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Hi, I am not sure if this is the place to post such questions....but gonna go with it anyway.
Can you use normal lights, like the ones in the shop for my tank, it is only a 10gallon tank, are around the $70 mark, I think that is over priced, so hubby suggested he make a like using normal lights, I don't want him to go to all that trouble if it isn't possible anyway. Thanks
Lisa

you can get a hood or stip light from a local fish or pet store for SO much less, get a florescent strip light, that will work the best.

Actually, I think i would like that look (normal lights) better than flourescent, but I wouldn't fool around with trying to make an aquarium light on my own unless I was a certified electrician. ALSO, I think that "normal" lights may produce far far too much heat - NOT a good idea. If you like the look, natural type lighting is available. But if you are trying to cut costs, try saving up some $$$ instead.......your tank will thank you.

*raises an eyebrow* By "normal" lights, do you mean incandescent? Incandescent just doesn't give off the right light if you want to grow plants. Plus it also gives off heat.

Try hitting a chain pet store or something like Walmart/Meijer's/etc for low priced equipment. A strip light or even a full hood for a ten gallon shouldn't run you more than 20 bucks or so. I bought a 30" strip light for around 35 bucks. *shrugs*

If you can find an incadescent hood to fit your tank, you can rectify the situation by using screw in fluorescent bulbs. They're often marked as "energy savers" or the like. You're looking for something that looks like this:

or


Oh... and this should probably be in Tech Tinkering, so you might ask a mod to move it. [/font][/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Depends what how you want the lights to do. If you intend to go the direction of live plants or you just want to see the fish.

If you are not interested in live plants, any light would do that looks pleasing to you. Having said that best to keep away from normal incandescent bulbs has they produce a lot of heat. The new screw in "curly" flourescent bulbs would solve that.

If you intend to have live plants you need to be a bit more choosy. Definately go with a flourescent strip. Any shoplight from any DIY/hardware store will do, much cheaper then an LFS fixture. You need to use a daylight bulb with a color temprature of about 6500K. Keep away from "cool white" bulbs. If you can get about 30 watts of light over the tank you could grow pretty much any plant you wanted. 20 watts would still be good but anything below that and you will be limited to "low light" plants.

HTH

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