Lights

[Jen]

I will be getting a 90gal tank that only has 40 watts of light on it, and since I have a planted tank, I need 5 times that.

I want to know if i can use the regular screw in house light bulbs instead of the flourescent tubes and still get the same results.

thanks


Maybe this should be in the plant forum... ill re post there.

 

[jmelnek]

I believe incadescents are not the right temp....

 

[Jen]

How about halogen lights? I found some cute little 100W halogen lights for like 10 dollars a piece.

 

[sgstvoy]

Don't buy incandacents, they produce alo of heat (and you can sustain burns, so careful) and aren't not very energy efficient.

I suggest getting florescents, or halogens.

 

[Jen]

You think halogens would work? How can I tell if they are the right colour temperature?

I could easily get 3 of the 100watt halogens for my tank and not have to worry about what kind of plants to buy. That woud be in-expensive to do.


I just found a link that showed the Kelvin rating of Halogens. They are rated at 3650 K, so obviously the wrong colour temperature.

 

[Silly me]

incandacents, halogans same thing..

Its not really any good.

 

[weswest]

Big Al's Online sells power-compact bulbs that screw into a regular household halogen socket. These are full spectrum bulbs for aquaria. I am in the process of rigging up some sockets to light my tank currently.

 

[Jen]

Those are a bit pricey. I like that the flourescent bulbs are only 8 dollars a piece. I might just go with theflourescent for now until i can afford something better.

 

[Yenko]

Plain old flourescent tubes are probably what you want. If you want to spend the money, Metal Halide lighting would be better, but you should still get good results with plain old flourescents. I'm designing a canopy for a 70 gallon tank; fitting 5 tubes over a 48X16" space should be interesting.