Lights

[rykitten]

I ordered a Perfecto light for my 2.5 tank. On the box it says Incandesent.
Can anyone tell me if it's alright to put a fluorescent bulb into it?

I don't even really know the difference between the two. I think I saw a post a few months ago saying you should use a fluorescent if you have plants.

What's an incandescent?

 

[modernhamlet]

Ok, get this... I got back from the hardware store 15 minutes ago. What was I getting there?

A 13W compact fluorescent bulb to replace the incandescent bulb that came with my.... you guessed it: the Perfecto light fixture on my 2.5g.

Spooky.

Anyway. Holy cow! GET THE FLUORESCENT! Night and day, seriously. The old bulb was a dull yellow tone that made my betta look... eh. Not to mention it was wreaking havoc on temperature stability.

The new CF is a clean, white light and easily 5x brighter than the old bulb. The betta looks spectacular and he doesn't even seem to have noticed or cared about the change. I can't wait to see what this does for my plant growth!

So yeah... compact fluorescent.

 

[rykitten]

Thanks ModernHamlet. That is a bit spooky but pretty nifty too.

I'm glad you stumbled upon this post.

Fluorescent it is!

 

[modernhamlet]

No problem. Glad I could help!

 

[Sky042]

You want a fluorescent. Go to wal-mart(if you have on) and buy this

should cost less then $5 it has enough power so you could grow plants and screws into the incandescent socket. It's 6500K and spectrumed for fish tanks unlike most compact fluorescents you find at hardware stores that are between 3000-4200k THis will look much better.

 

[Fish Buddy]

Flourescent lights work like this: There are two electrodes on each end, argon and murcury vapours inside and the glass is covered in phosphorus. when the electricity comes through the electrodes it excites the murcury vapours which then bump into the phosphorus-creating light at a wide spectrum. This wide spectrum is what lets the fish colours be so bright-and thats why i recomend them.

 

[pendragon]

Essentially, flourescent light is more "complete", brighter and more pleasing to the eye, uses less energy and puts off far less heat (doesn't change your water temperature as much), but is comparatively costly to setup and maintain. Incandescent bulbs are much hotter, use more energy, and have a very limited light spectrum, but they're cheap.

Flourescent is easily the superior light of the two, but costlier to maintain all the way around. It is generally recommended that you replace flourescent lights once each year. They lose light in particular areas of the spectrum over time, even though we can't detect it with the human eye. Nonetheless, in my judgement flourescent is worth the cost.

Modernhamlet, I've never seen a CF bulb that works in an incandescent socket. Do you mind if I ask where you got it (Home Depot or Lowe's, perhaps?) and what the manufacturer and wattage is? Such a bulb would be exactly the solution to a quandry I'm having.

pendragon!

Edit: Oops, you mentioned the wattage. Would still like to know manufacturer and where you found it, if possible.

 

[modernhamlet]

Modernhamlet, I've never seen a CF bulb that works in an incandescent socket. Do you mind if I ask where you got it (Home Depot or Lowe's, perhaps?) and what the manufacturer and wattage is? Such a bulb would be exactly the solution to a quandry I'm having.

pendragon!

I'm at work at the moment. I'll check the brand when I get home.

However, I got it at Lowe's (though I'm sure HD has them too). It's only 3000K, unlike Sky's 6500K example. However, since this is a little, shallow 2.5g, it should be more than adequate. I got pretty decent growth in there even with the incandescent.

Since I got the new bulb and a new submersible 25w heater, the temp has been rock steady at 79F. Before, it was going between 74 and 86... within a day!

Oh, and did I mention how good Horatio looks under it?

HTH!

 

[Tempestuousfury]

So these are fluorescents bulbs in an incandescent hood, right?

If so, I was told that this was a fire hazard. If not, then my java ferns will love it.

 

[modernhamlet]

So these are fluorescents bulbs in an incandescent hood, right?

If so, I was told that this was a fire hazard. If not, then my java ferns will love it.

Yup. They look kinda like this:

Always use a CF with the same or lower wattage as the incandescent you're replacing of course. I went from a 15w Inc. (which is the rating of the fixture) to a 13w CF. Perfectly safe.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Um.

Sorry that made no sense to me. CF? I do get the lower wattage part, but that's about it.

Seen it at Walmart, but it was a different type of box and nowhere near as chepa as $4.00. ($9.00 at Petsmart!)

 

[pendragon]

Ah! I have some of those for overhead lights in my garage! And they do work quite well.

Those will typically fit where a 'standard' bulb-shaped incandescent would. For some reason, I thought you were talking about something that fit ballasts with the long-and-thin cylindrical-shaped bulbs. I haven't seen a flourescent that would fit those (yet). Still, if those bulbs fit your ballast, and you don't mind that they aren't 6500K, they would be a pretty good solution!

Not sure they're true CF bulbs, but that's not terribly important.

They can be bought here in two-packs at Wal-Mart for about eight bucks.

pendragon!

 

[Silly me]

I have a tank with those lights,

But there are not close to a full spectrum CF, The ones I have it 2700K and only 650lumens at 20 Watts, But your Java Fern should like them.

I looked on the net for other option from Phillips and they do make the same light in a 6500k 850lumens at 20 watts, but I cant seem to find them localy yet..

 

[modernhamlet]

Tempest, CF = Compact Fluorescent

I'm home now... so here's what I got. Not dissimilar from Silly me...

Sylvania 13w Soft White mini 60 Compact Fluorescent
800 lumens
3000K

If I was lighting a bigger tank with more plants than the little 2.5, I'd definitely try to get one of the 6500K ones.

 

[Sky042]

The light I posted wasn't in the home lighting section it was in the fish section and cost is 4.49.

I can post a picture of the specific bulb. It's designed to be slim enough to fit into any incandescent hood. the picture of the other style bulb posted in this thread wouldn't be able to fit in my hood.