DIY Lighting Question

[jeffp]

I was thinking about eventually switching my tank over to planted a little down the road, so I started researching into upgrading my lighting. Looking at a few different kinds of lights, I was wondering if there was any downside to using a lightbulb like this:

Shop Feit Electric 65-Watt 6500K Fluorescent Lamp Mogul Base Light Bulb at Lowes.com

It is 6500K, and at 65 watts is 4,550 lumens.

I ask because I haven't seen anywhere really talk about those kinds of bulbs and figured there would probably be a reason why

[BBradbury]

Good morning Jeff...

The bulb is the right color. The 6500 K is recommended for growing aquatic plants because it best mimics natural daylight, 5500 K.

The wattage is considerable, but I don't see how it will work in a standard aquarium strip. The bulb appears very short, so you'd likely need more than one to light the length of your tank.

Using this type of lighting seems to me to be more work and less payback. Using more conventional lighting would be less effort and probably require less money.

Just one reporter's opinion.

B

[BBradbury]

Hello again Jeff...

Just curious. What's the length of the bulb??

B

[jeffp]

The bulb is 8.75 inches long, I believe. It would be set up like some of the CFL setups, with the bulb being held horizontally. The only difference is that I would need a ballast since these aren't self ballasted and it uses an E39 base instead of the standard E26.

[BBradbury]

Jeff,

This sounds interesting. If you go with these lights, I'd be interested in some pics of the set up. Please keep me posted.

B

[jeffp]

Originally Posted by BBradbury

Jeff,

This sounds interesting. If you go with these lights, I'd be interested in some pics of the set up. Please keep me posted.

B

Will do. It seems weird to me that more people haven't tried to use the U-shape CFLs. They are more compact than a 65w spiral CFL and are pretty close to LEDs in terms of watts per lumen since LEDs lose quite a bit of efficiency when overampd, which is what most people do. Plus, I won't need a big heatsink. So overall, it should be much cheaper than a similar LED set-up to get up to the same brightness. Hopefully.

[andresdeo]

Hey there I've succesfully changed to this sort of bulbs in a DiY hood. However it is best to have them vertical as that is the way they where designed to deliver the amount of light on the label. I read that in a very intresting article a while back. Let me see if I can find it for you.

Here is a photo of my hood:

It could do with some reflectors, but it hasnt being necesary.