# My DIY light and canopy..CFL twist bulbs



## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Ok...I went out today and bought the wood, bulbs and screws to build a canopy that houses 3 compact fluorescent bulbs. The tank is a 30g grow out tank. The standard 36" fixture(which really only houses a 24" bulb) was not cutting it.

Here is the before:










The total cost for the wood, screws, ceramic bulb housings and bulbs was $49 and that included tax. The biggest expense was the 3 pack of sylvania 23watt(equivalent incandescent bulb is 100w) 6500k daylight bulbs. The cost for the three pack at my local hardware store was $19.

I have not had a chance to paint the underside of the canopy yet but it is going to be bright white gloss latex as it is very reflective. I have not added the trim, stain or any of the other finish work to pretty it up but thought I would do that tomorrow. It will look quite a bit better after the finish work is done but these picture give you a good idea.

The nice thing about these bulbs are: Easy to replace, fairly cheap at roughly $6 bulb, very bright as it is equivalent to 300w which is a TON of light on a 30g tank. I can always unscrew one of two bulbs in the future if it is too bright.

The one drawback to the screw type bulbs like this is the highest K rating is 6500k which is pretty white/yellow looking. It does look very natural but does not help with the blues in the fish. It would however be VERY IDEAL for a planted tank as it only uses a total of 69w of power.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Another thing to note....nice shimmer effect given off by these bulbs maybe not quite as strong as metal halide bulbs but still very nice.


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## quentin8 (Sep 30, 2011)

WOW....what a differance :thumb:


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## slimbolen99 (Apr 28, 2006)

Looks great! Two bulbs would certainly do the job as well. Your hood looks well built.


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## Sub-Mariner (Dec 7, 2011)

Looks good...how does it open up?


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## Agridion (Sep 8, 2010)

YOu will like the compact lighting! They work really well for plants. your tank and stand looks really nice! :thumb:



13razorbackfan said:


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Everything looks perfect except are one of those lights just a bit off center or not night up right? :lol: Like it is a little off center! :lol: Godda love OCD.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Agridion said:


> YOu will like the compact lighting! They work really well for plants. your tank and stand looks really nice! :thumb:
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LOL...I was gonna say! They are PERFECTLY spaced I spent all night the night before getting the measurements correct.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Sub-Mariner said:


> Looks good...how does it open up?


It just lifts right off. I was thinking about making it open up but got to thinking that I had a piece of glass fit to cover the entire top of the tank anyways so the canopy does not warp and so the bulb fixtures do not corrode. So even if it did open up I would have to remove the glass anyways if I wanted to access the front but I feed through the back anyways. When I set up the tank I left about 4-5" from the wall so It is easy to reach my hand around and drop the food in.


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## Agridion (Sep 8, 2010)

13razorbackfan said:


> Agridion said:
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> > Everything looks perfect except are one of those lights just a bit off center or not night up right? :lol: Like it is a little off center! :lol: Godda love OCD.
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Yeah they look good. I remember from your other thread that you were worried about 0.225 vs 0.25 inches so I had to bust your chops a bit.

One thing you could do to increase the light output into your tank would be to paint the inside of your canopy a gloss white. This will reflect and disperse wasted light back into your tank. Plus it would seal the wood inside as well. :thumb:


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Agridion said:


> 13razorbackfan said:
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Yep....I was going to pickup some gloss white paint and stain in the next few days. It is already VERY VERY bright. I could probably just use one or two bulbs and it would still be more than enough.


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## Agridion (Sep 8, 2010)

13razorbackfan said:


> Agridion said:
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> > One thing you could do to increase the light output into your tank would be to paint the inside of your canopy a gloss white. This will reflect and disperse wasted light back into your tank. Plus it would seal the wood inside as well. :thumb:
> ...


Well painting it allows you to get the most of what you pay for.... Electricity. I don't rememeber, did you say you are going to put plants in? I be you have more then enough light for some low light plants.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Agridion said:


> 13razorbackfan said:
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I am thinking of adding some plants. It just depends.


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## Bungalowdan (Aug 16, 2010)

Now you've got me thinking about retrofitting my 38g with something similar because the strip light is too dim and I want to try plants. Just throwing this out because I have no idea how it would work, but I wonder if adding a colored bulb in addition to the 6500k would have the effect of a higher Kelvin rating and bring out the blues. Something like this?

http://www.1000bulbs.com/category/color ... orescents/

or even this?

http://www.1000bulbs.com/category/blue-rope-light/

I might play around with that some in January as I come up with projects to pass away the winter. I would think if it doesn't work, at least I'll have a party light!


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Bungalowdan said:


> Now you've got me thinking about retrofitting my 38g with something similar because the strip light is too dim and I want to try plants. Just throwing this out because I have no idea how it would work, but I wonder if adding a colored bulb in addition to the 6500k would have the effect of a higher Kelvin rating and bring out the blues. Something like this?
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> http://www.1000bulbs.com/category/color ... orescents/
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> ...


I don't think it would bring out the blues. The actinic has phosphors that bring out the blue in the fish. You would need to get a actinic or powerglo bulb to do that.

Surprising enough the 6500k still shows the blues in my fish just not as strong as an actinic bulb. I am very happy with my set up but if I could find a actinic spiral CFL bulb I would certainly buy one to go with my two 6500k bulbs.

These 6500k bulbs should be good enough for plants.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

6500K bulbs are very blue white, at least to my eyes. The last bunch of 23W I bought were 4 pack for $11, less $3 for coupon, which makes them very cost effective.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

BillD said:


> 6500K bulbs are very blue white, at least to my eyes. The last bunch of 23W I bought were 4 pack for $11, less $3 for coupon, which makes them very cost effective.


I think they look a bit yellow to me but then again I am used to around 14000k when mixing the 10000k plus actinics.

I do however love this light...really brightens up the tank for cheap.


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