Is this a good deal... and can I use it with my plants?

[laurenrocksth]

Is this craigslist deal ok:

Hagen Glo 48" T5 with 18,000K bulbs for $120.

I hate my shoplights and would like to upgrade my 55g lighting. Is this K rating ok for plants?

Petsmart has this light on sale for $160 but supposedly, this light's only been in use for 2 months.

[DAVIDFBT]

18,000K would be a purple color, so I don't think plants will benefit from that color.

[Mgamer20o0]

how many bulbs? have you looked on other websites?

[laurenrocksth]

it has two bulbs. the cheapest that i found it for was $160 on sale from petsmart without bulbs. this one comes with the 2 18,000K bulbs that I'm not sure if i could use on my tank.

[jmhart]

I believe Jones has used bulbs up to 20,000k with plants with success.

It might look a little odd, but the plants should grow fine.

Also, T5 bulbs aren't too expensive, so you can always replace them. In fact, I'd probably say go ahead and plan on it. Any time I buy a used fixture, I replace the bulbs pretty quickly because you never know how old they really are.

[prolude006]

My power compact bulbs were 3 years old at this point in my tanks life. (picture below) Plants will use the light available to them. I had no trouble growing plants with well used bulbs. However traditional style flourescent bulbs, even HO bulbs will need to be replaced sooner to maintain results as they use the phosphorous materials faster and their intensity suffers dramatically. I love my coralife aqualight, 169.00 and had it for many many years. changed two burnt out bulbs over 7 years!! Not bad if you ask me.

3 years old at 12 hours a day. Even the red plants were fine and no co2!!
65973

[prolude006]

Ill post some pics of my tank 2 years later with the same bulbs (current tank)
I am doing a discus tank and my plants are growing great, although a have one bulb that looks like it is gonna go, it flickers every so often. 6700k/10000k bulbs!!

65975

[Spewn]

Changing fluorescent tubes you're using to grow plants because they've "burnt out" isn't the best policy. The bulbs lose a lot of their light output after a relatively short period in relation to their total life. If you want to keep the light output up to your intended levels, I'd recommend changing your bulbs much more often than when they fail.

[prolude006]

nope but ive got limited funds!! results hardly noticeable over the life of pc bulbs!

[OldMan47]

With a 4 ft tank why not get a nice electronic ballast T-8 shop light. It will give you plenty of light for a 55 and you can choose the bulbs to suit yourself. In my case that meant a pair of 6500K bulbs. Total cost for nice bright lighting at about 1 1/2 WPG was $30.

[luckydud13]

He did say he was on a budjet

[mott]

Here is a good setup for your 55 at a low price:
http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_info.php?cPath=71_136&products_id=1423