Question abou spiral CFL's
- Thread starter Peedib89
- Start date
With 4 horizontally oriented CFL bulbs and a 24" tank I think you are looking at low light. However once you orient them vertically you are looking at the lower end of high light.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs-2.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs-2.html
I was wondering about these SHO spirals. They sound good but I don't know anyone who has actually used them. http://americanaquariumproducts.com/PowerCompact.html
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My limited understanding (based off of what I've read at APC) is that the restrike in a spiral CFL will cause it to loose about 30% of its effective wattage. Based on that you really need to aim for about 3W/gallon on a tank with spiral CFLs. Having said that, I found out about the restrike issue after having setup a 10G with 20W worth of spiral CFL light, and everything has grown in great, though maybe slower than it would have with more light. When I replace those bulbs I will probably up the wattage a little, but I'm happy.
The plants in the 10G are wisteria, najas, hygrophilia polyspermia, duckweed, java moss, crypt. wendtii, dwarf sag, pellia, corkscrew vals and dwarf hairgrass. I did remove some hornwort and anacharis I was using to start things off with.
My only loss(sort of) is that the subwassertang in the tank got blown around so much during water changes I don't even know where it is now.. It was just a small piece to start off with. The pellia has sort of filled that niche. Not real happy though because I liked the subwassertang better.
The plants in the 10G are wisteria, najas, hygrophilia polyspermia, duckweed, java moss, crypt. wendtii, dwarf sag, pellia, corkscrew vals and dwarf hairgrass. I did remove some hornwort and anacharis I was using to start things off with.
My only loss(sort of) is that the subwassertang in the tank got blown around so much during water changes I don't even know where it is now.. It was just a small piece to start off with. The pellia has sort of filled that niche. Not real happy though because I liked the subwassertang better.
its the same as the reg cfl. going to have a lot of restrike and its harder to get the light in the tank. just think how much of the bulb shines on its self.
Please, please, please forget you ever heard of watts per gallon.
It was a reasonable rule of thumb when T12 florescent cool whites were all one could get, but isn't even accurate for T8 and no where near useful for any other lamp configuration.
A single T5HO 54 watt lamp with a high quality reflector can produce more plant usable light than six 32 watt T8 lamps.
Four horizontally mounted spiral fluorescent bulbs at 23 watt each will give you moderate to high light on a 24 inch wide, 12 inch tall tank and low to moderate on a 16" tall tank. The differences in depend on substrate depth and the quality of the bulb itself.
Vertical mounting of spiral florescent bulbs provides more light as the heat from the bulb warms the glass and gas in the upper spirals and the ballast which makes the lamp work more efficiently. Up to the point where you burn up the bulb.
If you read the lighting posts on The PlantedTank.net, check out Hoppy's sticky on lighting.
Hoppy and I disagree about some points since he's not tested some of the newer technology, but it is the single best aquarium lighting reference on the web.
It was a reasonable rule of thumb when T12 florescent cool whites were all one could get, but isn't even accurate for T8 and no where near useful for any other lamp configuration.
A single T5HO 54 watt lamp with a high quality reflector can produce more plant usable light than six 32 watt T8 lamps.
Four horizontally mounted spiral fluorescent bulbs at 23 watt each will give you moderate to high light on a 24 inch wide, 12 inch tall tank and low to moderate on a 16" tall tank. The differences in depend on substrate depth and the quality of the bulb itself.
Vertical mounting of spiral florescent bulbs provides more light as the heat from the bulb warms the glass and gas in the upper spirals and the ballast which makes the lamp work more efficiently. Up to the point where you burn up the bulb.
If you read the lighting posts on The PlantedTank.net, check out Hoppy's sticky on lighting.
Hoppy and I disagree about some points since he's not tested some of the newer technology, but it is the single best aquarium lighting reference on the web.
I agree that it is highly inaccurate, but it is hard to give any other measurement without taking a PAR meter to it. Even Hoppy said the spiral CFLs are pretty variable. Couple with restrike issues which should reduce the output by perhaps 30% (based on what I've read at APC and ThePlantedTank). I'm also guessing that they're not as efficient as the T5s and maybe even T8s. I'm guesstimating that the 3W/gallon is still reasonable with these. I may be wildly off (I'm only using about 2W/g on my spiral CFLs and seem to do alright), but it is hard to lay it out in any sort of easy way for beginners (like me). The best I've seen is 2W/G T12, 1.75W/G T8, and 1.5W/G for T5s, which gives us newcomers something to work with.
At least with W/G you get some sort of ratio that increases lighting based on depth of the tank. It is a convenient measurement to use.
I do understand that watts are not truly representative of the light produced. There just aren't many tools available at a hobbyist level that allow better judgment.
