Why do small aquariums all come with incandesent fixtures?

T

TeaPea

AC Members
Aug 26, 2002
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Brightwaters, NY
I hadn't even realized that my new 5 gallon had an incandesent until I was putting it together. The light looks too dim, I asked lfs guy if I could get a higher wattage and he said it would get way too hot. So my question is why do all of the small hoods come with incandesent when it gets hot, whereas the larger ones use florescent which don't? I see no benefit to incandesent at all, do you? :(
 
Pretty sure it's cost related. I have a 5 here at work, and I can put at max a 25 watt incandescent bulb in there. Still, it gets good ambient light, but the plants are exploding in there with just a 20 watt bulb. I run it on a timer, and haven't had any problems with heat.
 
Gulf that sounds too scary for me! Don't know if a little more light in my aquarium is worth risking burning the house down! ;) . Are you sure what you're doing is safe?
 
I use one 15watt CF screw in bulb in my 10 gallon and 1 regular incand. light bulb. They both seem to throw off about the same amount of heat for me. I switch the bulbs around once a week so the plants don't all start bending one way. Plenty of growth going on.:cool:
 
You can get conversion kits, but on a tank that small, it's probably cheaper to just go buy a new light strip and canopy. DIY with a new ballast and such would require fiddling with splices and such. I recall someone mentioning flourescent screw ins at Home Depot--that might be a better option.
 
Flourescents run off "ballasts" (transformer). Incandescents run straight off of 110volts. They ARE NOT interchangeable. :eek:

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No, but there are flourescent screw in bulbs that can be used in incandescent sockets. This was discussed in DIY not that long ago.
 
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