10 gallon lighting help

I have a 10 gallon that is in need of light. I currently can only find 10 watt (made for aquarium) light bulbs afford-ably... My hood has two regular sockets (like a house socket).

My question is... Could I get flourecent bulbs at Home Depot that are rated at 17- 20 watts each for my tank to grow my plants? Or am I missing something here?

Thanks

 

The original fixture may only be rated for 10 watts. You can get a minI florescent for about $35. I have one on a 30 gal hex tank (along with the stock lighting). Coralife makes a "MinI Aqualight Fixture" for both salt and freshwater. Although it gets hot and you'll need to have a glass top, it works great.

I just found a site that explains it:

 

As a short term solution you could place compact fluorescent lamps rated at 6,500K that won't get too hot (say no to 25 or 27W, stay within the 11-15W range). The problem is that this cheap lamps will become useless for plant growth in little time (say two months or less).

You could solve this by either purchasing a new lamp unit that fits in your canopy and keep low light plants. If you can match the brand of the lamp assembly with the one of your canopy you have less room for error.

Or you could work with your existing lamp assembly with a DIY retrofitting. Say you get a Fulham Workhorse 5 electronic ballast (or equivalent) as well as say four hardware store T4 or T5 lamps rated at 6,500K (or close to that say 6,400K or 6,700K). All you need to do is remove the standard lampbulb sockets, rewire the whole thing following the diagram that comes with the ballast, and ready to go.

To help preventing the heat from creating a problem stay within the low range (say 15-18W per lamp maximum).

Avoid lamps that work at 4,100K; no matter if the label says it's ideal for plant growth.

I use a soldering iron to create secure contact of the wiring with the lamp connectors. I cover all around it with hot silicon glue, then I place a rubber or plastic end cap and seal with more hot silicon glue. I use those "twist" plastic conic things to bend wires together en route to the electronic ballast (which you could place remotely if needed be). Plastic tie wraps are all needed to hold the linear fluorescent lamps in place.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

 

With all due respect, but a ballast is gonna cost 15-25 bucks plus the cost of the bulbs, plus the shipping and most of all the time to make it! I'd rather run to the LFS and buy a minI florescent.

Pepe, I'd agree with you if I had the time, knowledge (and an electrician's certificate)! If I attempted all that, I'd blow up my house!
(...maybe that's not a bad thing...)

 

I have a 10 gallon that is in need of light. I currently can only find 10 watt (made for aquarium) light bulbs afford-ably... My hood has two regular sockets (like a house socket).

My question is... Could I get flourecent bulbs at Home Depot that are rated at 17- 20 watts each for my tank to grow my plants? Or am I missing something here?

Thanks

I have a 10 gallon, and I use the fluorescent lights that fit into my fixture they are each 15 watts. So it's 30 watts altogether and you can grow a large amount of plants in your tank. I have some swords too. Although you cannot get plants with red color on them since the lights that I have apparently are not strong enough to grow them.

You should definitely get fluorescent lights from the pet store unless you know that the lights are okay for your fixture on your 10 gallon tank. If you are planning on growing plants that have like red colors etc, you should get lights that are 20 watts each so that is 40 watts and that is good enough to grow any type of plant Along with fertilizers (if you don't want to use C02)