Can't Find Right Bulb!

Would this work for you?

It is a 60 watt eqivalent. So no, but thanks. Ugh this is so hard! There are NO tiny flourescents!

Wait. Do CFL's and normal Flourescents have the same wattage conversion? If they do, than something like that would be perfect....

When comparing incandescent to spiral fluorescent (CFL), use the actual wattage of the incandescent, and the "equivalent to" wattage of the CFL which is displayed on the package.

For example, a 23W CFL is "equivalent to" a 100W incandescent, a 13W CFL = a 60W incandescent, etc.

I recently saw some incredibly tiny CFLs at Lowe's. Smaller than any others I've seen, including the ones Wasserpest linked. Had to stare at them for a minute and say "wow", but I'm afraid I can't remember the brand.

So, CFL's are the same as just plain non spiral flourescents?

tetrabettaguy97 said:

Wait. Do CFL's and normal Flourescents have the same wattage conversion? If they do, than something like that would be perfect....

Click to expand...

Yep. Both fluorescent and CFL's output about 4 times as much light as incandescent bulbs with the same wattage.

That "60W equivalent" specification is just that conversion. For our purposes, incandescent lights are pretty much unusable, and the CFL's I linked to eat ~14W.

Should work for your tank... not sure about spread, but as you get into smaller tanks the wattage doesn't need to be lowered proportionally. If that makes sense.

The bulbs I linked to are just an example for about a gazillion that you can buy in HD, Lowes, WM, Target, KMart etc etc. You do need to check if they fit your fixture, some have a little fatter ballast and trouble fitting into certain fixtures.

Yeah, I understand now...wow that was embarrasing! Hahaha. In terms of it being to fat, I found this one....a bit more expensive but worth it for the slim design.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753932

Thanks for you help!

tetrabettaguy97

These are pretty good for small tanks, although for a rectangular shaped tank two (one on each side) would be better to reduce darker sides.

The 50/50 bulbs are something you want to avoid for freshwater plants, but they should have regular ones (~6500K) as well.

You can usually get that shape in a plain white at Walmart in the fish section.