Here's the hood with lights installed. This is a maple canopy that goes with the stand, purchased at my local shop. Two of the lights
(those on the white area of the hood) will be on the lid and will raise out of the way when opened.
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As a general rule, a planted tank should have between 2 and 4 watts per gallon of fluorescent light. I chose a target of 3 watts per gallon, which would be 75 * 3 = 225 watts. While this is a 48" tank and it would be possible to use conventional fluorescent lamps (a total of 5 or 6 tubes) I prefer the versatility of power compacts. I chose a 4x55 watt kit from AH Supply, for a total of 220 watts.
AH Supply provides good instructions and great parts - their reflectors are second to none. While a bit of electronics knowledge helps, the process of building these kits is simple. With the 4x55 watt kit, there are two ballasts, each driving two bulbs. All you have to do is hook up two wires (with wire nuts or splices) from each ballast to a power cord, and two wires from each ballast to the socket for the bulb.For the physical assembly, each reflector mounts with two screws; these also mount bulb clips that will hold the bulb in place. The socket is not mounted, but the bulb clips have no trouble holding it too.
Here's the hood with lights installed. This is a maple canopy that goes with the stand, purchased at my local shop. Two of the lights
(those on the white area of the hood) will be on the lid and will raise out of the way when opened.
The lights when turned on. (It worked the first time!) Note that the camera has reduced its exposure to compensate for all of the light, and thus the
canopy itself is invisible.
I'm using 5300K lamps in the front half of the tank and 6700K lamps in the back, just for fun. This might create an
illusion of depth... Or not.