Light in Refugium?

[pinhead]

I notice you are in Edmonton so this may not help you too much.

You can get 27 watts of 6500K in a compact fluorescent for $20. I have tried the screw in spiral bulbs and the light is radiated in all directions and the spotlight bulbs maybe too directional and the wrong temperature (I haven't seen 5100k spots let alone 6500k).

I have searched locally and in the US for the right fixture and finally found one this past weekend in Bellingham.

Lowes Hardware carries the 30w circline bulb and ballast for $10. This package has the ballast that screws into a standard socket and a circular fluorescent tube. If you unplug the circular tube and throw it away, the connector from ballast ballast is a standard 4 pin. This connecter plugs into the CF bulbs without any modification. I bought a 27w 6500k bulb at Lowes as well for $10 but I have seen these locally at Rona. The problem was finding the ballast because all the ones I could find here were only 22w.

The advantage of this is you can always get a 28w Coralife or Hamilton Bulb and get a higher temperature bulb and use it on a nano.

This solution is cheap, allows you to use standard aquarium bulbs and takes up less space than the other solutions. All you need to do is get to a Lowes.