bulbs

[nitrous]

now i have a 24 inch hood and an 18 inch light bulb holder, i plan to go to the hardware store and get 2 13 watt compact fluorescent bulbs around neutral spectrum maybe 1 cool 1 warm( 1 each side) so do you need a special hood for cf i have 2 pin full fluorescent now so will that hold it? also ima get a 2 pin cf


i went there and the compact fluorescents didnt look like they would fit into the regular fluorescent fixture because they had the 2 pins but then a thing in the middle and the only 18 inch tube was only 15 watts what do you guys propose i do?

[Purrbox]

You will need to get a different fixture if you want to switch to compact flourescents. Or you could get a retrofit kit from someplace like AHSupply.Com to allow you to replace the guts of your current fixture to allow you to use compact flourescents. I dealt with them a couple years ago and they were very friendly and helped me to figure out what I needed to buy. The only time that you can use a compact flourescent bulb in a non compact flourescent fixture is if it is a incadescent fixture and you are using a selfballasted screwing compact flourescent.

[nitrous]

can i buy the hooking for the cf bulbs like where you place them into? dont kno the real name of them sorry

[Purrbox]

Sounds like you just want to replace the guts of your fixture. For that you would need to get a retrofit kit. You would need to replace the sockets and the ballast both. The sockets are what the bulbs plug into and the ballast makes sure you are supplying the proper amount of power to the bulbs. The kit will also include some other parts to make rewiring easier and sometimes a better reflector.

[nitrous]

either that or i make my own fluorescent kit w/o a ballast and a wood box with metal on teh inside but im also very ambitious

[Purrbox]

You need the new ballast rated for the bulbs that you're going to be running. If you try to use the existing ballast best case the bulbs won't turn on and worst case you start a fire.

[nitrous]

so how come the two hoods that came with my tanks dont have ballasts?