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New to Fluorescent lighting.

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  Chris7 
#1 ·
Well yesterday I was bord and had some extra cash so I went out and bought a used 30 gallon tank and used Fluorescent light fixture oh and suitable filter. It replaced one of my 10 gallon tanks I have, all I did was transfer everything into the new tank. Only problem is the bulb is not bright enough, it says 20 watts. Oh it's a single 23'' T8 I believe, and it has no K reading on it? And this is a fully planted tank with amazon swords, pennyworth, and water sprites. so what would be a suitable bulb?
 
#2 ·
It would have to be either an 18" or 24" tube, measure the length of the tube and not the fixture (it includes the prongs I think). If 18" you can buy regular Daylight tubes at a hardware store that are 6500K. If it is 24" you'll probably not find them and be forced to buy the ones at the Pet Store (or go online). I think a name of one is Ultra Sun if I remember right.
 
#7 ·
a T8 bulb will fit the fixture, but may not operate properly, the wattage is different (24" T8s are 17 watts, so the T8 will be over driven) as well as the frequency at which the ballast operates

I would just get a new T12 bulb, they are still available
 
#10 ·
You've changed the fixture, but I will still mention on the single T12/T8 (for the benefit of whomever) that this will be insufficient without specific tubes. I have a 24-inch T8 over my 29g, and I have to use Life-Glo tubes in order to keep the plants alive. The "Daylight" tubes just don't do it. ZooMed's UltraSun would also be OK, it is similar to the Life-Glo.

Chris, on your dual T5, does this have NO or HO tubes? If NO, that is roughly equivalent to T8 so at the high end of moderate light. If HO, that is very bright and you will have to keep the duration down and cover the tank surface with floating plants to avoid a tank of algae.

Byron.
 
#12 ·
You've changed the fixture, but I will still mention on the single T12/T8 (for the benefit of whomever) that this will be insufficient without specific tubes. I have a 24-inch T8 over my 29g, and I have to use Life-Glo tubes in order to keep the plants alive. The "Daylight" tubes just don't do it. ZooMed's UltraSun would also be OK, it is similar to the Life-Glo.

Chris, on your dual T5, does this have NO or HO tubes? If NO, that is roughly equivalent to T8 so at the high end of moderate light. If HO, that is very bright and you will have to keep the duration down and cover the tank surface with floating plants to avoid a tank of algae.

Byron.
Sorry like I said I'am still pretty new to fluorescents, but I don't no what you mean by NO or HO. I see nothing like that on the box that the fixture came in. The fixture is a Coralife T5 Dual lamp Fixture, with 1 6700K 18 watt light, 1 18 watt colormax light.
 
#11 · (Edited)
One of the processes at work that causes fluorescent tubes to emit light is the production of plasma (ionized gas) in the tube. A property of a plasma is that it conducts electricity and the greater the amount of electrical current the greater the ionization, which leads to greater conductivity. If a fluorescent bulb was plugged directly to the power supply it would be the case that an ever increasing amount of current (to the maximum available) would be sent to the bulb until a failure occurred. The ballast is what prevents this from happening; it allows a set amount of electricty to the bulb. So it is the ballast that ultimately determines the amount of light produced, not the bulb. The bulb really only controls the type of light emitted, not the amount.


A 20 watt T12, a 17 watt T8, and a 14 watt T5 (with the appropriate ballast) will produce roughly the same amount of light and any difference in 'brightness' to human eyes is a consequence of the quality of light not the quantity.
 
#14 ·
Ok I just did a fast search and see it's" normal output" and" high output". Well the box says nothing about HO, But it say's "high performance aquarium lighting". So I guess that's the same. So cut the hours down to say 8 hrs? And I already have water sprites floating in the tank and will get more.
 
#16 ·
30" T5HO is 31 watts, yours is not High Output, I have the single bulb version of this fixture and it is plenty of light for my needs

yours is obviously twice the amount of light and will require you to limit the photoperiod somewhat and having a good amount of floating plants is still a good idea, but it is not excessive and will be more manageable than HO
 
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