CF Lighting

[vequalsir]

I have a lightly planted tank at this time. <1 wpg. My current lighting is low even for the few plant that I have growing.

I know that I'm in need of more light in the tank. This need is tempered by the fact that I'm getting married in a year and cannot justify spending the money for a manufactured lighting option.

That brings to my question about CF lighting. What are the down sides of using a standard CF bulb(s) for tank lighting?

[The Zigman]

The downside is that for some people they are hard to find. Especially in the proper Kelvin rating. (6700K daylight or higher)

other than that, they are:
easy to install, inexpensive to purchase and cheap to operate.

[Fordtrannyman]

What are the down sides of using a standard CF bulb(s) for tank lighting?

Daylight bulbs are not readily available.
They simply don't have the intensity of PCF or T5HO.
Would be futile in a deep tank!
I guesstimate the amount re-strike to be in the neighborhood 20%.

[vequalsir]

I've seen 35watt daylight bulbs here at local hardware stores.

I don't understand the 20% re-strike value? How do you rate a bulb's intensity?

It looks like I could DIY a hood very easily with two of these bulbs and greatly increase my lighting and only spend $20-$30.

[Mgamer20o0]

ok the thing with those type of bulbs is yes it might be what ever 27 13 watts but the way its shaped causes a lot of light to bounce back at its self. i would guess its more then that ford but again thats a guess and it really depending on reflectors.

on the package it should say soft white or daylight. you want to look for daylight bulbs that say 6500k or something like that. the others can work just not as good plus it looks yellow. remember you want to go by watts used vs the watts replaced. a lot of times it will say replaces 60 100w or what ever but you have to go by how many watts it really uses.

[jmhart]

I used CFL's up until about 2 weeks ago.

The downside is the intensity. My plants grew really well, but the light just wasn't intense enough to bring out the red in my red plants. I switched over to power compact and in just two weeks time the difference is incredible.

However, cfl is a great option. You won't have an award winning tank using cfl, but you'll have a nice tank and be able to grow a lot of plants.

Pardon the poor image quality. This my 45g tank under 8 26w 6500k CFLs:

http://pic60.picturetrail.com/VOL1697/10584704/18904759/324711228.jpg

The CFLs wouldn't allow me to grow HC in the 24" deep tank.

[Mgamer20o0]

its just like shop lights it can work but its not the best. where is the updates jm?

[vequalsir]

Thanks for all the great information. I think I might go ahead with the CFL's for now. It looks to be the least expensive option for now.

great looking tank JM