Acrylic tubes like that shouldn’t be too hard to come by somewhere near you. You could even use a plastic pitcher that you cut the bottom out of (this would be much more rigid than the ammonia bottle approach).
I just use a normal 150 watt flood light in a cheap desk armature and a cannon G5 and photoshop CS.
Don’t make it more complicated than you need to. 😉
Have fun
Paul
BTW here’s some shots of this week’s home improvement.
http://homepage.mac.com/riverwader/.Pictures/family/4060/index.htm