Hello everyone! I have a 33 gal (36"X12"X18") tank that has been established now for approximately a year and up until now it has been strictly fish only as it was my first tropical tank. It's starting to look like it just needs "Something" so I've decided to dip into the planted world. Currently my tank doesn't have an "aquarium" lighting system. The lighting system that was in it recently went under a major malfunction so I tossed the internals too the system and set a heavy duty desk lamp over it with a compact fluorescent in it for the time being.
Mainly my question is that I'm going to build my own lighting system and I have done a lot of research and can't decide what type I'd like to use. I am an apprentice industrial electrician so I like to believe I have an idea what im doing on the electrical end so wiring isn't a big deal. I've researched LED's and actually built an LED system but it only lasted about a month and the LED's started to go bad which is to be expected because I used the cheapest LED's you can get and they weren't made for humid environments. Should I go the whole she-bang and buy the proper LED's off ebay or should I go the florescent route or even easier yet the Compact florescent route? I only plan on running a low tech system without CO2, Which kelvin rating should I aim for? Also which plants are best suited? I just put in some java moss in a week ago so hopefully that will take off soon.
Thanks!
Here's a pic the way it currently looks
!!EDIT!! : Well after further research and messing around with my current rigged up temporary light fixture I'm going to go the route of the CF's. I found a few CF's laying around here that are 13W 6500k and look really good and believe it or not, they're from the dollar store. So I'm going to build a fixture in the near future so keep an eye open in the DIY section for my little project!
Lighting, what to use and how much of it?
