pepetj
- #1
I've been experimenting with different ways to upgrade lighting systems in most of my tanks, specially the ones aimed at being heavily planted.
Finding suitable lamps is very difficult in my City, never mind looking for retrofit kits locally. Even with somewhat limited but still sometimes available T-8 standard fluorescent lamps, shortage in stock is not uncommon (e.g. T-8 at 20W, rated at 6700K).
So after going through my learning curve, which included getting sealed garden lamps with 13W CF rated at 3,000K, I built a lamp assembly using PVC pipes and caps. I began using standard CFs, rated at 6,400 and/or 6,500K (depends on manufacturer), the newest T-2 lamps seem to work better. I am experimenting with different wattage ratings (from 15 to 27W).
The first unit I left unpainted and it worked pretty well. The second and third unit I'm working on are covered inside with the brightest white spray paint I could find and mate black on the outer side.
I am using high pressure 4" diameter PVC. The sides are covered by 4" PVC caps cut by half (caps not shown in drawings)
Below are a couple of drawings to show what I'm into:
Pepe
Santo Domingo
Finding suitable lamps is very difficult in my City, never mind looking for retrofit kits locally. Even with somewhat limited but still sometimes available T-8 standard fluorescent lamps, shortage in stock is not uncommon (e.g. T-8 at 20W, rated at 6700K).
So after going through my learning curve, which included getting sealed garden lamps with 13W CF rated at 3,000K, I built a lamp assembly using PVC pipes and caps. I began using standard CFs, rated at 6,400 and/or 6,500K (depends on manufacturer), the newest T-2 lamps seem to work better. I am experimenting with different wattage ratings (from 15 to 27W).
The first unit I left unpainted and it worked pretty well. The second and third unit I'm working on are covered inside with the brightest white spray paint I could find and mate black on the outer side.
I am using high pressure 4" diameter PVC. The sides are covered by 4" PVC caps cut by half (caps not shown in drawings)
Below are a couple of drawings to show what I'm into:
Pepe
Santo Domingo