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Incandescent Fixture Lamp / Bulb Options for Planted Tanks

10727 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Millwood, 
Seattle_Aquarist
5
Hi All,

You say you've got one of these and you want to have a planted tank?


There are a lot of 10, 15, and 20 gallon tanks out there with the old incandescent fixtures. The problem with the incandescent lamps that go into these fixtures is they a) put out a lot of heat and b) tend to have a short lamp life. In fact, sometimes to get sufficient light intensity (PAR) for a planted tank the lamp wattage causes temperature fluctuation and heat issues in the tank. It would be nice to be able to purchase a new LED fixture for these tanks but a well built quality LED fixture is expensive ($80 - $140) and sometimes not even available in a 20" version. I put this thread together to help folks that have fixtures designed for incandescent lamps locate alternatives to the hot, short-lived incandescent bulbs. Some of this information (sans PAR readings) is available in threads scattered throughout the forums and some are my current observations.

This post is by all means not all of the alternatives available; I am only going to address the three lamp types I have personally used on my 10 gallon with an incandescent hood. They include the Lights of America mini-fluorescent, the Bonlux Corncob LED, and an unknown brand of Corncob Spotlight LED. All are viable alternatives to they old incandescent lamps we used to use in these fixtures.


Here are my findings:


What you see listed are three alternatives for lamps, two of which I have used and a third that I just received and am currently testing.

The first lamp is the Lights of America Mini-fluorescent 10 watt. It is fine for a planted tank that has plants with lower light requirements such as mosses, cryptocornes, java ferns (Microsorum pteropus species) where you don't want to put a lot of effort into fertilizers or CO2. However, with a little effort even this low PAR ([email protected]) can grow some great plants. The tank pictured below used a 13 hour photoperiod. The light levels do drop off at the two ends and in the upper rear.


The second lamp I have only used for a few months, the Bonlux Corncob LED T10. It is a 10 watt LED with LEDs all the way around the lamp. It puts out almost twice the PAR of the Mini-florescent Lights of America lamp with a reading of [email protected] and has a nice even light throughout the tank. I was running the lamp with an 8 hour photoperiod.

The last lamp listed I just received a week ago. It is an unknown brand of Corncob Spotlight that has all of the LEDs on one side of the lamp. I purchased the 16 watt version (the largest offered by the seller) but various sellers and manufacturers offer this design in 5W to 16 watt versions. The portion of the lamp which holds the LEDs can be rotated so after the lamp is screwed into the socket the LEDs can be configured to point downward. This lamp had the highest light intensity with [email protected] In order to use this lamp on a 10 gallon I will have to shorten the photoperiod substantially, or point the LEDs other than straight downward, or add CO2 to avoid an algae farm. I would guess the 10 watt version of this light would be more compatible with a 10 gallon tank. Here is a picture of the 10 gallon (after a major trim so I could expose the substrate directly below the fixture so I could take the readings above) with the 2X16 watt lamps installed; yes that is a cluster of Corydoras eggs on the back glass near the top.
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PlantedRich
I'm finding a lot of good in one of the LED lights you call spotlight. My seller called them downlights as they do just put out all the light on one side. I feel better about this as all the light goes into the tank rather than up to be reflected back.
This is something that I normally expect to find on new ideas. It takes some time for products like LED to mature and really get the lineup developed and into the market so I like to wait and use existing things while folks get the bugs worked out.
I fully second the idea of retrofitting the old lights if we have them. Some work great by just screwing in the bulb but I find some of my old fixtures do need a little help when I add the spotlight/downlight if I'm using one of the longer versions. I find some need a plastic wire tie added to help hold the end up a bit more to take the strain off the bulbholder.
For $5-10, I feel like they are a real bargain. I have a special need to reduce the heating since we run the AC so much of the time.
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This info is great! I really appreciate it as I have an older hood on my low tech heavily planted 10 gallon and don't have the money to do an upgrade right now. I have a question for you, would 2 of these bulbs put me at medium light for a 10 gallon (50 x 27 x 33cm)? Or would it be to much light?
https://www.batteriesplus.com/.../a-shape-(a)/e26/led12163
OR
https://www.batteriesplus.com/.../a-shape-(a)/e26/led12166
I am currently using this, which works fine and I'm getting good growth but my Ludwigia repens and Rotala rotundifolia have very little red:

(ps everything else in the tank is low light)

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GrampsGrunge
Can we have a estimate on the CRI and Kelvin of those bulbs Roy?

