My 20G has a do it yourself wooden canopy. I went to Home Depo and got a 24-dollar incandescent fixture for four bulbs- something that might go over your bathroom mirror, 24" wide.
I had four incandescent-base compact fluorescents, 23W each, from when I lived in Victoria- Gord Campbell was giving them away this spring. Put 'em in, suddenly had 92 watts of light over my 20, and I had happy happy soft corals for about 25 bucks (thanks to the Gov't of BC.).
Problem is, the light is very warm compared to the crisp blue that a reef tank normally has (the corals haven't minded in the least so far- my green star polyp is taking over the world.) Anyway, if you haven't been able to take advantage of the Liberal government's largesse, Home Deep sells a similar bulb by Phillips for about 10 bucks each.
Then I discovered that Envirolite puts out a 26w bulb that is quite blue- I think it's daylight spectrum, about 6200K. They cost about 25 bucks and I'm going to slowly raplace Mr. Campbell's bulbs with these. Then I'll have 104 w of nice looking light.
Then when I have some cash, I still have room in the canopy for a single NO tube, and I'll put an actinic blue in there on a different circuit, and do twilight for an hour each morning and evening.
Dat's the plan anyway.
|