How To: Make a 19 watt 6500k bulb/fixture

I got this idea from Onthefly's post about his 5.5 gallon. He did the same thing. I was curious how it was done, so I went and documented it all, hope ya'll enjoy.

Materials needed....

Daylight bulb: 8 bucks at Home Depot

Screw in receptacle: 1.50? at Home Depot

Extension cord: 77 cents at Wal-mart

Screws: already have a bunch

Screwdriver

Drill

Drill bit

Electrical Tape

Wire cutters/pliers of some sort

Here's the bulb package front:

And the back...

This was 7.97 I think at Home Depot... took me a minute to find, but its there...

First you take the extension cord and the wire cutters (long nose pliers in my case, but they do the trick)

Then you snip it...

And it looks like this....

Then you have to strip the wires...

And once that's done I twisted the wires and bent them to help them screw into the socket.

The next step requires the socket and the wire...

You wrap the wire under the screw and tighten it to hold the wire in place...

and when they're both done it looks like this...

Then you can screw in the light...

At this point I tested it to make sure that it worked...

And since it did I went ahead and put some electrical tape around the wires to keep them safer...

At this point you need the drill, drill bit, and screws that fit in the socket...

Take the socket, put it where you want in the hood, and drill away!

Once you're done drilling the holes, you can screw it in place and you've got a mounted socket...

At this point I put in the light...

And then I put in the other light...

And this is the final product with the lights turned on. You'll note that I stapled the wire from the left light and ran it into the wire clip on the other side to keep things tidy...

I hope this helps ya'll in your quest for cheaper lighting solutions... these suckers are REALLY bright.

nice work, sure helped me..

THANKS A BUNCH

jfly, VERY NICE WORK....I really appreciate those demonstrations. There should be a forum of demonstrations.

Thanx for the info, if I decide to set up a 5.5 or 2.5, this will definitely help!

Can you put more than one bulb on the same plug? Like have one plug run two bulbs instead of a plug for each one?

Yeah, apparently that's what onthefly did and I didnt even notice. I might rewire it just to cut down on the excessive cords running out the back.

So if i understand correctly, there isn't a need for a ballast with these light bulbs?....wow...if that's the case, it can come in pretty handy....

great demo.....i agree with MacnReef...there ought to be a forum specifically for this.....sure saves me time in experimenting

thanx again jfly....

Yeah, there's no ballast for these lights. Its included in the bulb, and just like the package guarantees, there's no flicker.. they start right up, and they are freaking bright! Not only that, but they're tiny. I could fit a ton of these over my 10 gallon...

Hey awsome show and tell, this really save's some $$$$$. Now you gotta show me the simple directions on hooking up the other florescent lights you got there, also the details on where you got them and price etc. Dude thanks for the info and again awsome job:happy:

that looks really cool. do you have any idea what spectrum you're getting from those type of bulbs.

but even if they are not the best option for coral, that would be awesome for macro alga in an inexpensive refugium

The other lights are detailed in adin's post about DIY pc sockets located here:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=11400

Those 19 watt daylight bulbs are 6500k bulbs.. it says right on the package which you can see on the picture of the back of the package...

My other lights are just 13 watt PC's that I'm running on $3.50 magnetic ballasts from home depot. I'm goign to be putting in another actinic bulb to make the tank a wee bit bluer, but these lights really arent yellow at all.

Any pics of the lighting on the tank.....btw, what size tank did you put this on?

oOO get a tank pic!

Seems to me that the tank would be a little yellow with all that white light.

I need some one to build me a canopy and base for my 2.5, so I can get my lighting going!

Yes, I wanna see pics of these on tank.

The question is now : These OR Bookworms......

These are a LOt cheaper. Get some of these and an actinic and you'll be set. Obviously I don't have my actinics in yet other than the /50 part of one 13 watt. Oh yeah, and they're SMALL... look at it compared to the 13 watt.

Is it true aything rated at under 4k in lumens below 5.5k in kelvins?

If this is true then 1.1k in lumens Like this light would only be like 2.5k--4k in kelvins ? It is a GREAT IDEA ! Dont get me wrong! Just not so sure on the kelvins. Most bulbs that are for home use that are labeled day light are only 3.5k .

It's specifically labeled 6500k mr salt dawg.

dayum i need to set up a nano!!!

thanx for the info on the light, jflysmooth. i went to H.D. today and bought one of these lights for my fuge. I used a weather resistent light socket they have there instead of the socket you chose. it works great and your right it is bright.

:nerd:

OK,

Since Jflysmooth did such a fantastic job documenting the creation of the curly Q light fixture, I though I'd jump in here and vouch for the color temp of these puppys!

If you check out my "low budget 5.5ga" thread in the member's nano's section you'll see the difference between the regular ol' 2.5K curly Q high efficiency PC (all my frog tanks have them......and they are totally yellow), but if you reference my tank with LR pic, you'll see how bright it is.....it's is really bright! Dchisenh says that his turned alittle yellow as they burn in, but a 7100K bulb in his 13w fixture took care of that. As of right now, they are not yellow at all, in fact they look VERY WHITE!. I just put a ton of LR in my tank and monday I'll post pics!!

Moral of the story...these bad boys are not 2.5K!!!

Does Anybody have an idea of how many you can combine on one single plug cord? Would save a lot of wiring if you can combine more than 2.