# Any Finnex Light owners? Odd length tank



## BettaBubbles (Jan 20, 2014)

So I'm finally am deciding to get rid of my tank's hood with the dinky 1 T8 bulb. My plants aren't too happy right now.

Amazon has some nice deals right now so it's falling into place, . The dilemma is that my tank measures 31.5 inches. The closest light is 30" without extending over. I emailed finnex and they suggested to get the 36" in case the legs of the 30" become unstable from being stretched out.

Has anyone come into this situation before? The 36" is only $25 more so that's no problem. Just aesthetically might not be nice. I plan to check them out in stores as well to see how the legs look like.


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## TorontoPlantMan (Aug 16, 2013)

BettaBubbles said:


> So I'm finally am deciding to get rid of my tank's hood with the dinky 1 T8 bulb. My plants aren't too happy right now.
> 
> Amazon has some nice deals right now so it's falling into place, . The dilemma is that my tank measures 31.5 inches. The closest light is 30" without extending over. I emailed finnex and they suggested to get the 36" in case the legs of the 30" become unstable from being stretched out.
> 
> Has anyone come into this situation before? The 36" is only $25 more so that's no problem. Just aesthetically might not be nice. I plan to check them out in stores as well to see how the legs look like.


I ran into the same problem the first time I wanted to get some new lights. I looked into aquatic life because they had a 30" light but I was not satisfied with it because their 30" model takes 24" bulbs leaving you with a few inches of extra room on each side. Alternatively, I ended up purchasing the Coralife 30" Dual T5HO fixture because the bulbs are true 30" bulbs (more like 29" more or less but close enough). The coralife fixture comes with mounting legs which you can slide forward or backward and would allow you to use it on your 31.5" tank.

IMO 36" is going to give you too much extra light on each side which will result in 1) algae problems and 2) it won't look as nice.


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## baishui (Jan 7, 2014)

I have the 20" one. I would say 1.5 inches (which is actually 0.75 inches on each side) is not a big deal at all. I will have a look tonight at mine to see how much it could stretch out and let you know.


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## BettaBubbles (Jan 20, 2014)

I'll have to look into the other lights to compare. LED lighting is completely new to me. I definitely think a 36" would look ugly on my tank.

Thanks for looking into your lights for me! I appreciate it!


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## baishui (Jan 7, 2014)

I measured mine. The connector on each side of the light is 3" long, so for your tank, you will have to extend half of it out on each side. I tried on mine, seems OK, although it doesn't look very steady. But remember mine is a 20".

The picture below shows the connector, 3" is the length of the top of the connector.


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## BettaBubbles (Jan 20, 2014)

baishui said:


> I measured mine. The connector on each side of the light is 3" long, so for your tank, you will have to extend half of it out on each side. I tried on mine, seems OK, although it doesn't look very steady. But remember mine is a 20".
> 
> The picture below shows the connector, 3" is the length of the top of the connector.


Thank you very much for measuring for me, I appreciate it! So it does seem like I might have to look into other brands or find a hanging one. Or just swap my tank out for an actual 30"  Seems like that would be the easiest route.


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