Homemade hood with lights

[jagermeister]

Here's my idea.
I'm planning on making my own hood for my 55 gal aquarium. I'm thinking about getting some shop lights from Home Depot (under $8), taking out the fluorescent light fixture holders and wiring, and mounting them directly into the hood. I think I can get 4 to 6, 48" fluorescent lights into the hood.
Has anyone heard of this or done this?
I'm very open to hearing new idea's!

 

[guppie]

I did the same thing on a 125 a few years ago, worked great, the only thing to watch out for is the water hitting the lights and stuff, keep the tank covered and it will not be a problem. Good Luck

 

[jumpfrog]

Thinking of doing something similar. Going to be an aggressive tank so strong lighting is not needed.
But, a 55 is only 12" wide. Those two light strips are about 8" wide. Have you figured out how you can mount the lights inside the hood and still have room to open up the hood and feed, do maintenance and such?
I'm scratching my head on it so if you have some thoughts, please share.

 

[jagermeister]

My thought is to strip out the light holders out of a shop light and remount them under a hood right next to each other. The lights themselves are probably 1.5" to 2" in diameter. So after remounting them I'd have a solid 'wall' of lights. i.e. if the light bulbs are 2" in diameter then I'd have 6 bulbs in a 12" wide space. I haven't done any measurements yet so I don't know if this would work or not. I'm hoping someone will see this post who has already done something along these lines and offer their insights and experience.

 

[jumpfrog]

I like the way you're thinking.
I think I'll give that a try. Heck, the 2 light 48" shop light from lowes is priced at $8.47 or something like that. What's a person to lose?
Let me know how yours goes. I'm not looking at as much light as you are. And I need to have access to get in the tank.
Good Luck!

 

[reeftanknewbie]

What about the heat of the lights being that close together? Curious because I am building a light fixture for inside my hood and was only going to go with 4 72" URI VHO 50/50 lights but if I can fit more all the better would like 6 or 8 if i can. I have 24 inches to work with.