7 months. I don't have much $ to spend on equipment and have fine results.
A pic of one of my 40's last month. VERY low cost and low tec. No co2 etc

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dekstr

· #5 · Jan 8, 2008

I'm setting up a 20 gallon long and two 10 gallon with 4' shop lights at the moment.

For each dual bulb shoplight fixture: philips 2700k plant & aquarium light and philips 6500k daylight bulb

All the tanks.
From top to bottom row:
1. 4' shoplight, 2x 40w, 2700k/6500k
2. 18" undercabinet fluorescents, 3x 15w, 2700k/___K?
3. 4' shoplight, 2x 40w, 2700k/6500k

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ringram

· #6 · Jan 8, 2008

When I first got into planted tanks, I just had a 20H that I bought out of the paper. Then I bought a 2x24" shop light fixture at Home Depot for $15-20 and some Floragro bulbs (I think). It got decent results with that and DIY Co2. Some plants wouldn't grow, but some fluorished -- Wisteria, swords, java ferns, some stem plants. Foreground plants never did too well though.

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dekstr

· #7 · Jan 8, 2008

ringram said:
When I first got into planted tanks, I just had a 20H that I bought out of the paper. Then I bought a 2x24" shop light fixture at Home Depot for $15-20 and some Floragro bulbs (I think). It got decent results with that and DIY Co2. Some plants wouldn't grow, but some fluorished -- Wisteria, swords, java ferns, some stem plants. Foreground plants never did too well though.

I agree that foreground plants don't thrive as well with shoplights. I think it has something to do with the light intensity and focus.

As far as I know, shoplights are designed to spread light to a large area--so most of the light doesn't actually go into the tank unless you hide it under a canopy w/ some type of good reflector. As well, the light is distributed over the length of the tube, so its intensity is not as strong as compared to power compacts, HO, VHO or MH even if the wattage is the same. This might have something to do with worse growth for light demanding plants.

Other factors that come into play (from the top of my head) include the light wavelength usable for photosynthesis and kelvin temperature (to a certain extent).

However, I have no problem so far growing most plants with shoplights. I find that plants adapt to many conditions that are not 100% ideal. They might grow thinner/skinnier though. But for the $$$, it's quite effective.

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epicfish

· #8 · Jan 8, 2008

dekstr said:
I agree that foreground plants don't thrive as well with shoplights. I think it has something to do with the light intensity and focus.

As far as I know, shoplights are designed to spread light to a large area--so most of the light doesn't actually go into the tank unless you hide it under a canopy w/ some type of good reflector. As well, the light is distributed over the length of the tube, so its intensity is not as strong as compared to power compacts, HO, VHO or MH even if the wattage is the same. This might have something to do with worse growth for light demanding plants.

Other factors that come into play (from the top of my head) include the light wavelength usable for photosynthesis and kelvin temperature (to a certain extent).

However, I have no problem so far growing most plants with shoplights. I find that plants adapt to many conditions that are not 100% ideal. They might grow thinner/skinnier though. But for the $$$, it's quite effective.

Shoplights are usually T8 or T12 bulbs, which are less efficient (not talking about HO/VHO) than (gasp) PC or T5 bulbs due to their large diameter, so even at the same wattage, there's less light. Also, like dekstr said, they're designed to spread light over a large area, so they're not the best fixtures to get light straight down into your tank.

But again, this doesn't mean they can't be used...they're just not as efficient as some fixtures made specifically to light aquariums.

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