Garage lights??

Will simple flourescent garage lightning work for a 55gallon fish tank? Walmart sells it for $10 for a 48" overhead lightning. And a plant/aquarium light bulb will cost an extra $6. 40watts btw.

That's what I use on my FW planted 75g is a double 4" fixture with the plant/aquarium bulbs.

K thanks. Screw Petco and their $60 for lights. Wally world is $16 ;) or $10 without the specific plant/aquarium lights

philuponthepho wrote:

Will simple flourescent garage lightning work for a 55gallon fish tank? Walmart sells it for $10 for a 48" overhead lightning. And a plant/aquarium light bulb will cost an extra $6. 40watts btw.

is this a FO (fish only), or FOWLR (fish only with live rock)? if this is the case you will be fine but, if you are going to have corals, or anemones then the answer would be no. corals and nems require better lightng but fish only tanks arent that particular. also i woudl suggest if this is a fish only tank DONT use the cheap shop light fixtures, i have had a few of htese and they have ALL given out within a couple of months and are not very reliable. spend a little extra for a better fixture, also do not use normal bulbs (those you get like kitchen and bath or planted aquarium bulbs), instead use 1 10,000k T-12 bulb, and 1 420 to 460nm ACTINIC the actinic bulb will help bring out the color in your fish.

Useful Post. Thanks for sharing.

R2 Ranch wrote:

Useful Post. Thanks for sharing.

no problem glad it helps you. for fish only a NO 9normal output light is fine juat make sure you use 10,000k and 420 to 460NM actinic bulbs. you might be able to get away with keeping low light corals or corals that do nto require a lot of light but in these instances be prepared to feed daily to every other day (sun corals are a prime example of a low light type coral but most people decide they do nto want it after getting one due to it needing constant attention with the feedings)

if you look at the show and tell thread at the pic of my 90 when it had the naso tang and the volitan lion in it, pay attention to th elight on it . it was one of those wal mart shop lights, it however worked about 50% of the time and i even replaced it 3 or 4 times and still had the same reliability issues.

yea, as long as you arent lighting corals you should be good with the bulbs lord raptor mentioned

Ok thanks alot! It was just for a few plants and fish. My blood parrots are starting to lose color lately. Is it the food I'm feeding it, or the lighting? I have T-12 lights and feeding it regular cichlid pellets/tropical fish flakes. The dude I bought them from fed them a very bright red pellets and tried to sell them to me. It had a picture of a flowerhorn on it and was in all chinese letters.

philuponthepho wrote:

Ok thanks alot! It was just for a few plants and fish. My blood parrots are starting to lose color lately. Is it the food I'm feeding it, or the lighting? I have T-12 lights and feeding it regular cichlid pellets/tropical fish flakes. The dude I bought them from fed them a very bright red pellets and tried to sell them to me. It had a picture of a flowerhorn on it and was in all chinese letters.

ok so this is a freshwater tank? i assumed it was a saltwater tank since it is in the saltwater section. ok for freshwater the same thing applies though a normal output fixture will work, however your bulb selction will vary slightly (for saltwater use 1 10,000k and 1 actinic) i am not sure what bulbs you would use for freshwater but i will let you know that they have a blue or purple colored bulb 9when it is on anywya) that will bring out the colors in the fish. i would suggest anything from a 6500k to a 10,000k bulb (my ppreference is to a 10,000k bulb because a 6500k is more in the yellow spektrum whereas the 10,000k is more in the blue spekrtrum

Ok, I'm using the slightly yellow colored light bulbs.

Oh, and there was no lightning section for freshwater.

And! I'm getting a shark for Christmas YAY!

philuponthepho wrote:

Oh, and there was no lightning section for freshwater.

you just need to post it in the general section LOL. a 10,000k bulb will be more white in color but if you look at the color spektrum of teh bulb it will be in the blue range. i recently change my t5 bulbs and went with geismans and their bulb is a 15,000k as opposed to a 10,000k, here is a pic off of teh geisman boxes for you to give you an idea, the Krating is above the picture.


