# Is there not a 24" 24 watt bulb?



## Dfrost1189 (Jan 23, 2012)

I have a 29 gal. community planted tank. I have a amazon sword, anubias, java fern, and green ozelot. The green ozelot and anbias is more under the light than the others. The Bulb i have on came with the hood, its a 24" Aqueon 17 W T8. I here that you want 1 to 2 watts per gallon. Obviously i dont have that. The highest watt I've found in 24" is 17 W. So i guess I need to add another bulb but that would be too many watts. Maybe Im just not looking hard enough, Is there a bulb that would fit that rule of thumb and fit my hood?


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## KG4mxv (Oct 25, 2011)

well you have to be careful that you don't overload your ballast (that is if your current light hood has one) 

I for one don't use florescent lighting I use LED and my plants love it. 
Now I don't have a super heavy planted tank.
Look at my photos of my 46 gal and my 10 gal they both are LED and the plants are flowering and sprouting off new plants.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

24", 24W are T5HO bulbs.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

seem like that 3 19w spiral types would work.

Or at least suppliment your existing.

If they would fit in your hood with a reflector would be another question.


my .02


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## Suzanne (Jun 10, 2011)

I don't know about T8, but Coralife makes T5 24" 24w bulbs. I had to go to a real LFS though, not Petsmart, to find them.


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## Donald Hansen (Jan 21, 2011)

Dfrost1189 said:


> I have a 29 gal. community planted tank. I have a amazon sword, anubias, java fern, and green ozelot. The green ozelot and anbias is more under the light than the others. The Bulb i have on came with the hood, its a 24" Aqueon 17 W T8. I here that you want 1 to 2 watts per gallon. Obviously i dont have that. The highest watt I've found in 24" is 17 W. So i guess I need to add another bulb but that would be too many watts. Maybe Im just not looking hard enough, Is there a bulb that would fit that rule of thumb and fit my hood?



You have a 29 gal tank. At 1 watt/gal, that would be 29 watts. At 2 watt/gal, that would be 58 watts. If you add a second 17 watt bulb, you would have 34 watts total. Just over 1 watt/gal. So what is the problem?

I've been looking at different lighting options and here is one I'm considering. 36 or 55 watt Bright Kits 
I really prefer to have these LED Aquarium Light; Reef Lighting, AquaRay AquaBeam, GroBeam, Cree XR, XG but I'm still trying to get over the sticker shock.

DLH


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

LED Light Hood Aquarium Freshwater Fish Tank Single Bright 24" 30" 60cm 75 cm | eBay

24" 78x400 Lumen LED fixture for freshwater tanks for $40 with (I think) free shipping. I have the 18" variant and the plants in my ten gallon LOVE it, haha. Only downside is the moonlights need to be manually switched, so I just leave the daylights on and put the fixture on a light timer and forget about the moonlights.

That'll trounce any T8s you might want to put over the tank...


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I would like to see PAR data on these. It's too bad I don't see any double bright for freshwater, but you could use the reef bright with 10000k lights. Marineland recommends their double bright reef setup for plants.


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## Dfrost1189 (Jan 23, 2012)

Well Donald the problem is that my hood can only hold one bulb.

And the LED light don't even put off 10 watts. 

I guess i'll have to buy something that sits on top of the tank. for ex. 
Aquarium Lighting T5 Fluorescent Light Fixture: AquaticLife T5 HO Dual Lamp Light Fixtures

But i much rather keep a hood because it keeps the light from getting out into the room, the light seems to just light the tank and thats it. What would be perfect is to have double bulb strip light like this but double.
Fluorescent Aquarium Lighting: Perfecto Fluorescent Single Strip Lights


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## Donald Hansen (Jan 21, 2011)

This is my third try at this. My other 2 went somewhere, probably never never land.

I had assumed that your light fixture looked like the one in your Fluorescent Aquarium Lighting: Perfecto Fluorescent Single Strip Lights. If so, you can retro-fit either the 36 watt kit or the 55 watt kit into that fixture. They do state that you would need to mount the ballast on the outside and in the back of your present fixture. Because the 55 watt bulb is 21.125" long without the power end cap you might want to check the total length before you buy. Or you could build your own light fixtures which is another route I'm think of taking.

As for those lights that sit above the aquarium top on legs. I wonder if a skirt made of reflective Mylar would help put the light where it belongs.

DLH


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## Dfrost1189 (Jan 23, 2012)

The skirt idea is pretty interesting I must say. I think the retro-fit would work, but Where do find the retro-fit kits?


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Dfrost1189 said:


> I have a 29 gal. community planted tank. I have a amazon sword, anubias, java fern, and green ozelot. The green ozelot and anbias is more under the light than the others. The Bulb i have on came with the hood, its a 24" Aqueon 17 W T8. I here that you want 1 to 2 watts per gallon. Obviously i dont have that. The highest watt I've found in 24" is 17 W. So i guess I need to add another bulb but that would be too many watts. Maybe Im just not looking hard enough, Is there a bulb that would fit that rule of thumb and fit my hood?


24" 48w Lighting T5 Aquarium Light Hood Plant Freshwater Coral Fish Fluorescent | eBay

Or:
T5 Retro Fit Kits and Parts - English

Complete page for installing a retro kit in your hood.


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