Buying brand new aquarium light fixtures every time you set up a planted aquarium can end up costing hundreds of dollars. With a few technical skills and some power tools, you can create custom light fixtures for your tanks and end up saving yourself some cash that can be better spent on plants and fish. Here we demonstrate how to recycle a pair of old t8 aquarium light fixtures eventually creating a custom fixture for a 20 gallon tank.

 

     In this video we use tin foil as a reflector- tin foil is a terrible as a reflector because it bounces light in all directions, reducing the efficiency of light transmission. It was used in this project because it was the cheapest material and still better than nothing at all. In the t5 shop light build video we use Panda Film, a reflective material used in greenhouses. This material is a much better and if you have the budget, we suggest using it instead. 

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