New Aquarium Light

[Idaho Redneck]

After some five years, the fluorescent light in my aquarium finally burnt out. The bulb was from a pet-store that I no longer live by. On the bulb, it says:

AQUA-GLO
36"/89.46cm 30W
Made in Japan

I bought a slightly different replacement bulb at Walmart. On the new bulb, it says:

Ecolux TECHNOLOGY
GE kitchen & bath F30
light output: 2200 lumens
energy used: 30 watts
life: 18,000 hours
color temp.:
3000 K
cri: 68

Also, the old bulb had a purplish tint and this new one has a yellowish tint. The new bulb is slightly larger in diameter and appears brighter than the old one. When I first turned the new one on (after about a month of not having any light on in the tank), the fish started swimming about frantically until after I turned it off. Does this mean that they were just excited that there was light, or was it because the light is the wrong kind and irritated them?

What do you think? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Idaho Redneck]

Any ideas?

 

[bobbo]

In my expericen the light fequencies given out by the Aquarium specific bulb range vastly between each other i.e. Life - Glo , SUN - Glo


For example the spec of my smaller 80L tank bulbs are as follows

Power Glow 20W
LUX 80
Spectrum 18000K

Life- GLO 20W
LUX 135
Spectrum 4200K

I am trying a differnt make , but aquarium speccifci model , in my 200L tank having always used GLO tubes in the past. Limted success form a visual point of view but the fish are happy. I am not sure that the buld you listed belwo if vasly diffent accoring to my chart you are emititng somwhere between a Flora-GLO and a SUN-GLO if you are outputting 3000K .. I am no expert but i dont htink you buld is doping any damage ot the fish ? I woul perhpas get a GLO and see if they react the same to be on the safe side . Assuming they do then you now have a spare bulb..

Cheers
Rob

 

[SuperColey1]

It depends if you are using the light for a planted tank really.

The AquaGlo you had originally was supposedly a plant lamp in that it was pinkish and probs around the 6500K region.

The one you have now is a subdued light and not much good for plants.

Also the SquaGlo was one of Hagens older lamps (and IMO they are not much good) The newer Hagen lamps are supposed to be quite good.

If you are using the lamps for plants then you really need to change them every year or so as the bulb 'wears out' over time and therefore the light omitted reduces. If you wait until it stops then you go from decent light to zero over 5 years then all of a sudden when you replace the bulb you have good light again and algae takes over (as the plants are slower to adapt to changes like light parameters)

Andy