ElvisMinnow

I have two Mini-Bow tanks in my classroom. A 5 gal and a 2.5 gal. I like the look of these tanks, especially in a classroom. They are stylish, bow-front acrylic tanks with a nice shapely hood containing a light, small door, and some openings for filters/heaters/etc.

Problem is: the incandescents that come in the single socket hoods are pathetic and get canned immediately, but the Coralife "Colormax" CF bulbs that go in are not much better. The five gallon looks like a cave fish display. The 2.5 gal takes only the stubby version of that lamp so is double pathetic.

The biggest problem is the lights in each are off-center and so light only one part of the tank. I am going to add some sort of mirror to the outside of the tank to reflect back a little light, but that won't help the plants much.

Are there even retrofit kit lights small enough to think about putting inside of this hood, or do I need to put on some other lighting arrangement? The hoods are cute, but this is nuts. Cave fish is not my passion.

kojen

i dont know about the exact size of those hoods but i recently built my own stand and simply went to lowes and got a flourescent light for around ten dollars that held an eighteen inch bulb while the light that came in it was horrible. eighteen inch aquarium bulbs can be bought at hardware stores and are fairly cheap.

aabaltz

not sure how handy you are, but there is a guy with a post in the DIY section right now that removed the existing light fixture from that canopy of his aquarium and put in a different one to use a bigger flourescent bulb, maybe that is something that might work with what you are trying to do?