lighting [scams]?

[Wonderwoman]

the hood on my 20long is a diy, and when I built it, I put in two "bright stik"?  made by GE, I believe, at home depot.  the package said nothing about color temp, but it's a 25" long fixture and is very clearly labeled as "33 watts".  [objection #1: aren't 24" bulbs usually 20 watts?]  today I decided that the lights were very clearly yellow, and as such probably not the best color temp for my plants.  so I go off to home depot again to find replacement bulbs.  only after about half an hour of scrounging around, looking for bulbs that are even labeled was hard, I realized that the bright stik package says that if/when the bulb burns out, the entire fixture must be replaced.    :

great. so what should I do now?  been looking at those ahsupply thingies, they look good, but even those are a bit pricey for me    ...I've read that 'cool white' bulbs are around the correct temp.  if I wanted to put those in, what do I need (ballast, starter, ?)  thanks  

 

[AndyL]

How long have you been running those lights?

I've got a hood under construction for my 20G, and I was planning to use one of the brightsticks and one of the gro&sho lights.

Yes, the entire fixture needs to be replaced with those lights, but at the same time, they're not overly expensive (At my local walmart they worked out to 5$ more than just replacement light bulbs (tubes?))

Just my .02$

Andy

 

[Wonderwoman]

I set up my tank in September, so I guess it's been about a month.  to be honest, my plants aren't doing so bad.  my crypts are growing new leaves this week for the first time, and vals are just reaching the top after a brutal rip-apart by me  :-[  and hygro's are...well, hygro's.  I just think the idea of a semi-nuclear tank appeals to me a bit, since this is the first time I've really focused on the plants, and started CO2 and all.   :-/  whats a grow&sho?  

 

[Avalon]

You might want to consider the AHSupply retrofit kits. Depending on your fixture, you may have to make an extra step to get the thing mounted in the fixture, but it's no big deal. PC's have always worked well for me.

Another idea is to find one of those GE dual light fixtures. At Wal-Mart, they are usually stuck underneath the replacement flourescent lights. They run about $15. I have one and it sits perfectly (barely) across one of my 10 G's for 30 wpg. You may wish to replace the bulbs it comes with, but that's up to you and your pocketbook. They are warm whites. The best bulbs are GE Chroma 50 (Sunshine) and the GE Plant and Aquarium (it's kind of red though).

Those bright stik bulbs are able to produce 33 watts by bumping up the voltage going to the light, allowing it to burn brighter. That's also the difference in a 55/65 watt power compact.

 

[stargurl]

I built this for my 20high and it works great and you could easily do it for a 20long or any other tank, as well. You can find screw-in CF bulbs in a number of colour temps, as long as you're willing do some looking.

 

[Wonderwoman]

thanks for all the good suggestions.  so i'm looking at my options:

1.  leave the lights as they are.  2x33 of unknown color
2.  ahsupply retrofit, i'd get the 1x55 kit
3.  dual tube fixture, presumably 2x20, but of a usable color

in terms of light output, how do these things compare?  I guess I'm a little mixed up on output of regular flourescent vs. compact flourescent per watt.  

 

[RedTurquoise]

Regular fluorescents are made to be efficient. This is accomplished by limiting the power to the fluorescent. This is why you see fluorescents being compare to incandescant on packaging ie, produces same output as a 75W incandescant but only uses 33W. PC lighting on the other hand is more project specific ie, planted tanks or in areas where space is limited but required a lot of light. PC lighting therefore eliminates the 'efficieny' factor and allows more power to be delivered to the fluorescent hence higher outputs.

Is it a scam? Well, depends on how you look at it. Imo, it is because of the extreme prices but on the other hand, so are most things in the petstores, again, imo!

I especially love the 'plant' lights that they have available. Some lights cost up to $30-40  : Thats a scam! Sunlight on a clear day at noon is 5500K therefore getting lights that are close to 5500K is sufficient. Cool whites run around 4100k, a tad low but will work nevertheless (and only cost around $5). The closer you can get to 5500K, the better but you dont need more than that.  *thumbsupsmiley*