I got my 100 gallon tank about 3 months ago. The deal was supposed to be tank, lights, filters & etc. I got the tank & stand and was promised the other stuff ASAP. Well, 3 months later I decided the heck with it! I had to get my own stuff! I soon found that aquarium lights for this size tank was pretty pricey!

My hubby went to "that BIG home improvement store with all the Orange" **hint hint** and got a 48 inch shop light & 2 light tubes for around 20 BUCKS!! A light out of Foster & Smith Catalog was WELL over $100!!

I am tickled pink! I will post pics as soon as I can!

As long as the top of your aquarium is covered, regular old fluorescent shop lights are fine. But you shouldn't place them over open water.

Oh Yes, I should have mentioned that myself! I am lucky that my tank has a full glass cover! The two ends are hindged in the front but the whole back is solid! Perfect for this lighting!

Thanks for saying that, I don't want to misinform, if I can help it!

That sounds great Jeana! I would love to see some pics of it too

are those kind of lights good for growing plants too??

Good find! I, too, was looking at that "store" for lights and was amazed at the price difference.

Now my question is: are these lights you purchased fluorescent or incandescent? I changed to incandescent because the fluorescent was heating my tank up way too much....

I know very little about aquarium lighting. I wonder if you could put aquarium lighting tubes like Coralife into one of the Shop lights?

Gia, I think HomeDepot sells plant lights for exactly that purpose as well. I usually do the same thing than Jeana - cheap shop light, and one bulb is an aquarium light, the other one is a plant light (only if there are plants in my tank, of course ).
Those lights are really strong, and what I like about it is the thick algae carpet that builds on the underside of the glass where the lights rest on it, and every now and then I go over it with a razor blade and just let the blop of algae drop into the tank. Fish go nuts over it...

ThrottleThumb, yes, that is possible. Those shop lights are made for 4 ft 40 watt light bulbs, and any bulb with those measurements and wattage (which are both pretty common) fit into the shop light. I even have those shop lights for my tortoises, with reptile light bulbs in them...

Whew! I was so worried that someone would tell me this was a bad idea! I will watch the temp. (the bulbs are flouresant....ok that's probably be spelled wrong!) So far (a full one day) I haven't noticed any heating. I just touched the bulbs & they aren't hot. So maybe I am okay. I will keep a close eye on that I don't wanna cook my goldies!

As of right now I am VERY happy! My tank is well lit & I saved a ton of $$.

Plus I had been using my 30 gallon light (which was just so-so) But I needed to put that light back 'cause I have my new babies from Sorsha in there! They gotta be able to see!

So now EVERYBODY's well lit!!

Here's some pics of the lighting I added:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/jeana727/0e057f03.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/jeana727/1e0e6de4.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/jeana727/c28ab9e9.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/jeana727/017c72cd.jpg

Throttlethumb, if you mean the power compact fluorescents by Coralife we've been tanking about lately... NO, those bulbs require special ballasts and end caps.



Chico, I think you have that backwards. Incandescent bulbs produce MUCH more heat than a fluorescent bulb.



Gia, there are standard NO (normal output) fluorescent tubes for just about any application. If you choose bulbs that are designed to grow plants... Standard NO bulbs will grow plants... If you have enough wattage. Standard NO fluorescent bulbs are the weakest of all the fluorescent bulbs available.

To grow live plants, the standard recommended wattage is 2-4 watts per gallon. So, if you put one four foot long two tube, 80 watt light fixture on a four foot long 55 gallon tank, you'd have about 1.5 watts per gallon. At 1.5 watts per gallon you could only grow low light requirement plants. But if you put two of those fixtures on the 55 gallon tank you'd have a total of 2.9 watts per gallon and would have a much wider selection of plants that you could grow.

WoW Bak2it, that was excellant!

Thank you! But unfortunatly that would mean I need to build my own hoods. They have two hoods on my 55 gallon, but only hold one bulb each. Maybe Ill do a bit of research on building hoods. Hubby is good with that stuff. His dad was an electrician so he knows how to wire stuff.

My tank is only 36 inches long. I would need to find a 3 ft fixture.
Bak2it, I bought a 2 ft bulb from Coralife for my tank. It fit into my perfecto fixture. I think it was rated at 10,000K. The other bulb you mentioned is a specific bulb. The one I purchased had the look of a standard flouerscent tube.

Gia, you could retrofit your existing hood to use VHO (very high output) fluorescent bulbs. A 48" VHO fluorescent bulb has an output of 110 watts. Put two of these over your 55 gallon tank and you would have a total wattage of 4 watts per gallon, allowing you to grow any type of plants you want.

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the thick algae carpet that builds on the underside of the glass where the lights rest on it, and every now and then I go over it with a razor blade and just let the blop of algae drop into the tank. Fish go nuts over it...


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so, mine gets this wierd slimey algae of different colors on it...is this ok for fish to eat? I always try to keep it away from them.

Grain, the type of algae you're describing isn't algae at all, it's bacteria. Don't feed it to your fish.

eww....bacteria