Budget lighting options

[a date with nature]

SO i know people usually just go for like shoplights or something similar, but the all the ones i'm finding are like 2200 lumens? Ihave a feeling that that probably wouldn't be healthy for the fish and could cause stress but i also dont know how lumens work or if the fish would actually care. asking for advice from the people who have experience before i make dumb choices.

I just need lighting thats bright enough to see all the fishes colors no plants. looking for something around 60 bucks or less to cover an area of about 36sq ft. tanks are 17 inches deep

[Macready]

Howdy,

Trying to get a picture of the problem here, you've got multiple tanks in a 36sq ft area and you are hoping to find one light that will cover it? 

Will the light be mounted on the ceiling? 

ACOOP sells a light that can hit 2200 lumens and sits right on the tank, so a 2200 lumen light that is hanging from the ceiling should be safe for the fish, may not actually be enough light depending on how tall the ceiling is, etc... 

If you aren't worried about plants this should be a pretty solvable problem.  I'll be interested to read what others say. 

[a date with nature]

It's a rack, so the spots where lights are going to be mounted are about 7 inches from water surface. I was just referencing the sq footage so people wouldn't recommend one light thats sixty bucks. the shelves are 2' by 6' if that helps and there are three of them

[Macready]

That helps thanks.  Yeah too bright a light and no plants might cause you some algae problems... hrmm...

Hoping someone can point you in a direction.  If you did throw some plants in there it might help prevent some algae, but I get it if you don't want to get into that game. 

[a date with nature]

Would rootless plants like mosses work? I just want everything to be easily accessible. 

[Galabar]

You want to cover three 2x6 tanks with $60?

Shop lights?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Cedar-Hill-4-ft-70-Watt-Equivalent-42-Watt-Integrated-LED-White-Shop-Light-Linkable-410001/318777192

[Macready]

It's going to have to be something like that @Galabar but I worry about the light intensity and how close they'd be to the tank. Maybe there is one that is dimmable so the intensity can be controlled, probably not in the 20$/ea price range though. 

Floating plants might work @a date with nature , added benefit of providing some shade to the tank. Mosses won't hurt but probably grow too slow to help much. Stem plants will suck up nutrients out of the water column, hopefully before the algae does. 

How many fish are we talking in the tanks? If you are planning on high bio-loads plants might be even more important. 

Relatively new to the hobby, just my .02.