sounds like you are headed in a good direction. when i had my fowlr 55 setup i used a 48" twin shop light robbed from the storage shed at work. ugly as sin, but well within my budget. i decided it was most efficient just to sit the fixture right down on the tank's lip. just be careful you never bump it hard enough with your elbow to dump it in. that would suck for sure. i found i had to wipe salt off the bulbs on a weekly basis, but for a basically free fixture it was worth it. not sure if you can get one in the six foot (never looked had a four foot tank so no need too) but they have 6500k bulbs at the depot for like $6 much cheaper then a special fish tank type bulb and since you are running actics(i'll assume) anyway it's no biggie. if it were me i wold want four bulbs over the tank and run three of them the 6500k and one good quality actinic. as far as the wiring goes. white and black are interchangable and green is your ground. for mine it worked out cheapest to buy an extesion cord cut it about four feet from the plug and wire it right to the ballast. you can use little orange twistymahoosies, or break out the soldering iron like i did. just use tons of tape over whatever you do because salt water is wicket conductive and no matter how carful you are some will get in there.
another thing you may want to look into since it's a wall unit and lighting is going to be out of sight is the lightsofamerica 65 watt compact florecent fixture from home depot. i have one running over my refugium and it's a decent little fixture for $28 bucks bulb included. at 5500k definatly would need actinic suplimentation for use in a display tank though but still. put three of them up there with one or two NO actinic tubes and you got alot of bang for the buck. just something to think about. with a little inginuity you should be able to pull something together for under $100.
you seem to be all hungup on a hood. i think it's safe to say 80% of us have our tanks open. a hood's only worthwile funtion is too hide ugly lighting which for you isn't a concern. IME they keep to much heat in, limmit gas exchange and just plain get in the way when you want to fiddle around. while you are at the depot i would highly recomend you get one of those aplience timers. i have had trouble(lots) with the cheapo plasic peg ones not tipping the switch as the pegs pass so i would recomend a digital one. no probs since i switched. fish like to be on a regular scedule and it sure comes in handy those nights you never make it back from the bar.
ok that was far to long, sorry :roll: i hope you at least got something useful from it.
another thing you may want to look into since it's a wall unit and lighting is going to be out of sight is the lightsofamerica 65 watt compact florecent fixture from home depot. i have one running over my refugium and it's a decent little fixture for $28 bucks bulb included. at 5500k definatly would need actinic suplimentation for use in a display tank though but still. put three of them up there with one or two NO actinic tubes and you got alot of bang for the buck. just something to think about. with a little inginuity you should be able to pull something together for under $100.
you seem to be all hungup on a hood. i think it's safe to say 80% of us have our tanks open. a hood's only worthwile funtion is too hide ugly lighting which for you isn't a concern. IME they keep to much heat in, limmit gas exchange and just plain get in the way when you want to fiddle around. while you are at the depot i would highly recomend you get one of those aplience timers. i have had trouble(lots) with the cheapo plasic peg ones not tipping the switch as the pegs pass so i would recomend a digital one. no probs since i switched. fish like to be on a regular scedule and it sure comes in handy those nights you never make it back from the bar.
ok that was far to long, sorry :roll: i hope you at least got something useful from it.
