# $20 home depot desk lamp?



## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

I was planning on ordering a 36w kit from ahsupply.com for my 10 gallon, but would the 2 or even 3 of these that I can get for the same price be better?
They're $20ish at home depot. I know they're fairly popular for nano tanks.

Only thing I can think of is the reflectors are probably really low quality. Anyone have experience with these? How do they stack up?

Here's a picture of it I found online:








It uses a bulb that looks similar to this one, not sure if its that exact one or not:


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## Big_Fish (Mar 10, 2010)

I was perusing the journals and this new post literally jumped off the page at me... only a 5.5 gal tank, but it's got one of those hampton bay 24W fixtures..... nice looking tank too.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/journals/68115-lara-s-5-5-gallon-minuet.html#post533137


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## mocha2184 (Mar 13, 2007)

I have used this lamp twice for aquariums, once I broke down the lamp and used the parts to replace a bad ballast in a JBJ Nano Cube... It worked great, but it was much hotter than the stock lighting and it melted the bulb cover a bit...
The other time i just used the lamp as is to light up a 10G. Due to the squarish shape of the bulb it didn't spread light out over the whole tank, but there was a bright spot and my plants tended to grow towards it. I think it would be great for a smaller tank. Maybe two of them over a 10g would work.


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

mocha2184 said:


> I have used this lamp twice for aquariums, once I broke down the lamp and used the parts to replace a bad ballast in a JBJ Nano Cube... It worked great, but it was much hotter than the stock lighting and it melted the bulb cover a bit...
> The other time i just used the lamp as is to light up a 10G. Due to the squarish shape of the bulb it didn't spread light out over the whole tank, but there was a bright spot and my plants tended to grow towards it. I think it would be great for a smaller tank. Maybe two of them over a 10g would work.


I was considering using up to 3 of these.

Right now I just have a crappy aqueon incandescent hood with 2 spiral cfls in it - 30 watts.
I'm either going to replace it with the AH supply lights or 2-3 of these lights, so I'm just looking for comparisons.
I would likely strip the lights down to just the top part - the bulb and reflector (and maybe the casing around them)


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

Design of bulb eliminates need for reflector. Two would be more than enough for standard 10g.


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

I'm going with 3 and I think I want to find a way to make the reflector better - is there some kind of reflective paint or tape I can use?


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

Alright, here it is. 81 watts of power compact on the 10:
Taken by my phone, which has a terrible camera
I think I'm in a bacterial bloom atm, so its a bit cloudy. I still need to do the reflectors on the lights and attach them to something. They're just sitting on top of two scrap pieces of acrylic I cut to length.

Maybe my HM will grow lower now.


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## Chris Noto (Aug 10, 2005)

Good job. I've got one of these lamps myself, and was thinking about the same kind of project. 

One question, though. In the pictures you posted, all we get to see are the head units of the lamps. What did you do with the rest of the hardware? I'd love to see a few pics of that, as well, if you could. 

Thanks for posting!


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## jschall (Apr 13, 2009)

Chris Noto said:


> Good job. I've got one of these lamps myself, and was thinking about the same kind of project.
> 
> One question, though. In the pictures you posted, all we get to see are the head units of the lamps. What did you do with the rest of the hardware? I'd love to see a few pics of that, as well, if you could.
> 
> Thanks for posting!


Its all loose behind the tank.
I want to figure out a way to mount them so that I can get my hands into the tank easily, but its hard because the lights are very wide-angle so they have to be RIGHT above the water or a lot of intensity is lost, and they're pretty bulky and heavy (just like any solution for getting 80 watts of fluorescent over a 10 gallon would be) so it's very difficult. I'm thinking about pulling the bulbs out and doing my own reflector.

I have them all glued down to a piece of aluminum now, and I have the wires tied together, so it is easier now because I can pick the whole thing up, but I still need a better way.


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