# 55 gallon/ 4 ft. tank lighting



## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

I was just noticing about how the lighting on my 55 gallon leaves much to be desired. Currently I have 2 hoods that are 24'' across and house one 18'' bulb each (an AGA and aqua glo bulb). I was just wondering if anyone was interested in posting a picture of their lighting on a 55 gallon 4 ft tank without a canopy. I donâ€™t have a canopy and donâ€™t plan on constructing one anytime soon so no examples of those please.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

> 2 hoods that are 24'' across and house one 18'' bulb


Got tired of that set up my self. I didn`t want a full hood either. 
I went to HD/Lowes and got a T5 light fixture, 4 footer.. mounted it to some scrap lumber. The whole thing is 2 1/2" tall X 48"long. Those T5`s are tiny, tube is only 5/8" round. 
I`ll see about scratching up a camera for pics.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Sounds right up my ally. First of all what do you use to cover your tank now? also what kind of T5's do you use?


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## remm (Apr 6, 2009)

Current Orbit with dual daylight 6500K/10,000K. In this pic only running the daylight. I also have 2 dual actinic bulbs that are not on in this pic. Fixture has 4 - 65 watt bulbs. A bit overkill if you are not planning on using live plants.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Little off topic, what is the plant that is covering your rock, the green stuff thats really short covering some of the rocks?


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## remm (Apr 6, 2009)

Hair algae. It may look nice in this picture but it is a huge battle to keep it to a minimum. It has grown over 2" in a single day on occasion. What I am doing to beat it is adding more live plants, dosing excel directly on it with filters off for 20 minutes and leaving the lights off this next week during vacation.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Thatâ€™s what I thought it was. I think it looks great though IMO. My roommate has it in his tank and it never really gets out of control. I've been thinking of scraping some off and putting it in my planted tank because I like the effect


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

The 24" light fixtures are tough because they only accept an 18" bulb... giving you a total of 36" of fluorescent bulb.... whereas a single 48" fixture gives you 48" of bulb.

I'd get two glass lids and:

1) A single 48" aquarium fixture with a decent bulb (about $50), or

2) A dual 48" aquarium fixture with decent bulbs (about $100), or

3) Go the poor man's route (which I did with our 40g long tank) and get a dual T-8 shop light fixture, and box it in with some off the shelf wood, which conveniently comes in 48" lengths, and regular old daylight bulbs (about $40). Results were actually quite satisfactory. 

-Ryan


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

OK, here goes..First, my picture taking skills are only exceded by my carpentry  
























Wood used..1 piece 1/2"thick X 3 1/2" X 6`long(these are actual measurments, I don`t play that 2x4 ain`t 2"x4" stuff :lol: )
Top cut to 48 1/4". Ends are 3 3/4"
Front and back are old moulding that were cut to 1 1/2" wide. When this gets done over, the piece with the light attached will be on a hinge for bulb replacement.
Light fixture is a T5 single bulb unit from HD, just under $20. Cord, plug, and pushbutton switch were found in the garage, as well as the paint.
The bulb that came with gives a somewhat yellow light, not real happy about that :x 
Might just be me, but it seems to give more light than the pair of 18inchers.
Real low rider of the lighting world and for $20 complete, can`t complain.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Where do i get glass lids (I cant find any online), and do they allow room for all the stuff hanging on the back of my tank (HOB filter, Bio wheels)


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## jlos1213 (May 15, 2009)

Drs. Foster & Smith sells glass versa tops. They should have something that fits. Prices are pretty reasonable too.

http://pet-supplies.drsfostersmith.com/ ... tch_search


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

cichlidfeesh said:


> Where do i get glass lids (I cant find any online), and do they allow room for all the stuff hanging on the back of my tank (HOB filter, Bio wheels)


Foster & Smith is the way to go, and they'll definitely allow for all the goodies to hang on the back.

Just measure the width of the inset between the edge of the tank and the edge of the center brace. I found out kind of the hard way that there's a difference between Perfecto and All-Glass tanks here. :lol:

-Ryan


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## Stiletto (May 17, 2009)

I have the same style hoods as the OP. My tank was originally a planted community. I came up with this little project so I could re-use my current hoods and have enough light to grow plants. One of the nice things about this set up is that it uses standard bulb sockets so you can use any bulbs you want. This is a re-post of a thread I made over at the planted tank forums:

My 55 gallon tank kit came with a basic 2 piece full hood with a 15W T8 bulb in each hood. 30W total for a 55 gallon tank just wasnt going to cut it. So this is a quick, cheap, and easy upgrade I did.

First thing I did was take out the existing light fixture. Pretty straight forward. Just take two screws out and then undo the wire nuts and take the fixture out.


These are the materials I used.
4 26W spiral CFL bulbs $15
4 outdoor bulb sockets $1.50 each
4 1.5" pvc tube brackets $0.75 each
roll of aluminum tape $3.50
Total $27.50


I covered the inside of the fixture with aluminum tape to act as a reflector. Then I screwed the tube brackets into the screw holes, put the sockets in, and connected the wires with the wire nuts. The whole thing took maybe an hour.


And here is one of the completed hoods. By no means is this some serious high tech lighting but as a quick cheap upgrade to "stock" lighting, I think it works great.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

That looks great stilleto, my question for you is what kind of effect do those lights have on the color of the water? a yellow color,white color,blue color? Also how do fish look under those lights


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## Stiletto (May 17, 2009)

The particular bulbs I used are 6500K daylight. It is a crisp white light. The fish look great. The appearance is no different than any other fluorescent fixture. I am not keeping any live plants right now so it is probably more light than I even need. I am thinking about only using the center two sockets for regular lighting and using the outer two sockets for some kind of night lighting.


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Really cool idea, I think I'll go out and pick up half of the supplies and see how it works for me! If i like the effect then i will buy the other half, If i dont then worst case i have some energy efficient bulbs for my apartment


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

well i installed 2 of these on an extra light fixture and i have to say i am not pleased with the green glow it puts on my water. Looking at the light w/ no water they look crisp and white, but when its on my tank it looks green. I can see my fish colors better, but im not sure i like the effect


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