Compact Flourescents

[jpstod]

Originally Posted by everywomanshero

Cool thanks for the info. I haven't purchased yet, so is there any advantage to old sschool long ass flourescent lights over the compacts? If not, I am going with the CFL.

Yea they come in various lengths..A 48 One fits a 48 Tank alot better than an small one..Single bulbs are great for a small tank..Kinda a waste to put a 48 light fixture over a 12" space..and sometimes they are to long...Imagine trying to fit 48" in a 38" space..

[postal]

I believe the spiral compacts are far more efficient than "normal" tube flourescents. At lot more light for the power used.

Long tube flourescents come in several diameters. t-12, t-8, and t5. T-12 is the old school standard shoplight diameter. T-8 is more efficient. T-5 is more efficient still. However, you NEED a fixture specifically for t-5, or buy a parts conversion kit to retrofit a fixture to use t-5 bulbs.

The t-12 and t-8 are cheap- But t-5 is expensive. Can find t-5's at aquarium stores. They do use less electricity than others, and have a great deal of light output compaired to the other tube flouro's.

Spirals are very inexpensive in comparison, and the small size makes fitting them on small/odd shaped tanks easy. Even for a larger tank using mutliple spirals, the cost is far less than a t-5 setup. I would expect t-5 uses a little less juice than similar spirals, and has more light output as well- however the cost and I have a corner tank, convinced me to use spirals. I feel I have plenty of light.

The other advantage to tube flouros, is if you setup a rack system with multiple 10 or 20 gal tanks. Put all the tanks next to each other, and the 48" light accross all of them. 1 light for 3 or 4 tanks. Instead of 1 light per tank.

It really depends on what your setup is.

[beckdg]

also if you are putting something in the living room of a nice place you might not want clamp lamps. flourescent fixtures look more uniform.

i use flourescent tubes in living room tank... looks nice.
on my other tank i have a short flourescent (18") and a cfl... works great.
on my snake tank i use a cfl and a ceramic heater... works great also!

[froggsong]

YOu don't have to use clamp lamps for CFLs, they are just the easiest to find and the most common. You can easily build your own light hood (either buy fixtures and wire them in yourself, or use the fixtures from your clamp lamps!) that will look gorgeous and actually produce better light than the clamp lamps (especially if you paint the inside white). Personally, I prefer hoods (wither bought or built) that have fixtures for incandescents AND fixtures for tubes. Eventually I plan to have 4 incandescent fixtures and two tube fixtures for my CWD. I may or may not have the incandescent fixtures pointing downward (allowing me to use CHEs OR regular bulbs [or even CFLs]).

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that it depends on the needs of your animal (I need the tubes for UV lights), your wiring skills, and your skills at building a wooden box, lol.

On a totally different note, does anyone want an annoying dog that misses her daddy??? God, I'm so tired of playing with her constantly, lol... Although it IS adorable when she hides the ball from herself under a pillow... She just did that, it was so cute.

[chagovatoloco]

Well just to brag........I found screw in 100/26w compact fluorescent lights 6500K at my mother in laws work to day. Longs drugs had them and even better yet employee price was 2.50 ea!!!!

[everywomanshero]

Grrrr... I bought two 20w CFL today and one gently fell off the package onto carpet and broke... man are these things sensitive... 12 years, mine didn't even last 12 hours!!! Anyway, I'll return them to tomorrow and treat the new ones like a Torah. Also with the overhead reflector it really is hard to get a lot of light spread around the terrarium. It's amazing how much light it takes to really do this. I think I am going to go with two domes and 2 20w bulbs.

[beckdg]

congratulations on your recent purchase... that's not a bad price.

i would like to add that i recently looked a little further into lighting for a viv. what i found was referring to hydroponics but i think will be relevant here also! idk... maybe not... we will need a volunteer to test or some confirmation.

what i found was in reference to spectrum when applied for growing vs. budding/flowering. the info stated that the normal 5000/6500 kelvin bulbs are great for growing plants. the twist is for hydroponics, when a plant becomes mature enough they will re-plant it in its own (larger) area and switch the lights to a red spectrum (about 300 kelvin) as it seems this spectrum doesn't promote much growth but is the spectrum that promotes budding/flowering/fruiting. it is said that this provides sweeter/ more abundant yields and helps to show off plants in all their glory.

i have noticed a couple people mentioned mixing all 3 of these spectrums to promote the best growth and flowering possibilities for their plants. i have not had this backed up by someone/source i know to trust, but the sites i read this on seemed to have pretty good info.

if anyone knows about or has tried this please chime in. your experiences would be appreciated.

[beckdg]

froggy... i find that aluminum foil is often the best reflector and definitely better than anything painted (even white). question is do you (or anyone else) know of an adhesive that can stand up to whatever need be (heat, humidity, etc.) and not be toxic. one that can be rolled or sprayed on would be best so as not to create folds/creases that may reduce reflectivity.

[froggsong]

Hmm, in my experience, white surfaces have reflected more light into the vives than metal (aluminum foil or metal clamp lamp dome). I am basing this on the vive looking brighter with the white being used for reflection. However, I find that when using them for heat as well as light, it is best to go with the metal, because it reflects heat better than the white. I haven't been able to make a foil box like the white I have used though, so my experience may not be the norm. I might have to see which is better when I build my light box. I'll paint it white, see how it looks, and then line it with foil and see how it looks. Then I can get back to you guys about which one actually worked better.

EDIT: As for the adhesive... I'm not sure. I am sure that something along the lines of super glue or an epoxy would work. Or you could check home depot for aluminum (or some other shiny metal) panels and just screw it in. That would probably look better and hold up better over time.

[chagovatoloco]

I like to use reflective tape when I am pressed for space. I know that with planted aquariums ( where I spend most of my time) that any think in the 6500K - 1000k is acceptable. Though I prefer 6500K generally.