Technical question concerning FL Lighting

[Malachite]

Hello. I have a question concerning a new FL fixture I bought. I know the best way to answer this is to disassemble and look at the ballast but I thought I'd check to see if anyone here knows the answer first. I recently bought a 48" FL 3 bulb T8 fixture. It came with three 32W bulbs. My single bulb 48" fixture had a 40W T10 bulb. Does anyone know if they make higher wattage 48" T8 bulbs than 32W? I know I need to see if the electronic ballast can handle more but I figured I would check to see if I could even get a more powerful bulb. Many of the online stores I check don't list all the different specs I need to see. Believe it or not the fixture itself and the instructions do not list a max bulb wattage as far as I can find.

Here is the fixture BTW:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9869&ref=3055&subref=AQ&N=2004+113349

 

[JosephMCorbett]

T8 bulbs and balasts are 32 watts. T10 and T12 are 40 watts. You can use T8 bulbs in a higher watt fixture, but a higher watt bulb in a lower watt fixture may not light (the balast is 32 watts). If you know that you have a T8 fixture, I would stick with T8 bulbs. T8s are supposed to give the same or higher light output than the larger flourescents with less power....or so the energy commision states.

 

[Malachite]

Sweet! Thanks a million. That is exactly what I was needing to know. I originally only had 40 watts on a 75G tank. This fixture bumped it to 96W. I will be happy with this for now. At first I was wondering if maybe they just shipped it with lower watt bulbs to save money or something. Now I know. Thanks again.