Everything you ever wanted to know about DIY lighting, but were afraid to ask

[Shaunna]

I want to say that this is pretty easy to understand and coming from me that is HUGE!!! I do have a couple of questions though. My hood is a stock flourescent hood and I was planning on just doing the retrokit from ahsupply and then Joey was going to build the hood but if I can just do the compact flourescents on the hood that I have that would be great. So would 2 CF bulbs be enough to put over a 29 gallon if I was planning on planting it ata bout 3 wpg? Also, when I go looking for the sockets will there be certain ones for higher watts?

[bigredspecial]

For a 29, you'll most likely need to go with four bulbs instead of two, unless you can find higher wattage bulbs where you are. The highest I've seen around here were 40 watts, which would give you 2.76 wpg, but they are only 2700K, so they won't look pretty Four 23 watt bulbs will give you 3.1 wpg, and you'll have more colors to choose from.

Sockets come in many shapes and forms, but all will handle anything we can throw at it, and then some. Think about it, they can handle 120 watt incandescent bulbs no problem, 23 or 40w is a joke. The only thing to look for is price, how well they'll fit in the hood, and whether they are waterproof or not.

I selected my sockets simply because they are the cheapest ones available. The fact that they are waterproof outdoor units was just an added bonus.

[love_fish]

Alright, thanks for the clarity bigred, i tihnk i can do this now.

Oh wait another question lol. Since i need to add more than 2 bulbs, i should get more wire right? ANd to incorporate the switch, should i just splice that in too?

[bigredspecial]

Exactly; just double everything up after the switch.

A better solution would to be what I do, which is to run it all off timers. I run seperate power cords off each pair of bulbs and the tube, three total. The timers are only around $5 each, and can be found at any hardware store.

With this set up, I have three sets of lights which are staggered by about 10-20 minutes when they come on and turn off. This makes a more natural setting; instead of dark one minute, 100% light the next, it goes dark-33%-66%-100%, then in the evening it goes 100%-66%-33%-0.

[love_fish]

Thats a good idea, but im sure ill be drained after doing this as im not the brightest when it comes to this. I even took an electronics course and i dont understand some of this. I was thinking instead of heat shrinking, i can splice all the wires i need together, and put those little caps that hold them together on it. Would that be ok?

[bigredspecial]

If anyone else plans to use timers, simply do the setup I did for each set of lights, and plug each seperate power cord into a timer. That's all.

Love Fish, you certainly can use caps if you want; I only use heatshrink because it is so easy and fast - just slip the tube over the wire, heat it, and it shrinks.

[love_fish]

Hmm, maybe ill use the heat shrink then, idk yet.

Once again, thanks for the walkthrough, seems easy enough.

[love_fish]

Is this how the wires should look like. Just a note, that's only half of the wires there, the other ones will look identical.

Do i need to move the switch wire down before the other wires, or will it be ok just with them.

[bigredspecial]

That looks fine. Either way will work for the switch, but wireing it all up will probably be easier if the switch is before the seperate wires (As in, big wire-switch-more big wire-individual wires).

PS: make sure you put the switch on the negative side - the side with the smaller plug.

[love_fish]

http://photobucket.com/albums/v683/s...rrent=Hood.jpg

This is how itll look in all. Theres 2 wires coming from the switch.