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Lights for 10gal


MWehr76364

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I am thinking about setting up a small 10gal tank and was wondering what lighting you all would recomend and also who you all would recomend me getting it from. I would mainly like to have zoo's, rics, and some mushrooms maybe if I have enough room a frogspawn.

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I have the 36w clamp light from JBJ on my ten gal. I love it. It sounds like from what you want to keep it would be perfect for you. They go for about $110 to $120 at the LFS, but my wife found them on ebay for $35 plus shipping. If your going to do a DIY hood I would suggest www.ahsupply.com/ The seem to have great prices on retro fits.

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I have a 2x36 pc from PetSupply Liquidators and like it. It was only $100 plus shipping. I wish I had gone with two 50/50s though instead of the 6500k and actinic to spread the light around more evenly.

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50/50's over 6500k's & actininc's? The bulbs I chose in my 2x36watter retrokit are 10,000k & actinic because of all of the posts and recommendations I got here.

 

Outta curiosity... Does anyone have any before/after or comparison pic's of 50/50's over another lighting setup?

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I don't have any pics, but the light isn't distirbuted evenly front to back. The back half of the tank is bluer and the front half is yellower. Thats why I wish I would have gone with the 50/50s, so they colors get more evenly distributed. I do like having the separate bulbs so the actinic is sunrise/sunset though.

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  • 4 weeks later...
coralreefengr

Considering what you are planning to house, you don't need 800 gazillion watts over your tank. I have a 10 gallon with 2 28W PCs. One actinic, the other daylight. I house various mushrooms, branching hammer, 3 different sinularia, green star polyps, xenia, sarcophyton, anthelia and a couple different sponges. I upgraded to this after having only 30W. Since the upgrade, I have seen significant growth of my corals but not so much that they are growing out of my little 10 gallon.

 

Here's how I did the 28 watters. I went to Home Depot or Walmart and purchased one of those round lights that is made to screw into a lamp. They cost about 10 bucks apiece. I took the round tube off and plugged in a 28W PC. I then took one of those converters that allows things with screw-in type connections to be plugged into an outlet. Plugged it into an extension cord and VOILA...28W PC lighting. You can also go to the extent of adding additional length of wire between the fixture and the ballast to put the ballast housing out of sight. We are eventually going to extract the electronic ballast from it's housing and mount it inside the hood of the tank.

 

For me it's been a great cheap alternative. You can buy the replacement PCs at Hellolights.com for a good price. The project cost about $25 including the fixtures, outlet converter and extension cord in addition to buying the PCs themselves.

 

Hope this helps.

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freakaccident

The 96w PQ doesnt get hot becuase I have a 4" radio shack fan blowing across it. I keep my house at 70* and my heater keeps the tank at 80*

 

I went to Home Depot or Walmart and purchased one of those round lights that is made to screw into a lamp.

 

Um..think you could elaborate or show a pic? This makes no sense.

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coralreefengr

OK...I'll try to post pictures and explain.

 

The round light you want to purchase is similar to the first picture. Be sure to get the one with the correct wattage. Unplug the connection between the tube and the center ballast and remove the tube. Plug in 28W light from Hellolights.com. See the second picture for the half-assed installation. A better installation would splice extended wires between the ballast and the light. Does this make sense?

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