Flourescent lights for Eclipse 3 hood
Hi,
I've got the Marineland Eclipse 3 hood on my 40 gallon tank. I don't like the white look of the presumably cheap lights that came with it, and I have plants, some are thriving, some not.
Unfortunately the ballast says 18W maximum lights (in a 24" - T8 size) and all of the good easy to find lights to promote plant growth are 20W. I like the Hagen products and want to use Flora-Glo or Power-Glo.
My Question: Am I going to have problems sticking a 20 watt bulb in there when it says only use 18W?
I'm going to be sad if I can't get at least 1 watt per gallon with this setup, after all the time I've spent getting it up! I really don't want to try and stick some retrofit in there, but I guess i could. Has anyone else replaced ballast in an Ecplise? Easy?
thanks,
Chris
Hi,
I've got the Marineland Eclipse 3 hood on my 40 gallon tank. I don't like the white look of the presumably cheap lights that came with it, and I have plants, some are thriving, some not.
Unfortunately the ballast says 18W maximum lights (in a 24" - T8 size) and all of the good easy to find lights to promote plant growth are 20W. I like the Hagen products and want to use Flora-Glo or Power-Glo.
My Question: Am I going to have problems sticking a 20 watt bulb in there when it says only use 18W?
I'm going to be sad if I can't get at least 1 watt per gallon with this setup, after all the time I've spent getting it up! I really don't want to try and stick some retrofit in there, but I guess i could. Has anyone else replaced ballast in an Ecplise? Easy?
thanks,
Chris
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