Higher Wattage Bubls

[RRasco]

i am looking to get better lighting before i begin planting. problem is my 55 gallon tank has 2 seperate ballasts and hoods that each house an 18" 15W bulb, with a hood divider built into the tank. i am looking for about 3W/gallon and cannot find higher wattage 18" bulbs. do they even exist? or am i going to have to hit the drawing board and make my own?

 

[Egmel]

i am looking to get better lighting before i begin planting. problem is my 55 gallon tank has 2 seperate ballasts and hoods that each house an 18" 15W bulb, with a hood divider built into the tank. i am looking for about 3W/gallon and cannot find higher wattage 18" bulbs. do they even exist? or am i going to have to hit the drawing board and make my own?

You will need to check the ballasts in the hoods to see if they will take even an 18W bulb (if you put in a bulb that is higher than the rating then you may end up burning out the ballasts).

If you want to fit new ballasts and bulbs then you can get short length high wattage bulbs in the T5 format (you probably currently have T8s)

HTH

 

[RRasco]

thanks.

do you know where i can get 18" ballasts with higher wattage bulbs?

 

[Egmel]

thanks.

do you know where i can get 18" ballasts with higher wattage bulbs?

Fraid not, you can get 18W ones fairly easily but other than that you're into T5s. Most hardware stores sell them, ebay quite often has them too. Can't recommend any as I have no experience with them. Sorry.

 

[RRasco]

i mean 18 inches not watts. i need about 150W between all of my lights.

 

[Egmel]

i mean 18 inches not watts. i need about 150W between all of my lights.

I know, but the strongest ones I've seen in my brief search are 18W, after that you're looking at T5 format. However I am not pretending to be an expert on this, there may be other solutions that I haven't seen. Try asking in the DIY forum.

 

[RRasco]

ok, thx. i have not seen higher than 15W in the 18". i will probably build my own hoods since i want moon lighting as well.

 

[Egmel]

ok, thx. i have not seen higher than 15W in the 18". i will probably build my own hoods since i want moon lighting as well.

http/www.firstlightdirect.com/scp/Fluore..._Dia_Lamps.html

 

[RRasco]

thanks...although i will probably end up building hoods to cover the ballasts, and the unsightly top of the tank.