6,000k



15,000k



if you pay attention to the chart you will see that the 15,00k has a lot more blue whereas the 6,000k has more yellow

lol those r my lights

philuponthepho wrote:

lol those r my lights

not likely the pics are T5HO bulbs which are smaller diameter than a t-12, also a T-12 bulb is 40 watts these are 54 watts

these bulbs will not fit in a shop light fixture.

I know, I was asking "if" I should get them because they were so cheap. Just a backup.

philuponthepho wrote:

I know, I was asking "if" I should get them because they were so cheap. Just a backup.

they would not work for you with a shop light fixture, also the 15,000k bulb was 33.00. you would have to have a T5 high output fixture or a T5 HO retrofit kit to use these type of bulbs. my advise would be to find yourself a T5 light fixture with 4 bulbs where you would have 2 switches and 2 bulbs per switch, and put freshwater bulbs in it (coralife has some 2 bulb fixtures with bulbs for freshwater already installed in them that are cheap however i can say that i have heard of a high rate of returns on the cheap fixtures). if you tell me what kind of budget you have i can do some looking to help you find a good deal on a T5 kight setup, also i would need to know the depth and length of tank so as to find the right one for your needs. another thing to consider is that by going T5 HO if you ever decided to go saltwater you would only have to replace the bulbs to have a good light setup.

I moved you into FW equipment

You can get T5 fixtures at Home Depot but they are more expensive that the T12 shop light fixtures. Just read the package I have seen them there.

Like I said I use 2 of the T12 plant/aquarium bulbs for my heavily planted 75g. BUT it is near a window and gets a good amount of sun light.

If your looking to bring out the color in your fish....... I haven't a clue what to tell you. I believe nitty posted something about fish and lights.

The food the guy was likely trying to sell you was grand sumo red.

Fern wrote:

I moved you into FW equipment

You can get T5 fixtures at Home Depot but they are more expensive that the T12 shop light fixtures. Just read the package I have seen them there.

Like I said I use 2 of the T12 plant/aquarium bulbs for my heavily planted 75g. BUT it is near a window and gets a good amount of sun light.

If your looking to bring out the color in your fish....... I haven't a clue what to tell you. I believe nitty posted something about fish and lights.

The food the guy was likely trying to sell you was grand sumo red.

to add on teh home depot/lowes T5 lighting, these fixtures are Normal Output lighting. i do belive they have 1 High Output unit but it is like an 8 bulb setup and would just about cover an 18"depth tank.

The lighting output is all in the bulbs you get. Look for the bulbs you want and get the fixtures they fit from Home Depot.

Fern wrote:

The lighting output is all in the bulbs you get. Look for the bulbs you want and get the fixtures they fit from Home Depot.

fern this is not alway the case, there is (in the case of T5 bulbs) a ballast for normal output, a ballast for high output, and then there are ballasts for overdriving the bulbs). the ballast in the lowes fixtures are not HO. you can order a HO ballast offline though and install it in the fixture butIMHO one would best eb served by a T5HO aquarium fixture or aT5HO retrofit kit.

Well you learn something new every day!

you would think that lowes and home depot would have some T5HO ballasts since they sell to contractors but i have yet to see one, i also have not seen any High Output T5 bulbs either. another thing with lighting is that there are T-12 bulbs that are VHO very high output, or variable high output and would need the appropriate ballast as well.

lordraptor1 wrote:

you would think that lowes and home depot would have some T5HO ballasts since they sell to contractors but i have yet to see one, i also have not seen any High Output T5 bulbs either. another thing with lighting is that there are T-12 bulbs that are VHO very high output, or variable high output and would need the appropriate ballast as well.

I bought 2-T8 150watt ballast at Lowes last Sunday. Check the wall at the end of the light aisle. They were $26 and came with the ballast, wires and 4 end caps.

nitty wrote:

lordraptor1 wrote:

you would think that lowes and home depot would have some T5HO ballasts since they sell to contractors but i have yet to see one, i also have not seen any High Output T5 bulbs either. another thing with lighting is that there are T-12 bulbs that are VHO very high output, or variable high output and would need the appropriate ballast as well.

I bought 2-T8 150watt ballast at Lowes last Sunday. Check the wall at the end of the light aisle. They were $26 and came with the ballast, wires and 4 end caps.

nitty a t8 bulb is different than a T5. does the ballast have HO anywhere on the label?