# SeaClear Acrylic Hexagon Light hood conversion



## Old dog ... new tricks (Apr 15, 2004)

Hello all!
This is my first post. I have been lurking for the last couple days. 
My compliments on this site. Great resources... great knowledge base on the board. 
I have kept tropical fish in the past. I have tried real plants in different tank sizes a few times in the past without much success. Of course, that was pre-internet and I did most things through trial and error. I am now getting back into the hobby and pulling some of my tanks out of storage. 
Situation:
I have a SeaClear 20-gallon Hexagon Acrylic tank. The tank is 15" wide by 24" high. I would like to set it up with mostly live plants with a few fish. I have not decided upon the plants or fish yet. Based on the posts I have read, I would like to try DIY CO2 injection and will probably go with Eco-Complete as the substrate and use a power filter
Problem:
The hood on this tank fits one 12" 8 watt fluorescent bulb. From reading the articles on the site I believe I would need at least 50 watts in order to keep most plants. SeaClear makes an additional fixture that can be placed in the hood, but then I'm still at only 16 watts. 
What would you suggest?
Any ideas on small bulbs that would up my wattage that I could use in order to retrofit this hood?
Should I scrap the hood and build a new one that will cover the entire top using a new light fixture?
Disclaimer: I have never wired electrical. 
If I go this route, can you suggest any good beginner sites so I don't burn down my house?
Thanks for reading this long post and thanks in advance for any ideas/input.


----------



## crossbow (Nov 29, 2009)

Don't waste your money on expanding the seaclear hoods. It's a complete waste. Their hoods/lights have no reflectors, nor space to retrofit them. The only part you can salvage from them is the plastic cover that goes over the tank holes. Use that to built a new a hood, and fit that with an ahsupply kit.

I went from this..








2x 20 watt Seaclear hood with no reflectors.

To this

AHsupply 96 bright kit with reflector.









It was like going from VHS to Blu-ray. 

Now the seaclear hood sits on my 20L. Hoping its lack of reflectors still provides enough usable light for a 13 inch high tank.


----------

