Aquarium tube lighting

[bogusmove]

I have real trouble keeping the temperature of my 440L tank down, no small part of the reason being the lighting. I use the 4 tubes originally supplied with the tank, and together they emit an awful lot of heat.

I was wondering if the quality and/or life time of tubes makes a difference, and if it might help to replace them or if a tube is a tube when it comes to things like heat emissions.

Anyone have any ideas in this area?

 

[fraservet]

I wouldn't have thought that 4 fluorescent tubes would produce enough heat to make much difference to a tank of that size.
(I assume it is fluorescent tubes you have? - if not the rest of this will be no use)


are the starter units built into the hood? these can produce a lot of heat.

the newer electronic ballast starters produce a lot less heat than the old type (if you are not sure, the light starts instantly with the new ones as opposed to flickering for a few seconds with the older type)


I'm not sure about changes in heat with age and type of bulb (don't think it makes much difference though), but you should change your tubes every 6 months anyway as although they seem to be as bright, they lose their useful output.

 

[bogusmove]

I wouldn't have thought that 4 fluorescent tubes would produce enough heat to make much difference to a tank of that size.
(I assume it is fluorescent tubes you have? - if not the rest of this will be no use)

They are fluorestent yes, and they start with a flicker-flicker-flicket-ping! So I guess they have "old" starters. The aquarium has runners on the sides on which 2 bars are sat which have the mountings for the tubes and also hold the starters.

There is alot of heat in the air above the water, under the hood. Alot. If I remove a portion of the hood and put my hand over it, or my face, the air coming off of it feels realllllly warm.

They are 30W tubes I think.

 

[fraservet]

if it's really a problem, getting a new hood with electronic starters might help
alternatively, if you can provide some ventilation to your current hood or even a small fan things should improve

 

[bogusmove]

These starters, are they the "ballasts" I keep reading about, or is that something different? I could probably rig a fan somehow... I just wondered if I wasn't working around the problem instead of solving it.

 

[fraservet]

yes, starter = ballast (I tend to use starter because it is more recognisable - ballast to me is something to weigh down a boat)

more thoughts on your problem

- try leaving the lights off for a day and see what happens with the temperature

- feel the starter units after they have been on for a while to see how hot they are

- if you aren't worried about fish jumping out, leave the hood "open" to provide some ventilation and see what difference that makes

it might be helpful if you gave some details about your tank/hood, what the temperature is at different times of the day etc.

 

[enchanted]

Starter does not equal Ballast.

They are two different things. Very few ballasts have the starter built in. The starter is a small cylindrical thing that can usually be accessed from the underside of the light (where the light actually goes).

 

[Lateral Line]

ddreams is right. Electronic starters and older type ballast unit are very different. Electronic starters normally do not flicker, they fire the tube first time. They also run cool. Ballasts run warm-hot, and the starter gets crankier with age and flickers more and more.

The fluorescent lamps also deteriorate with age. The quality of the lamp determines how fast and how far. A good quality modern tri-phosphor lamp should only fade about 10-15% before it burns out. Cheap lamps fade by as much as a half over a period of 9-12 months. Thus it is frequently advised that fluorescent lamps should be replaced when they get to 6-9 months old anyway. This, whilst not totally accurate, is not bad advice for people who habitually buy cheap lamps.