In my case I'm using bell-shaped worklight reflectors, and TCP LED 9watt, 5000K, A19 household lights @ approximately 850 lumens, I have no idea about the actual PAR at my 20H tanks gravel surface.

I'm sort of nostalgically pondering setting up my 32H with it's old Electripak 125 watt Mercury vapor lamp/pendant reflector from 25 years ago.

P.S. missed the part of the attachment Roy posted, showing the Kelvin ratings, Are any of those also available closer to 7000K?
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Seattle_Aquarist
Hi @ermpickle,

I haven't done PAR readings on those lamps, but I would suspect medium/low light on a 20 gallon.
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E
Thank you Seattle_Aquarist, that's what I was hoping for!
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PlantedRich
One of the things that I do really like when speaking of the common screw-in (E27?) bulbs is the ease of changing if we over or undershoot a bit. Unlike a full blown fixture, it doesn't cost much nor require much effort to screw in a new bulb!
I use canopies on most tanks so clutter is not a major factor for me but I'm liking several things that the more versatile lighting gives me.
I found running several lights can give me lots of options if I want to put those lights on different timers.
This is a "nearly night" picture I took last night when only the spotlight/downlight was left burning. I spent some times just watching the fish and learning who preferred the dark end versus the bright spot left by the single LED bulb.
Lots of interesting behavior when we give them options to choose. It surprised me that the smaller yellow labs were the ones who chose the bright while the much larger Protomelas insignus were ready to go to the dark and bed down. Looking closely you can just spot some of the smaller labs up on top of the rock pile on the right while the adult labs were in the center of the tank. The big fish are in the dark!

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Seattle_Aquarist said:
Hi All,

You say you've got one of these and you want to have a planted tank?


There are a lot of 10, 15, and 20 gallon tanks out there with the old incandescent fixtures. The problem with the incandescent lamps that go into these fixtures is they a) put out a lot of heat and b) tend to have a short lamp life. In fact, sometimes to get sufficient light intensity (PAR) for a planted tank the lamp wattage causes temperature fluctuation and heat issues in the tank. It would be nice to be able to purchase a new LED fixture for these tanks but a well built quality LED fixture is expensive ($80 - $140) and sometimes not even available in a 20" version. I put this thread together to help folks that have fixtures designed for incandescent lamps locate alternatives to the hot, short-lived incandescent bulbs. Some of this information (sans PAR readings) is available in threads scattered throughout the forums and some are my current observations.

This post is by all means not all of the alternatives available; I am only going to address the three lamp types I have personally used on my 10 gallon with an incandescent hood. They include the Lights of America mini-fluorescent, the Bonlux Corncob LED, and an unknown brand of Corncob Spotlight LED. All are viable alternatives to they old incandescent lamps we used to use in these fixtures.


Here are my findings:


What you see listed are three alternatives for lamps, two of which I have used and a third that I just received and am currently testing.

The first lamp is the Lights of America Mini-fluorescent 10 watt. It is fine for a planted tank that has plants with lower light requirements such as mosses, cryptocornes, java ferns (Microsorum pteropus species) where you don't want to put a lot of effort into fertilizers or CO2. However, with a little effort even this low PAR ([email protected]) can grow some great plants. The tank pictured below used a 13 hour photoperiod. The light levels do drop off at the two ends and in the upper rear.


The second lamp I have only used for a few months, the Bonlux Corncob LED T10. It is a 10 watt LED with LEDs all the way around the lamp. It puts out almost twice the PAR of the Mini-florescent Lights of America lamp with a reading of [email protected] and has a nice even light throughout the tank. I was running the lamp with an 8 hour photoperiod.

