Coral life makes great bulbs as well as lights for fresh water tanks.
Another great bulb is made by Current USA. I think they have a bit
more color correctness in them. Stil another good bulb is
URI......however most LFS will not stock these bulbs due to them bing
a bit higher than the typical bulbs normally ofund in the typical LFS,
but they are well worth the extra $$ and a couple of days wait. I used
to use the bulbs included with strip lights etc, and thought they were
great, especially after moving up form the old screw in incandesant
bulbs of years gone by...Now anymore when I buy a tank I look for
just a tank without any included hoods or lights, or if I have no
other choice, I pitch the included light bulbs (tubes) as they are
pretty well useless if you really want colors and growth....

check out http://hellolights.com/ or http://www.current-usa.com/
The bulbs sold by Hello lights that are not marked as to any specific
brand is made by the same companay that makes Coralife bulbs but
without the additional cost as they call them house brand..

http://Bigalsonline.com is also another good source of various
brands of bulbs and their prices are hard to beat. Not just for bulbs
but for most any aquarium product or part. They also price match any
item. They are located in Niagra Falls and ships both USA and Canada


On 13 Mar 2007 17:59:14 -0700, "Tynk" wrote:

On Mar 13, 2:09?pm, cailinsdad wrote:
On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:18:41 -0600, ~Roy~
wrote:







Do what you want, but you loose a large percentage of light when you
hang it over a tank....more than what you really t hink yu do. I
played around with a PAR and a LUX meter, and its unreal how much
light you loose. Its also unreal how much light you loose when it is
placed above a piece of glass as well.....Lots of folks use what is
called egg crate (a white or black plastic grill used in suspended
ceilings to create a diffuser for the lights, and believe it or not,
you loose 46% + of useable light just passing through this egg crate
grill and you can loose more if the grill is placed improper side
up...Its also unreal how much light is actually spilling out the sides
but it appears to look like its going down through the tank and out
the sides, when in fact it is not even entering the tank, its all
outside the tank.

There is only one way to do it an dthat is make a totally enclosed
hood. Wood is fine, and can easily be made out of 1x6. Paiant inside
white for best surface reflection (actually white is better than
mirrow is, unless you use a proper reflector, go with white paint.

You can buy a Power compact flourescent electronic ballast on line
(about $20) #omplete with socket that wil fire a 24 to 65 watt PC
bulb which is available in all kinds of color (kelvin temps) which is
more suitable and better than the typical tube type flourescent
lights, unless your going with T5 type.....which would be way overkill
for FW setups anyhow.......You can also buy a decent ballast at Home
Depot complete with wiring diagram for under $5 that will power up a
65 watt PC bulb. Around here we can get 34-65 watt PC bulbs of varous
kelvin for 10 to 16 bucks.......much better than any shop light or so
called plant growing bulbs .......I use 6700 to 7200 and on occassion
10K PC lights and all my plants do great.......I do not have any
lights over glass, or egg crate. I use home brew hoods I make out of
acrylic plastic, but like I said, wood is fine if its sealed....and
painted white inside for reflection unless a proper reflector is
used......

That makes a lot of sense. nfortunatley, I would probably use the
All-Glass Twin-Tube light strip before I did all that.
y time is
limited. work full time and go to school full time besides being a
father of three. ; )

Thanks. That is good information.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Are you talking about your 55g tank?
I have the 48" All-Glass twin tube on my 75g.
Roy is right about losing light when you hang it above the tank.
I actually prefer one of the more expensive bulbs made by Coralife -
called ColorMax. I have to get them ordered at one of the shops a
couple towns away. If I don't do it that way, the shop right in town
has them, just $7 more EACH! When you need two, and I like to replace
both at the same time, it makes it worth it to have them ordered.
I just don't get the color I like in my Bettas (I have many females
in the 75g along with a resident male), as I do with this particular
bulb.
I've tried a few other full spectrum bulbs but the reds and blues just
don't POP. They're more of an average color.
Sometimes it's worth the extra cost of a more expensive bulb when you
have fish that have bright colors in them.



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I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!