# lighting a tall hexagon tank



## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

nick james said:


> I bought a 60 gallon hexagon tank that is 30 inches tall. the hood holds two 18" lamps. I cannot find any plant bulbs that size that are more than 15 watts. that leaves me at 30 watts to a 60 gallon tank. I read to use 10,000k bulbs for deeper water. will that work even though my wpg is really low? is the tank just not efficient for plant growth? let me hear some input on this folks.


If you want good plant growth, you should consider retrofitting or replacing the light....


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## ROYWS3 (Feb 1, 2014)

18" NO (normal output) lamps will always be 15wts. You will need to replace the whole fixture to get a HO (high output) lamp - which would be a T5 lamp or you could look into LED lights

try http://www.aquatraders.com/ for some options of both

I have purchased both T5HO and LED lamps from them and although both were good and grew my plants well, I prefer the LED lamps over the T5's


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## candymancan (Nov 1, 2014)

Do what I did to my 27g hexagon make your own light.. its much cheaper.. Take your old hood with the t8 bulbs in it and put a T5 or power compact ballast in it vs spending $200 on a light fixture. The pictures below are my 18 inch T8 lights same as yours actually that i converted to a power compact light

My 27g hexagon is about the same width/depth as your 65g 18 inches on all corner and yours is like what 21 or 22.. You just have about 5 inches more height 25v30 then me.

I took an old T8 hood lamp and i cut out the t8 ballast and removed the t8 clips where the light twists into.. And i wired in a duel 65watt power compact ballast with the switch that the fixture had and i crammed them in and walla my t8 fixture is now a Power compact fixture.. I just use zip ties on each end to hold the power compact light inside the fixture.

Here are pics of what i did.. My tank is 2x brighter then it was when i had 2 T5NO and 2 T8's over it (4 lights) and im only using 1 of the PC lights.. (duel bulb) if i used the other one lol.. the tank would be brighter then the sun. All together this costed me $0 because when i bought my 44g pentagon the guy gave me all his fish tank junk and he had that duel Sunparik ballast in there.. I looked it up online the ballast is $35 for the duel and like $25 for the single plug one. The white back ground reflector is good enough. Im using a 6700/10k bulb (power compacts have 2 lights for 1 bulb so you can get combos like that.

Take your old T8 hood.. Unscrew the white reflector and remove it.. Cut the ballast wires from the switch you use to turn it on but cut them so you have long wires from them as you will re-use that switch.. Then splice your wires together the black wire from the ballest into the switch.. and the white wire from the ballast into the power cord white wire use those twisting caps i used. Then take the other black wire from the power cord and wire that into the switch this way you can use the switch to turn the light on and off. Take the green ground wire and bolt it into the ballast itself scrap off the paint first. Since the old t8 hoods are plastic you have to put the ground on the ballast directly. 

As for what to use as a power cable ? Its easy.. Take a old 3 pin computer monitor cable.. Cut the female end off and strip the 3 wires and wire them into the ballast like i mentioned above.. Easy.. Took me like 30 minutes to do. Lastetly.. Get a 80mm computer fan... Find yourself an old charger or an old T.V box power cable with those big black convertor's on them. The ones that convert AC power to DC.. And find one that is like an amp or so and cut the end off and wire that into the computer fan because these ballast get hot and with it being crammed inside a T8 fixture i measured mine getting to around 140f which is too hot.. with my fan over the vents its only 90f. If you want pics for how i wired the fan let me know.

Also in using youre 18 inch T8 lights like this.. you can keep your original hood.. No need to go out and spend $30 on a new glass top. The light will obviously fit directly back in its original spot just instead of a T8 light youll have a PC light in there which is 10x brighter lol.. and since you have 2 of them.. and its a 60g tank i would recommend getting the duel Sunparik 65w ballast like i have.. That way you can retrofit both light fixtures and youll total lighting if you go by wattage will be at 130 watts 4 bulbs.. You could get a 6700/6700k bulb and the other a 10k/10k.. if you need better pictures let me know ill take better ones to explain exactly how i did this


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## nick james (Oct 28, 2014)

that is some really good input candymancan. thank you


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## dcutl002 (Apr 8, 2014)

Another option is to retrofit the existing hood with led lights. Check out http://ahsupply.com.


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## nick james (Oct 28, 2014)

thank you for the reference ROYWS3. I found a few deals I couldn't pass up on that website. very reasonable. 
dcutl002 your reference is very interesting as well. thanks for that, I may use it in the future


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## ROYWS3 (Feb 1, 2014)

Let us know what you decided on


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## goodbytes (Aug 18, 2014)

I remember another post about hex tanks where dcutl002 recommended a rather expensive but intriguing solution to the depth problem.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=773650

One of these would be more than enough to go high tech if that was the goal.


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## Dead2fall (Jun 4, 2014)

I ditched the stock hood on my 35g hex which is about 24" tall. Cut a piece of Plexiglas for the top. I used an old desk drawer that I lined with aluminum tape for central ac ductwork as a reflector. Put a "Y" bulb splitter in it and run two 150w equivalent cfls. Works well, I won't ever be able to do carpeting plants partially due to my driftwood but it grows plants well! 

I'm reluctant to go the led route because it's so tall. Plus they would just look dumb the way I'd have to mount then diagonally. HINT: make corner mounts for hex tanks finnex! Lol

Please disregard the dirty, open top hob filter lol. Was using it to clear up a dust storm I stirred up!


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