The last lamp listed I just received a week ago. It is an unknown brand of Corncob Spotlight that has all of the LEDs on one side of the lamp. I purchased the 16 watt version (the largest offered by the seller) but various sellers and manufacturers offer this design in 5W to 16 watt versions. The portion of the lamp which holds the LEDs can be rotated so after the lamp is screwed into the socket the LEDs can be configured to point downward. This lamp had the highest light intensity with [email protected] In order to use this lamp on a 10 gallon I will have to shorten the photoperiod substantially, or point the LEDs other than straight downward, or add CO2 to avoid an algae farm. I would guess the 10 watt version of this light would be more compatible with a 10 gallon tank. Here is a picture of the 10 gallon (after a major trim so I could expose the substrate directly below the fixture so I could take the readings above) with the 2X16 watt lamps installed; yes that is a cluster of Corydoras eggs on the back glass near the top.
Click to expand...

Hello I have a question I have a medium planted 15gal tall show that had my Pawfly 16w 3000 lumens light on it. The issue is I just purchased a 20gal tall which I moved my pawfly led to for my soon to be masterpiece. I was wondering my topfin 20 gal came with a two row led light 9.5w I believe 30bright white diodes to be exact. That I moved to my 15gal. In the picture I also had a good light laying around that had two t10 incandesent clear 25w bulbs which is now resting on my 15gal. Can those two t10 25w grow great looking plants? The left pic is with the t10 and right pic is my led.

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PlantedRich
I find the question of what light will grow great plants will have a number of different answers as we each have different ideas of what great means. For my choice, I would not think those bulbs would work well enough as they are too weak and not giving very much, if any, light in the higher frequencies like 6400 Kelvin range. Obviously, there are some plants which will grow, at some level, but not what I would feel was what I wanted.
We sometimes read about watts per gallon, etc. but that is a pretty much lost method as the newer design lights give a lot different light amount and "colors" while using far less electricity. So two 25 watt will be giving a whole bunch less light than 50 watts of LED and still be not the right color.
I am a big fan of shopping and find many really cheap LED bulbs on E-bay. When talking in the $5 range, I like to order several different bulbs and that allows me to swap things around until I get what seems to works best on each tank. Even buying ten bubs at $5-10 (I don't!) lets me get by cheaper than one single LED fixture.
Might suggest doing a search for "horizontal LED bulb" and see if any look right. Sorry, forum rules do not allow links.
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PlantedRich said:
I find the question of what light will grow great plants will have a number of different answers as we each have different ideas of what great means. For my choice, I would not think those bulbs would work well enough as they are too weak and not giving very much, if any, light in the higher frequencies like 6400 Kelvin range. Obviously, there are some plants which will grow, at some level, but not what I would feel was what I wanted.
We sometimes read about watts per gallon, etc. but that is a pretty much lost method as the newer design lights give a lot different light amount and "colors" while using far less electricity. So two 25 watt will be giving a whole bunch less light than 50 watts of LED and still be not the right color.
I am a big fan of shopping and find many really cheap LED bulbs on E-bay. When talking in the $5 range, I like to order several different bulbs and that allows me to swap things around until I get what seems to works best on each tank. Even buying ten bubs at $5-10 (I don't!) lets me get by cheaper than one single LED fixture.
Might suggest doing a search for "horizontal LED bulb" and see if any look right. Sorry, forum rules do not allow links.
Click to expand...
Ty.... yeah doing a lil research has landed me to going to home depot and picking up some 6500k CFL or led and yes those corn cob spot LEDs are amazing.
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PlantedRich
The 6500K CFL got really hard to find and the price was going up , so I decided to move to LED at the price. I had to figure a way to turn the bulb holder upright to let the LED hang down as intended but I can certainly buy more bulbs in the $1-2 range than I will in the $20 range! I found 5500K was becoming more the norm and used a few but the color did not look at nice for my eyes as I do like the really bright look. But that is very much a personal thing, more than what the plants require. Many folks do go to lots of trouble to get a wide range of frequency for the plants but I have never gone far on that as the plants seem okay with what I do give them. I'm still in this game for the fun of it and not as a competition, so less than stellar growth may just be my preferred performance level. I drop out of fish clubs when they go into the game of competition on breeding. I like to let the fish do the spawning while I set back and enjoy a cup of coffee!
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Seattle_Aquarist
Hi All,

I have upgraded my 2X 7 watt corn cob horizontal plug LED with 35 5050SMD LEDs to 2X 9 watt lamps with 44 LED (both sizes are E27 base Cool White color). