the joy of hoarding

[fishorama]

Or maybe it's the joy of having storage space. As some of you know I have some really old equipment stashed in my garage, lol. My old light fixtures are slowly dying. The latest victim was my T-5 HO over my 75g. It'd been flickering for a while but always quit as it warmed up...& then it didn't work. I tried many old bulbs but no! None worked, must be the ballast, so time to pitch it & all those bulbs too. A trip to the "trash transfer site" (the dump as we used to say) is in order soon.

I have some PC fixtures laying around with iffy bulbs & ballasts. But it's a miracle! 1 had 1 working bulb & another that I no longer used for some reason. Amazingly the unused 1 still had at least 1 good bulb (I didn't test the other). So, I'm back in business...for now...I know I'm living on borrowed time but I'm happy right now. I cleaned the glass tops & rims & the old filter too. The color seems a bit strange, or maybe it's just the tank is lit after a couple days of darkness? My ancient rummy nose tetras are happy to see food again! I don't think the corys care much as long as there's food.

I ran out of energy before water changes, but all in all a good tank day!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I still use several of my old AH Supply Power Compact set-up I guilt from their kits. My last two tanks light were for small tanks and they are LEDs.

If it works, why not use what you have?

 

[dougall]

I know what you mean . I have a few PC fixtures in the basement and a stash of bulbs too. If you were closer you would be welcome to the whole pile.

But, really, for the love of God; upgrade a tank to a cheap LED light, you need to try them and it's probably cheaper than buying new PC bulbs as well


As for the color difference, remember that the spectrum will shift over time with flouredcent bulbs, so it could be the old or new one is overly old, or it could be that it is supposed to be different, say if it originally came with the light it's maybe 10,000K but you may have used 6700K before. It should say on the bulb.


But you are likely fine as long as it looks OK.

 

[FJB]

I too keep a number of older (but also newer and new) pieces of equipment, as they are handy here and there, and if they work well, why dispose of them if one has the space and inclination?
I have 6 modern LED strips in two sizes (Finnex Planted+) over various tanks and they do well and I like them. However, I like better the color rendition (slightly greener) given my my old fluorescent strips (1st photo below), which do OK for relatively low-light requiring plants. I have not found a LED setup that (in my own (admittedly stubburn) mind) reproduces well that look that I prefer. The second photo shows the color of one of the tanks with the Finnex LEDs.
To me, the problem is not whether old lights work well. Instead, the problem is the increasing difficulty of finding replacement tubes, ballasts or other parts for them. I consider this a pity. Cheers!

 

[fishorama]

I've had a cheap LED light in my amazon basket for a really long time (you know dougall, lol). But some other stuff I was going to get since I had free shipping keeps going out of stock. & I just forget...I'm not a shopper at all.

I'm not going to buy any new PC bulbs nor have I ever been handy enough to replace ballasts (yeah, yeah, it's not that hard, I hear more snickering).

My plant club friend said he likes this Quantareef lights if you'd like a really good bang for your buck LED bar. Tropic Sun spectrum is the one to use for planted tank. It has whiter lights so no "disco reflections". It cost 3x the cheap 1...maybe another time...I agree with your color preference too FJB. It's a matter of taste & getting used to new.