View Full Version : New lighting question
jeffro426
01-13-2004, 1:23 PM
My flourscent light on my 10 gallon finally died last night after 7 faithful years of use...its something with the ballast, i tried a new bulb in it and it still wont start up. But i have an old incandecent hood laying around and i saw some screw in flourescents at walmart last night and wondered if they would work?? If they do they would provide more than the 15 watts that i had and would be less of a hassle than trying to locate parts for my flourescent hood. Anyone use the screw in flourescents and if so, what kind and are you happy with them??
Slappy*McFish
01-13-2004, 2:23 PM
Are you sure it isn't just the starter? They're just a few cents at any hardware store.
SayersWeb
01-14-2004, 8:53 AM
I bought my 120 used recently. The previous owner had bought a new light strip because they could not get the bulb to light in the old one. They gave me the extra "broken" light strip with the tank along with the working one. I stopped by Home Depot, bought a 2-pack of starters and now have a nice new light for the 180 gallon acrylic tank!
jeffro426
01-14-2004, 12:41 PM
Ok, i opened it up and i see a small glass tube that looks kinda like a small lightbulb thats burned on the inside...is this the starter??
If you can't get it fixed those screw ins work fine. I use them in my 10 gallon and you can get 13 or 15 watt bulbs. At the moment I have one of each, so 2.8 watts of light.Not as good a quality as the daylight tubes but not bad and my plants grow fine.
Slappy*McFish
01-14-2004, 12:50 PM
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/fluorescent-lamp-starter-sw.jpg
This is a starter. On the right is the 'guts' of a starter..is this what you're looking at? All you need to do is buy a new 15w starter(thing on the left) and see if that fixes your problem..if not, then your ballast is faulty. Also, check all your wiring.