Found new cheap lighting for my 20gal

[bigpow]

Outdoor Flourescent Light 65W (equal 500W)
Waterproof housing et al.
Made by American Lights
$14

Sure beats any all-glass/co. lightstrips

[Rikko]

Originally Posted by bigpow

Outdoor Flourescent Light 65W (equal 500W)
Waterproof housing et al.
Made by American Lights
$14

Sure beats any all-glass/co. lightstrips

I'm curious about the (equal 500W) remark. Is that supposed to mean it equals a 500W incandescent bulb (which wouldn't be a very useful statistic anyways)?

Any photos or additional data? How did you mount it? What type of tube? With 65W I expect a PC, and for $14 that's a fine deal if the colour is nice.

Oh, and of course, where did you get it?

[cich]

I too am wondering about the 65w = 500w too... 500w of what?

--cich

[Wasserpest]

It equals 300W! 500W!!! 1000W!!!!!!!!!! Not that anyone would really measure. "Superbright" how about that?

Anyway... if you get it for $14 and it includes both fixture and bulb, it is probably a good find.

Usually the replacement bulbs (Lights of America) cost that much alone. I think they have the ballast build into the fixtures, so you can't use the bulbs without their fixture. That's what they say at the package at least.

[Rosko_22]

The comparison is referring to incandescent bulbs (equal to 500w). Most of the PCs I checked out at home depot listed the same info on the packaging. $14 is a great price, assuming the light quality is good.

[Rikko]

Originally Posted by Rosko_22

The comparison is referring to incandescent bulbs (equal to 500w). Most of the PCs I checked out at home depot listed the same info on the packaging. $14 is a great price, assuming the light quality is good.

<grumble> Sounds about right. Much like the "60W!!!!~~~" compact fluorescents that are 13W and the like.
Asinine for aquarium use, though. I rather doubt I could grow hard corals using 10 strands of XMas lights, even though that might give me 10WPG.

[SCMurphy]

These lights keep coming up in discussion. They usually cost $30.00 thou so $14 is a good price. The problem with them is the reflector sucks, there is a huge amount of light lost to restrike, the electronic circuits are prone to burning out, the case is not vented to release heat, the case is huge and won't fit in a normal canopy. You are right that the lights will not fire with any other ballast, I tried to use an electronic ballast on one and got no responce from the bulb.

I used two with vent holes drilled into the cases and computer fans attached to force airflow and got nice growth from my plants, the 10 gallon that used to be pictured in the gallery before the upgrade. If you are willing to work the lights over and void the warrenty you can make useful aquarium lights out of them.

[glass-gardens.com]

The bulb and housing can be purchased at home depot for about $35.00, I use them with great success actually, only had one burn out in the last few months and HD replaced it no questions asked with a smile.

Heh, now an enterpising person might just figure out that the fixture with ballast and socket lends itself quite readily to a retrofit with a real reflector, and just store the housing in the box in a closet, if you have any problems with it, just a quick reassemble and back to the store during the 1 year warranty period.


Oh yeah, the light is rated at 4550 lumens, 6500K, 82 CRI