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I'VE GOT THE POWER!!! PICS INSIDE!!!!

  • #21
Get a Fluorex lamp. I special order them through my local TrueValue branch for about $30 a pop. They're about 7"x10" and one could easily light your tank - they burn 65W and are roughly equivalent to a very-high-output (VHO) lamp like a 500W metal halide. They're based on high output/power compact fluorescent lamps, like Clint is talking about. I use two with my highland Neps and I'm getting reds and purples out of plants that aren't even supposed to develop leaf pigment.
~Joe
 
  • #22
You should consider them to be 65 watts, not 500. Otherwise everyone would light their reef tanks with them
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You have to consider that there is a LOT of restrike and thus lost light with those due to the shape.
 
  • #23
I meant to ask this a while ago but, what plants do you have in there?

I see D. adalae
 
  • #24
Do de lee do... D adelae, D capensis giant typical and albino, D. "marsons dragon", D. madagascariensis, Mystery utrics, U. Reinformis "enfant terribles", Cephalotus, D. paradoxa, D. falconeri, P. "titan", there used to be an N. truncata x ventricosa in there (the big one) but I gave it away,

A paph, a couble of brassavolas (nodosa and cucullata), mystery cattleyas, a couple of bulbo's that I can't remember, darwinasa charm "blue star" , a phal, and now two more orchids And genlisea , too.

Oh yeah and some Java fern and a crypt wendetiii I'm growing emergent. All of my sarracenia, temperate drosera and Dionaea are up in the mountains at out lake house.
 
  • #25
Come to think of it, I think I have one of those giant powercompacts bulbs (i think it's a 100 watt one ) in the linen closet.

EDIT: nope. 45 watt, 200 watt eqivalent.
 
  • #26
lol! spend 60$ on lighting then realise there is a linen closet with a light that can exactly suit your purpose.
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But I guess you do like ur new light then..yeah....its worth it.

I really need to get a light which will 1) cause a minimum amount of dent in my power bill 2) last long enough 3) give me bleeding red traps
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...yeah...I'll put up the money..
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4) doesn't make the room seem like a supernova.

lol! So JustLikeApil.,,,,lol....what can I call u....JLAP.....?? anyways....so do u think AHsupply.com is a reliable source. I will seriously consider getting the 65 watt fixture. I would love to get something ready made ...I pop in the bulb and put it in the wall outlet and viola!! MY plants face daylight.
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  • #27
No lol, A PC light is not the same as a MH light. The 200 watt equivalent is what it looks like to us. It's still 40 watts. the light that reaches the plants is less that 40 watts due to restrike.

You can call me Clint, or Cpar, or Cdogg, or Snake... That's what the Hells Angels call me.. snake.. sssssssssss.....

I know it's a reliable source. I've ordered from them many moons ago and practically everyone on my planted tank forum who does retrofit kits buys from there.

It's not plug-n-play, unfortunately. You'll need to get a canopy or a used light fixture or something to install the retrofit in. You can buy one of theirs if you want. They look OK. You can probably make one yourself for about 20 bucks since your tank isn't huge.
 
  • #28
oooh..ohh.....20 bucks......can u please...please tell me how the HELL can I make someting like that. I know I saw a 20 inch fixture that is wall fixture...I guess I got to hook it to a wall outlet style plug.
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  • #30
I don't care about oak and stuff for style for now. I just want to get good lighting that brings out the colour of my plants indoors.
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  • #31
I think oak is ugly personally.. I like black stuff. Brushed aluminum is cool, too!
 
  • #32
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ Dec. 05 2006,1:52)]You should consider them to be 65 watts, not 500. Otherwise everyone would light their reef tanks with them
smile.gif


You have to consider that there is a LOT of restrike and thus lost light with those due to the shape.
Well, I'm not trying to say that they would stand up to an efficient 500W VHO rig. I guess I should clarify - they're sold as equivalent to a 500W metal halide floodlight, which probably isn't the most efficient of fixtures. But, lighting an aquarium - particularly a reef tank, which is typically fairly deep - requires much more intense light than what is needed for a terrarium. And, if we're talking about low-growing plants, you can place the lights much closer to the photosynthesizers than you could in a reef tank. I recommended Fluorex lamps because they're a widely accessible, affordable high-output fluorescent which are easy to setup and cheap to run, which seems ideal for vraev's situation.
In any case, two Fluorex lamps are sufficient to bring out high-light growth habits in almost every plant in my highland terrarium, and I have the plants no closer than 8" from the bulbs - most are even more distant. My Ceph is making tiny purple pitchers, and even ordinarily green Neps are showing colors; my sanguinea is producing orange/purple leaves and the leaves of my alata x (x. ventrata) have bright red margins and midribs near the stem. I don't use reflectors on the sides of my terrarium (it's there to be looked at, after all) so this is all just first-pass light. I'm fairly confident that one could do a good job on a VFT at close range, especially if you took the time to reflectorize the sides of your terrarium.
I paid $60 for two fixtures and about $7 more for the hardware to mount and hook them up - they come ready for wall installation so you have to buy a power cable and a junction box. So, for less than $70 I have a 130W fixture which, although it might not be quite as bright as a more expensive lamp, lights as nearly as much space (from a greater distance and at a higher light intensity) as 160W of four-foot T12 bulbs, and it took me about 5 minutes to assemble. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, you can just buy one and it'll cost you less than $40 altogether. I'd recommend buying them in pairs personally, because it's easy to mount them in pairs with the faceplates they give you, but there's no saying you can't buy one and then expand later.
~Joe
 
  • #33
I yeah, I totally agree 100%

a looong time ago I looked into adapting a floodlight or something like that to take an Iwasaki. Might be worth looking into if you ever get a larger tank. for now a couple (or even one if that's all you can get) of the flourex is good.
 
  • #34
hmm....thanks guys!!! seedjar...I willl take you up on that idea......thanx....Once my exams are over in 2 more weeks....I will check out if I can find the hardware. BTW.....what FLUOREX light fixture is this?? the lights of america Fluorex FLOODlight???
 
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