Incandescent Hood Question

[sproett]

Can I use compact flourescent bulbs in a regular incandescent hood?

[Rex Grigg]

Only the spiral kind or ones made to work in the hood like the All-Glass brand.

[UCF-Planted]

I have a 10 gallon planted with (2) 20W Screw-in Compact Fluorescents instead of 25W incandescents. Works like a champ.

[dixienut]

try to get the daylight ones i got the regular ones and its kinda yellow looking.. i have mine in a trouble light.. the metal dome like things.. i have 2 on a 46 bow with a 10g hood with screw in flouressents also with a glass top works fine..

[Tophat665]

I had to take the reflector out of the hood (20") to fit 2x23 watt 5500K spiral fluorescents, but it works great. Beware, however, that they heat up but good.

[sproett]

Thanks so much! I'm going to turn a spare ten gallon into my very first planted tank. Wish me luck!

[discusman54]

I found a CF bulb at Lowes that will fit in the narrow All-glass hood without alterations. I posted the info a while back, still have the picture. The bulb-base and spiral are a smaller diameter allowing it to replace the bulb on the left. If you remove the reflector you have a lot of wasted light.http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z19/aquamans/CFbulb.jpg

[UCF-Planted]

I also had to remove the aluminum reflector in my hood to make the new bulbs fit. To be honest, the oxidized aluminum reflectors in my hood can't have been that much better. That said, I am looking for mylar or something that is very low profile to glue to the inside of the hood. I may just end up going with the white Krylon for-plastic paint.

[feemia]

I bought a 4 pack of 14 w compact flourescent sunlight bulbs at Fred Meyer (Kroger's) for $9.95 this weekend. They're great. Not yellow like CF bulbs usually are and they're smaller than the 13w CF bulbs that I've bought in the past. They're made by Lights of America.

[br553]

A few months ago, my local walmart had 20w 6500k CF made by Lights of America. These were the type with the straight tubes instead of spirals. Sadly, I have not been able to find them since, so when my current bulbs wear out, I'll have to use the spiral bulbs I ordered from 1000lights.com.

[sproett]

Oh, thanks for the tips! That'll save me a lot of time.

[equus_peduus]

My local Home Depot didn't have CF in the low wattage I wanted (I got a 5gal tank that came with a 15W incandescent hood), but the Wal-Mart across the street had more options than I could have wished - I ended up getting a 2-pack of 10W daylight CF for $7ish. We'll see how the plants do though, I've only had it for a couple days...

[geofied]

Surprised no one mentioned the mini compacts that are designed for aquaria. Coralife has a great Colormax 11watt bulb that I've been using for a while with great success and has straight tubes which are more suited to hood applications. They run a little expensive at ~$11/per, but it has a great spectrum. The other option in the mini-compacts is the Wally World lights of America bulb for ~$4/per. These are actually good daytime bulbs at 11watts also and have been doing an admirable job growing plants. I sometimes mix the aforementioned lights to provide a broader spectrum, albeit a bit mixed from a tint perspective when viewing the tank.

[sproett]

I got my light bulbs and incandescent fixture today. I got home and didn't realize I bought the size for a 2 1/2 gallon, whoops! It was in the spot for 10 gallons and the box was the same size as the others. Ugh! Back to the petstore for me! BTW-I picked the bulbs up at Target for $4/each.