# Anyone know of a good clip light? or 15" width light bar?



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

I decided to remove the hood from an 8 gallon bowfront, the built in filter stopped working, and the light was junk so I was hoping to put a simple clip light on there and go topless. I do have low light plants, and hoping to do some medium light plants so it needs to be decent and low profile as its under some kitchen cabinets, and moon lights would be a huge plus.

Anyways I have looked at big als, they have a 25W compact fluorecent clip light for $99, but was wondering what other options there might be? T5 seem to be out as its 15" width and they don't seem to go that small, LED also seems to be an option but I have no idea about them or if they make them for the unique width of my tank, so I was thinking clip lights with CFL's are the way to go? Or anyone know of anything better?


----------



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

So I ended up going with a Coralife 11 Inch Mini AquaLight T5 HO Fixture, with a 3/4 watt LED moonlight on the side. Its only 11", and my tank is 15" width so I will have to build some sort of top for it to sit on, but it appears to be a nice light for a nano tank for anyone else looking.
Coralife 11 Inch Mini AquaLight T5 HO Fixture (2-6W)

Couple questions, I understand 12W of T5HO light is much better than a 23W CFL? if so how much better? would this light still be considered low light on an 8 gallon 12" deep tank?

Thanks!


----------



## user_error (Aug 15, 2010)

should be enough light on 8G's to do medium light plants no problem... i think 23W cfl is a bit stronger than 12w t5ho, but exact science on that is still a little murky to me... should go 12" deep no problem though


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

i would say that with the t5ho you are pushing just barely high light. the 23 watt cfl is also more than enough light, if you don't have proper plant load and nutrient balance, you'll be growin spot algae on the gravel with that cfl


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Isn't one of the bulbs actinic? If so, I'd get that changed to a daylight or 10000K.


----------



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

Thanks, I have always only tried low light, was hoping this might give me a bit more choice in plants with T5HO, when I had the 23W CFL in there the hairgrass grew quite tall and spindly, and some other plants melted, it was only the petite nana, swords and crypts that survived, so I figured it must have been the light. The aqua light mini does have an antic bulb, but I ordered another 10K to go in it for 2 10K bulbs, I guess all I can do is give a couple medium light plants with the new one and see how they fare.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Depending on how you were managing it, I think with the 23 watts of CFL, you might have actually limited the plants by lack of nutrients. You should have been able to grow lots of plants with a 23 W CFL even with their inefficiencies. A bit of Excel and the odd pinch of KNO3 might help you there.


----------



## user_error (Aug 15, 2010)

you really need to be testing your water i didn't know the importance of nitrates in my tanks until a bunch of plants melted because no3 was 0...


----------



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

interesting, I always assumed it was lighting, now that I think about it, I had alot of plants (about 12) and only cardinals and cherry shrimp in it which might have not kept up to the plant needs. Perhaps I need to give this another try. The CFL was built into my hood, I have since gotten rid of the hood, thats why the switch to the T5HO, anyways thanks for the tips 

I did test for nitrates, they were always around 5 in my tank, seems low?


----------



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

So I didnt want to start yet another thread, I am hoping someone might catch this question in here. I got some eco plus lunar lights EcoPlus LED Moonlight (3/4 Watt) they same easy installation but I cannot figure how to mount these things the way they are supposed to. Has anyone had experience with these? I was wanting to mount it to the underside of my Hagen GLO T5HO light but cannot figure it out with the brackets supplied, and they come with no instructions.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I bought 2 of these for my new tank, but have not mounted. I think they are supposed to be mounted to your canopy, so I'm not sure if they can be mounted to a light strip without mounting a plate somewhere. Did you get these from J&L? If so, I would give them a call. Jeff is a super guy who will go way out of his way to help.


----------



## summit (Aug 22, 2010)

I think you might be right, I dont think it will attach to my setup without some modifications. Well I think the easiest thing to do would be to have it clamp on to the tank with a flexible shaft similar to what you would find on a desklamp, now its just a matter of rounding up the parts, anyone know where to get such items?


----------

