Bulbs Question

[niki090909]

I have a 55 gallon tank. There are two hoods that go on top of the tank. (one hood on each side of the tank divider thing)

Right now there are 2 15 watt bulbs in there that came with the set up, which I got a Wal-mart, so I know these hoods are bottom of the line.

I looked at the bulbs at walmart and another hardware store, knowing i need more light with my plants I wanted to get some more watts. The bulb length I have only goes up to 20 watts.

So I went to bigalsonline.com they have bulbs with more watts. Sounds great

Heres my question:

With the hoods I have, can you put any watt in them? The hoods didn't come with any instructions with them, so I dunno if I could buy a compact light of some sort? Do I need to buy a different kind of hood to handle more watts?

I've heard that 2 watts per gallon is your basic lighting for plants. So i'd need around 2 55 watt bulbs.

Any advice would be great TY Niki

 

[Antony]

Niki,

Fitting bigger gloves isn't as always as easy as that when it comes to flouro tubes.

Theres a thing called a ballast that runs the flouro tube. It has a maximum wattage globe it can run.

You need to check their wattage capacity before buying new tubes.

Otherwise I think you'll over draw on the balast which will inturn cause some serious problems.

My ballast was rated for 36W and I'm running 40W and it has caused a brown burn type spot to appear on the PVC reflector in my setup !!!!

Cheers
Antony

 

[niki090909]

Oh I see, thanks, i'll look into that

 

[sinasster]

i beleive your lights can only use a 15w bulb max. if you want better lights than you need to upgrade the entire fixture.

just for the record the regent brands sold at wal-mart are made by marineland. and perhaps they are not top of the line but definatley high quality. It is safe to say that everyone on this forumn has at least 1 marineland product.

 

[niki090909]

Ok I just had a total brain fart! Here I am thinking, how can I make more light in my tank. I was thinking I need a new hood and need to spend a chunk of money to get this going.

This is all for my plants, which I only have a few.

So I'm thinking, Instead of spending the money to get more watts in my tank, why not buy low light plants, DUH

Just thought I'd lt you all in on my stupidity.

 

[Antony]

Niki,

It might be possible to put an extra tube fixture and balast in your hood?

Is there much room?

Don't throw out your plants just yet.

There must be something that can be done!

Have you checked your ballasts yet?

Cheers
Antony

 

[niki090909]

Well, I'm not going to throw my plants away, until they die, if they do die at all, I have had them for about 3 weeks and they are still alive, seem to be doing ok, but they don't look great or anything.

As far as ballasts, i'm assuming that, that is the little tube thing in the light hood. also known as the starter? not to sure but here is what the starter says
FS-22
4...22w
110V/130v single
220v/240v series

right now it has a 15w bulb in it, natural daylight, by eclipse
there are two of these hoods on my tank
they are the skinny bulbs, 18 inches long. One of the fatter bulbs would work, but i don't think the fat bulbs come in 18 inch lenght.

 

[steveaargh]

Have you thought of reflectors on the top of the hood?
50% of the light in any globe/tube goes up and is wasted.

I was having the same prob with too little light and since my canopy hood is made from wood, I stuck a couple of mirror tiles to the top and there's quite a noticable difference.
Dead easy too, better still, its cheap!!

 

[niki090909]

hmm thats a good point, i will look into that. There is so much to learn on lighting! I've had fish for a long time, but never had live plants. Its very interesting all that there is to know!

Anyone know of a good website that is for aquarium lighting?