"Pigtail" fluorescents for incandescent hood

[TankGirl]

I am using an incandescent hood on a 10-gal and two 14w fluorescents designed to screw into an incandescent fixture. I believe these bulbs are made by GE and sold in the household bulb section of HD. They are the "mini" size to fit into this hood.The light is rather yellow, however, and I wonder if there is a bulb that will fit that delivers white light. Anyone have experience with this?

TIA

 

[lmw80]

I used to have that same hood. In the lighting section of most LFS, they have incandesent bulbs as well as flourescent. Some of the lights are red, yellow, green, but they also have clear white ones. As long as you get two lights that are equal to or less than the maximum your hood can handle (should say on the inside the max wattage), you will be ok.

Also, if you are not happy with the selection at the LFS, I believe you can get the ones at a place like HD, but I would like someone else to verify that because I am not 100% sure.

 

[Guest]

Also, if you are not happy with the selection at the LFS, I believe you can get the ones at a place like HD, but I would like someone else to verify that because I am not 100% sure.

Yes you can, for sure. Although getting ones that don't give off "yellowish" light? I'm not really sure, the ones I'm using have the same yellowish appearance. Mine were packaged as Warm White, perhaps they make Cool White also.

Check through the DIY forum, lighting and PC bulbs have been discussed extensively, but I don't have time to find the threads right now.

 

[TankGirl]

Thanks, I'll check DIY.

 

[justDIY]

pigtail bulbs, otherwise know as CFLs or compact fluorescent lights.

warm white is the most common color, and as tankgirl put it very yellow.

you will also find the cool white, while less yellow, gives a greenish tint to the tank, which is not pleasing either!

like Paul mentioned, retrofitting your hood to PC lights is the best bet, but does take some doing.

Another option is a daylight CFL - you can find them at www.buylighting.com

There may be other sources, but that is the one that comes to mind, check under their full spectrum section.

 

[TankGirl]

Yes, I retrofitted another 10-gal hood with a kit from AH Supply, but since I already had the incandescent hood it seemed simple enough to get the pigtail bulbs. A tip for the retrofit kit, instead of drilling a hole in each side of the original hood to install the vents, just drill a series of small holes and you have created vents in the original plastic hood. From just looking at the kit, it seems like it would fit in the same standard strip that comes on 55-gal tanks. I am not sure about this, just eyeballing it.