CFL light choices

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FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

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I'm always open for ideas, but where does one get a T2 fixture for an aquarium? Best I can tell, they look like another expensive CFL.

I just don't see the point to paying big bucks for anything fluorescent, with so many LED options now.

For low cost and something proven to work, by all means go for fluorescent.
 
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sumthin fishy

sumthin fishy

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FWIW, I just finished a very old book on lighting. According to it, the blue and red spectrum do almost the same thing, with the blue being almost doubly effective. However, keeping only with a blue does not work well, so obviously the red is important. Therefore, the broad spectrum (which has the red at a decent level) paired with the blue/UV was the best combo. This is from 40+years ago, but seems to be sound logic. This is why the 50/50 lamps work well, even though they are designed for saltwater setups. I would say if you are using 1 lamp at a time at x watts, you would be better off using both lamps at a time at half that wattage. I am curious about the CFL. To me that says standard screw in incandescent fixture with a fluorescent lamp. Is that really what you have? I didn't know they came that big. I run 2 CFL on my 10g and have 30w total.
 
ROYWS3

ROYWS3

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sumthin fishy said:
FWIW, I just finished a very old book on lighting. According to it, the blue and red spectrum do almost the same thing, with the blue being almost doubly effective. However, keeping only with a blue does not work well, so obviously the red is important. Therefore, the broad spectrum (which has the red at a decent level) paired with the blue/UV was the best combo. This is from 40+years ago, but seems to be sound logic. This is why the 50/50 lamps work well, even though they are designed for saltwater setups. I would say if you are using 1 lamp at a time at x watts, you would be better off using both lamps at a time at half that wattage. I am curious about the CFL. To me that says standard screw in incandescent fixture with a fluorescent lamp. Is that really what you have? I didn't know they came that big. I run 2 CFL on my 10g and have 30w total.
Click to expand...
Before T5lamps made a big splash years ago, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) were what was being espoused as the next big thing in aquarium lighting. They were way more that the screw in lamps you are describing. Here's a link to AH supply with numerous CFL options: http://ahsupply.com/bulbs-lamps/compact-fluorescent-lamps.html?p=1

This was THE choice for lighting back then. It's still a viable choice but there are many better ones on the market these days.
 
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dougall

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Over the years, what was called cfl a decade ago became known as power compact to avoid confusion with screw in spiral cfl bulbs.

I still have a bunch of pc fixtures, and will replace them with led or t5 when necessary. The 55w bulbs from ah will work at 65w as well, generally the bulbs are the same, another option for cheap bulbs would be aquatraders, I have never had a problem with bulbs from there.

A final thing to note is that generally you will get better PAR from a t5 at the same wattage, just because ofvtge shape of the bulb and restrike with the poor reflectors that are generally used.. AH were the biggest exception to this rule.
 
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dougall

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sumthin fishy said:
FWIW, I just finished a very old book on lighting. According to it, the blue and red spectrum do almost the same thing, with the blue being almost doubly effective. However, keeping only with a blue does not work well, so obviously the red is important. Therefore, the broad spectrum (which has the red at a decent level) paired with the blue/UV was the best combo. This is from 40+years ago, but seems to be sound logic. This is why the 50/50 lamps work well, even though they are designed for saltwater setups. I would say if you are using 1 lamp at a time at x watts, you would be better off using both lamps at a time at half that wattage. I am curious about the CFL. To me that says standard screw in incandescent fixture with a fluorescent lamp. Is that really what you have? I didn't know they came that big. I run 2 CFL on my 10g and have 30w total.
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Another part of the equation is the color rendering of what you are looking at. Just because some light will cause plants to grow, it might cause plants to appear washed out or unattractive.

My personal preference was always for the GE 9235k bulbs.

And just who wrote this book? It might be interesting to see if they still agree with their findings, or if their opinion has changed in any ways.
 
sumthin fishy

sumthin fishy

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dougall said:
And just who wrote this book? It might be interesting to see if they still agree with their findings, or if their opinion has changed in any ways.
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I'll try to remember when I get home to post that. It was very interesting in that he was using photography equipment to measure lighting at deferent areas of the tank. The author did note that more effective grow lamps looked unattractive, and was part of the reasoning for using broad spectrum lamps.
 
jemanser

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On the web site I was referred to, another option I saw for my low tech 55g planted aquarium was a 48inch LED hood for ~ 70 dollars. From a cost standpoint it is more but light replacement should not be an issue and use of electricity will be less. Also how do I know if this is too much or too little light for my aquarium.. I assume we are comparing apples to oranges when comparing wattage from powerCFL to LED. Does plant growth do as well with LED and are people making the move to LED for superior plant growth as well as the other advantages( less costly to run)?
 
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dougall

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sumthin fishy said:
I'll try to remember when I get home to post that. It was very interesting in that he was using photography equipment to measure lighting at deferent areas of the tank. The author did note that more effective grow lamps looked unattractive, and was part of the reasoning for using broad spectrum lamps.
Click to expand...
I saw a reference to This book on facebook yesterday and it has similar findings. but it seems to be geared towards terrestrial plants, specifically tomatoes. It does support the importance of red and blue light, but doesn't take into account the effect that different wavelengths of light will not penetrate the aquarium's water as well as others.

In a nutshell, the book is good for the variety of tomato used in the book, but different plants, aquatic or terrestrial, have different lighting needs, and the overall amount of light, rather than specifically the red and blue light, is what's important.
 
Star_Rider

Star_Rider

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I have slowly moved from power compact to t-5 to now LED.

I have quite the mix..I have several of the beamswork from aquatraders as I was looking for a less expensive option for light.

the LED requiring the least amount of electricity and also produce a lot less heat.

beamswork has the LED Hi with a 6500k option as well as the 10k actinic mix.
check the prices on the 48" for a 55 gallon ($49 -$53) all of my beamsworks are the 6500k light. my tanks are the low light type plants but I have dwarf hair grass as well as chain sword in them they are alll doing fairly well.
 
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