# Shop light



## Santaclaws (Sep 20, 2011)

I picked up this shop light at Princess Auto for$ 49.00 Pets mart has 6500k lights t5s 48 in on for$25.00 dollars I am going to add 4 and I should have have decent light for my 100 gal to grow low light plants.Iam going to try to fit it into my canopy will keep you updated.Does anyone think I should add a fan my lights are on 6 hrs at night


----------



## ladayen (Jun 21, 2011)

Why do you have your lights on at night?


----------



## Santaclaws (Sep 20, 2011)

ladayen said:


> Why do you have your lights on at night?



I dont need them on in the day most of my tanks are planted so my lights are on timmers they come on at 6.00pm and go off at midnight this way I to not get much algae. Also I have 14 tanks so I like to sit in there and read or tinker around at night.:-D


----------



## BarbH (May 23, 2011)

Interested in hearing how the shop light works for your tank. I have been thinking about eventually updating the fixture on my 50 gallon. Right now has two 24" fixtures on it, so looking at some different possible options.


----------



## patadams66 (Apr 16, 2011)

i have 2-2 tube 4 ft shop lights on top of my 55g and my plants do just fine 

they sit on the glass tops 

only complaint i have is actually getting into the tank is kind of a pain.


----------



## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

im not sure if t5s will work in shop lights, they may need t8s or possibly t12s. if you have the box or book i suggest reading what it can accept. 

otherwise post result pictures! take a photo of your tank when the lights are just put on and another a month or two from now. youll notice your plant growth.


----------



## Santaclaws (Sep 20, 2011)

onefish2fish said:


> im not sure if t5s will work in shop lights, they may need t8s or possibly t12s. if you have the box or book i suggest reading what it can accept.
> 
> otherwise post result pictures! take a photo of your tank when the lights are just put on and another a month or two from now. youll notice your plant growth.


 The lights that came with it are t5s just not the kind for plants .


----------



## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

right on!


----------



## patadams66 (Apr 16, 2011)

My shop lights are t8
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

take a look for tube lights at the hardware store that are 6500k, save you some cash from buying the specialty bulbs from pet stores.


----------



## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

zof said:


> take a look for tube lights at the hardware store that are 6500k, save you some cash from buying the specialty bulbs from pet stores.


This. Home depot I know sells T5 fixtures for a good price. Pretty sure they are normal output though. $25 is wayyy overpriced for a single bulb. However I would like to mention that about 200 watts of T5 HO is too much over a 100 gallon unless you want to get into even more expensive CO2 and such required for high light tanks. IMO you should go with 2 tubes and leave it at that. As you get into larger tanks the WPG rule breaks down. You don't need as many WPG as a smaller tank does. 

Retrofitting it into an existing canopy is pretty easy, I've built or modified a lot of lights though. You would just have to dismantle the shop fixture and mount the ballast and endcaps in the existing fixture. I would fashion some cheap individual reflectors out of thin aluminum sheet then place the lights so they are directing the light evenly over the base of the tank. The reflectors can be adjusted to help with this too. 

Remember it doesn't matter how much light your fixture produces, its how much light reaches the bottom of the tank. I run power compacts and have 2.75wpg over a 20H and 2wpg over a 55 gallon. The 55 gallon has higher light though. I built that fixture to be as effective as possible. It has large reflectors from AHSupply that cost about the same as a bulb. Compared to the Current brand fixture on the 20H it directs a lot of the light down and across the tank with much lower light loss or restrike. You don't need fancy reflectors, but you can make some pretty decent ones for a few dollars if you know what you are doing. Reflectors have a pretty big impact on light levels at the bottom of the tank. I'm mentioning this because shop fixtures tend to completely skip reflectors. Retrofitting and modifying it could easily allow you to get a lot more light out of it.


----------



## k19smith (Aug 19, 2011)

zof said:


> take a look for tube lights at the hardware store that are 6500k, save you some cash from buying the specialty bulbs from pet stores.



I was going to say the same thing grab t8 bulbs at home depot or lowes, $6 for a 2 pack.


----------

