10 gallon hood

julesies77 · 05-03-2004, 04:51 PM

Got a question thought all you reef buffs could help me with.
I'm just starting to acquire my 10 gallon reef equipment...reading lots and lots, doing lots of research.....
I have a generic 10 gallon tank, and recently received a hardly-ever-used hood.
I'm really very uneducated when it comes to aquarium lighting, so please don't laugh! :0)
The lighting in this hood consists of two oblong bulbs stretching out in opposite directions.
What I had planned was using a PC retrofit kit....can I still use this hood and add a different lighting system to it?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.

sammy33 · 05-03-2004, 07:23 PM

Do you have a pic?

It kinda sounds like you have a twin tube Pefecto style hood. It is possible to retrofit it with compact fluorescents for more wattage. Normal 18" fluorescents are 15 watts each so you have about 30 watts of light over the tank. Depending on what type of corals you want to keep a 2 x 32w or 2 x 36w CFL retrofit would be my recommendation. These may or may not fit in your hood? Do you have any dimensions...LxWxH?

julesies77 · 05-04-2004, 08:09 AM

Well, I know the dimensions of the tank are 20" L x 10" W x 12 1/2" H
I am planning on keeping Live Rock, Live Sand, cleanup crew, and a couple of fish (clownfish and damsel) and possibly an anemone. Not sure what type of coral i would keep, if any. And now that you say Perfecto, I'm almost positive that's the name on the hood. Would the light fixture that is in this hood work for my nano reef?

jeepjon · 05-04-2004, 12:03 PM

it sounds like you may have two incandescent bulbs in the tank. You may be able to get two screw in 50/50 Power compact bulbs. It would be about 20 watts of light over the tank...just enough to maintain some very easy corals, but definitely not an anemone...anemone's are very difficult, from what I hear, and from my own bad experiences.

sammy33 · 05-04-2004, 09:52 PM

Jeepjon is probably right. It does sound like you have the incandescent hood. If you want to keep an anemone you will need to get some fairly good light over the tank. I know a lot of folks are using the quad 96w fixture for 10g nano reefs.

julesies77 · 05-05-2004, 09:07 AM

The Anemone will be far in the future, if at all, and if I become brave enough.....I read that the usual rule is 2-3 watts of light per gallon....wasn't sure about that. But if that's true, then the screw in compact lights would work.
Thanks for all the info!