Power Compact Bulb Choices

[AdamT]

Man, power compact bulbs are expensive. Doing the one 36in bulb for my 30ga is not such a big deal, but trying to get all 4 (or even 2) of the 55watt jobbies for the fixture above my 55ga is painful. The coralife 6700k bulbs are like $40 a shot. Even online it's not much less than at my LFS.

Surely someone else is making PC plant bulbs that would be appropriate for an aquarium? And selling them for cheap? What are you guys using for light? Has anyone found cheap 55watt PC bulbs? And how do the T-5 fixtures compare?

-Adam

 

[Oldsan]

These guys sell great bulbs (and fixtures) for a reasonable price (relative to Coralife):
http://www.ahsupply.com/index.html

CF bulbs aint cheap though.

 

[AdamT]

... my search continues...

the ahsupply site is neat, and has good prices. Unfortunately, they have the wrong pin config at 55watts (I need it square).

Here you can find both pin types, and the prices are ~$22 a bulb.
http://www.hellolights.com/55watts.html

anyone else got anything good?

 

[AdamT]

True Aqua Power compact lamps?

Never heard of 'em, but they are cheap! On sale for $12.50 (for 55watt, sq pin, linear pin available).

 

[Cowboy]

Yeah, those are cheap bulbs. Does anyone have experience with them? I mostly use coralife bulbs, but with (1) 96w quad and (6) 65w lights to buy, that gets a bit expensive.

 

[element]

you can get the jebo brand on ebay for a good price , i bought 6x 65 watt straight pin maybe 6 months ago for less than $40

-Jason

 

[AdamT]

Well, me and a friend ordered the "True Aqua Power" bulbs. They came in the mail just fine. Powered 'em up and everything seems cool. The bulbs seem a little blueish, but maybe that's just in comparison to what I was taking out. I'm looking forward to seeing the plants perk up with the new bulbs. I imagine it'll be a few weeks before I can see any difference at all.

They seem to be just fine, and I got 5 bulbs for less than I paid for my last 2 ('bout $75).

BTW - I gotta say that my sq pin config fixture seems to deal with age much better than my friend's straight pin (coral life) fixture. He has to pull his out of a socket (difficult), but mine just kinda rotate out of a "basket" (easy). I dunno if there are better or worse sockets for either configuration, but my square pin was much easier to deal with than my friend's straight pin.

- Adam

 

[apistoireland]

Hi Adam,
some quick remarks from the other side of the Atlantic.

You really do not need 4*55watts on 55 gallon tank. First of all they use a lot of electrictity and are as you mentioned quite expensive to buy in the first place.
I have a comparable tank of 66 gallons and run it on 4*38 watt bulbs with reflectors. Even the red leaved plants grow like mad.
As for bulb colour, I use 2 daylight and 2 warmwhite bulbs each. And they are not the expensive ones they try to sell you in aquatic shops. I go to my local electrical supplier and they cost something like 3 $ each.

On my 8 feet tank, I use 4*21 watt t4 bulb and they work fine to. Amazon sword the size of cabbage heads.