The Glasscages canopy comes without any lighting installed, but I found a very economical solution for this problem. Home Depot (but not Lowes!) sells 4' double strip fluorescent shop lights for only $7.95. Amazingly, these have modern electronic ballasts, which makes them suitable not only for the older T12, but also for T8 light strips. The price is incredibly low, and the first time I saw them I thought it might be some special or clearance item, but it is their regular price, and I have bought them repeatedly over the years, not only for aquariums, but also for the garage, laundry and so on. The Home Depot stores run out of them quite frequently though, presumably when a contractor needs these lights for a larger project, and buys up the entire stock. So if you want to use these, check your local Home Depot well in advance.

Now, if you think this is an incredible deal, it is not all Home Depot has to offer you for your aquarium lighting needs. They also sell matching Philips Daylight Deluxe™ T8 light strips with 6500K; that is close to daylight color temperature, for $6.97 per 2-pack at the time of writing this (April 2007). Compare this to what you would pay for a similar tube that is sold through a local fish store or online aquarium supplies outlet, and you will see what a great deal this is. For my canopy I use four of the shop lights with a total of eight of the tubes. Six of the tubes are 6500K, and I complement them with two 3000K tubes, which I put in the second slot from the front on both the left and right-hand side for a warmer overall look of the tank.

Since the canopy was just a smidgen too short to fit two 4' shop light side-by-side, I had to stagger them a little as you can see in the photos. I also had to prune the reflectors a little in the corners using a pair of plate shears. My main concern initially was that these cheap shop lights might be prone to rusting in the moist aquarium environment, especially in the areas were the protective coating had been removed due to me cutting off parts of the reflector. After running the setup now for about two years, none of this has become an issue. In addition, the illumination this setup provides is very even throughout the tank. My plants are doing great, the fish look pretty good to me, and I believe the price of this lighting solution for an 8' tank can't be beat.

The shop lights would also work well in any DIY canopy for the common 4' tanks (55G, 75G, 90G, etc.), but unfortunately for smaller tanks I am not aware of anything similar being available.

Philips Daylight Deluxe™ T8 light strip with 6500K, available at Home Depot for $6.97 per 2-pack at the time of writing this (April 2007), provides 'arctic-white' light according to the label. These close to daylight spectrum lamps are great for bringing out all colors of the fish and give the tank a bright appearance.

Philips Soft White™ T8 light strip with 3000K, available at Home Depot for $6.97 per 2-pack at the time of writing this (April 2007), provides 'flattering light that shows colors accurately' according to the label. I use two of these lights next to six of the Daylight Deluxe™ to give the tank a somewhat warmer look and boost plant growth a little.

Addendum July 2007:

I had to replace the ballast in one of my light fixtures. It is the second one that required replacement in two years, which would be a real pest in a more expensive light fixture, but given the low price and the ready availability of these lights, it really isn't a problem. Anyhow, I noticed that Home Depot has increased the price of these lights to $8.53. At the same time the ballast inside the lamps has changed - see photo. This makes it a bit harder to swap ballasts because you have to drill a new mounting hole. The good news, however, is that the new ballasts are still electronic and suitable for T12 and T8 light strips; that is they work just like the old ones - and they are still the cheapest lighting solution around!

Electronic ballasts in Home Depot's 4' double strip fluorescent shop lights. New model (from about July 2007) at top, and old model (until about July 2007) at the bottom.

Addendum October 2007:

These lighting fixtures don't seem to be as readily available at Home Depot all over the country as I had thought, and I had several requests for the model number, which might make it easier for people to track them down. The Home Depot model number is: 732-334. Best of luck in finding them - it's well worth looking!

Addendum December 2007:

I received a question from Jason Freeman about my lighting solution, which I thought worth sharing:

Question:

Frank,

I am very impressed with your site. Lots of great information and lots of descriptive pictures. The 240 look amazing, I bet its a very enjoyable tank to have in your den. The rock background is sweet, as long as you don't have to move the tank anytime soon.

While browsing through your lighting section, I saw that you used a DIY with HD lights. I went to HD and bought the same light to mount inside a canopy I have. I was wondering how you flush mounted them to your canopy? Mine has chain mounts. I was thinking about using some gorilla glue or some kind of strong adhesive.

Thanks. 🙂

Jason

Answer:

Yes, the HD lights do have chain mounts, but I have never installed them like that - neither in the tank canopy or elsewhere in the house. If you open up the lighting, you can put a screw through the sheet metal, get the electrical installation the way you want to - in my house I don't use the supplied power cord with the plug, but connect the lamp to a switch like any regular ceiling lamp - and then put the whole thing together again.

The tricky part in the canopy was that the top of my canopy is made from 1/4" plywood. Any screw you might put in that would just come right out on the other side. I used a good wood glue (Liquid Nails) to attach a thicker piece of wood to the canopy and then screwed the light fixture onto that. Since I used only two thin strips of wood on the left and right side of the light fixture, respectively, this has the added benefit that air can circulate between the light fixture and the canopy, which might have a cooling effect on the lamp. If you know they are there you can probably see these wood strips in the photos on this page. They are painted white like the whole inside of the canopy.

Gluing the light fixture directly to the canopy no doubt would work as well, but if you ever have to swap out the lamp for some reason that might be a bit of a hassle!

Addendum January 2008:

One of the main shortfalls of this lighting solution is that it's only available in 4', so it's great for your standard 4' tanks, like 55G, 75G, and 90G, as well as 8-footers, but how about other tanks? Well, I've recently installed this same lighting solution in a 6-footer, namely a 125G (72"x18"x20"), and as you can see in the picture below, it's working there as well.

Lighting solution installed in a 6' DIY canopy for a 125G tank.