Compact fluorescent bulbs in an aquarium?

[Dekz]

Can I use those new fangled compact fluorescent energy saving long lasting bulbs for my fish tanks? I think the color of light that they put out would look awesome.

Something like these:

If so can I just put them in my regular light hood, where I normally run these?

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

I have them in mine.. if you dont have plants that require a lot of light. its fine. The fish dont seem to care any lol. they will produce a little more algea though. so have a cleanup crew on standby

 

[Dekz]

I wish I would have thought of this months ago. The difference was so profound that I had to take a picture.



Obviously it's not completely blinding like in the picture, but it looks absolutely amazing. It's like looking at a normal tank with crappy lighting and then looking at a saltwater tank. I can't wait until I get up tomorrow so I can go buy 4 more bulbs for the other tanks.

I currently don't have any live plants, I have thought about it though. So I guess the wattage listed on these bulbs isn't accurate in regards to having plants? I knew 12 watts per gallon was too good to be true

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Check this out:

New Lights?

Which is from this extremely long thread on the outdated WPG rule:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/updating-the-wpg-rule-theory-69964.html

If you use 2 15W CFLs you have 135% of the total listed wattage as far as the WPG 'rule' goes. so 30W = 40.5 W effective, or 4 WPG in your 10g.

 

[Jnam]

Check this out:

If you use 2 15W CFLs you have 135% of the total listed wattage as far as the WPG 'rule' goes. so 30W = 40.5 W effective, or 4 WPG in your 10g.

this depends on the quality of your reflector. The "twist" bulbs are slighlty less effecient and getting actual usable light into the aquarium. A lot of wasted light goes out of the tank. The Reflector is KEY. I use the CFLs with a mirrored reflector. My tank is planted and the new lighting really helps. I have 2 15w CFLs with i would say is prolly closer to the 30w WPG rule so giving me 3.0 wpg.