Affordable DIY lighting option for freshwater?

[Malarky]

I am looking for a DIY lighting option for my open top 80 cm freshwater medium energy tank (mainly plants) and don't want to spend £££s on branded aquarium specific lamps. It's in a living space so should look reasonablr decorous, I'm thinking of some kind of IKEA standard lamp(s) with LED grow bulbs. Does anyone have recent history of looking at this kind of option?

 

[erwin123]

you can hang IKEA hangshades - (eg: IKEA Hektar) over your tank with this bulb attached and the frosted cover removed.
2 bulbs will give you 100w of LED power....

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

I used an LED spotlight over one of my tanks but the lamps didn’t last very long so I gave up on the idea. It’s probably worked out cheaper now that I’ve bought a proper Aquarium light.

 

[The grumpy one]

I use these:

The good thing about them is they are GU10 (230V) fitting and so you can decide what colour temp, beam angle and lumen output suites you. You can also get them in dimmable and you could setup a small controller to give you sun rise/sunset timers.
Lantern £11
Lamps £1 to £5