# Spiffy new tank



## Dryn (Sep 6, 2007)

I have a long 20g planted tank in the living room, but I want to upgrade to longer tank. I think a 33g breeder will do the trick. It is 4ft long and only 12"wide and 12"deep. Perfect for me.

I'm going to build a stand out of 2x4s and luan coverings painted either black or grey. The stand is going to be 4Lx2Wx3H with two drawers and cabinet doors. I don't have a problem building the stand. 

It is the lighting I have reservations about. I could order two dual strip power compact flourescent lights from coralife for just over $100 and it would meet my needs, but this is a hobby and I would like to build my own, especially if I could do it for cheaper. I want to build pendent lighting, suspended over the tank via, metal conduit curved over the tank and into the stand for support (~$20). 

At Lowe's there is a double 40 watt T12 shoplight strip for $8.99 and I'm thinking about two of these with 2 ott-lite (plant bulbs) and 2 daylight bulbs to give me 4.8W per gallon. I would paint them to match the stand and line the inside with reflective duct tape (very heat resistant).

This puts me at about $45 for lighting, but I don't know if I need ballasts or starters or something. The ballasts are like $30-40 each! I don't know about starters or how much they cost. Are the ballast or starters necessary? I helped my dad put in shop lights a decade ago and we just wired them into the ceiling w/o any noticable balasts and they work fine. All the DIY threads I read had ballast installed.

If this don't work, could I use two halogen flood lights? Would they need ballasts? If so, I could use them and install a ballast in the cabinet, and it would only be like $50.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Any shop light is completely self contained. It most likely has a magnetic ballast, and possibly has starters for the bulbs, but as I recall, most don't. In any case, you just hang them, connect the three wires and turn them on.

That aluminum duct tape isn't very good for a reflector, since it turns dark pretty quickly, from corrosion I assume. I'm in the midst of trying to make a reflector for a pair of CFL bulbs in a 10 gallon tank hood, and the reflector is still the stumbling block.


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## evercl92 (Aug 14, 2006)

I used reflective tape on my fixtures, though it wasn't duct tape. It was called "weatherproofing repair tape". Your shop lights should be self contained (ballast within the system). At only 12in deep, fluorescents should do you fine. I'm in the process of setting up a 30breeder using T5 lighting - I think it will be more than plenty. 

Be sure to check the 'plant bulbs' you are referring to, before purchasing. Some of the ones that I've bought give off an awful pink hue, and really didn't seem to do the plants much good.


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## j_m_lizard (Oct 16, 2007)

Mylar from a hydroponics store works well. Here's a link to an online store that sells it: http://www.hydroponics.net/c/54 I found that in like 3 seconds of Googling, so look around, I'm sure there's lots on the internet. Also, pure white is a surprisingly good reflector.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

j_m_lizard said:


> Mylar from a hydroponics store works well. Here's a link to an online store that sells it: http://www.hydroponics.net/c/54 I found that in like 3 seconds of Googling, so look around, I'm sure there's lots on the internet. Also, pure white is a surprisingly good reflector.


White paint does reflect a lot of light, but it is diffuse reflection - not directed in any one direction. A mirror-like surface gives specular reflection - directed in a specific direction (angle of reflection equals angle of incidence). So, if you are just making the inside of a hood more reflective white paint is a good way to do it. But if you are trying for a parabolic or faceted reflector to redirect light down into the tank, a mirror type reflector is much better. I haven't tested this but theory says this is how it works.

Mylar should be nearly perfect for this use. But, several people have posted that the aluminum coating flakes off and the mylar gets brittle after a year or so. I may try mylar again, but I'm still trying to polish a sheet of aluminum to see if that makes a good reflector - this with no polishing tools, just elbow grease.


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## Dryn (Sep 6, 2007)

Cool. Thanks for all the info.

The duct tape I was referring to is foil duct tape. It runs like $2.00 for a 25ft roll. Yeah, I suppose the humidity may make it flake off, but it was designed to withstand extremely high temperatures and adverse conditions, so I think it will do fine. If I do have to replace it, oh well, it was just $2.00.

I didn't get a very close look at the shop lights (they were at the top of a 20ft display) but they were quite deep, and probably hold a ballast, or starter, or something ... I hope. I'll run two of them to get my lighting = 4.8 Watts per gallon @ 12" deep.

I have used the otte-lite plant bulbs before. I had one on a 29g tall tank and was able to get good growth and coloring out of all my plants including a nice thicket of Cabomba carolina. Yeah, it does look a little pink, but one of my coralife bulbs I have now is pink. I kinda like the look of them combined with some daylight spec. bulbs.


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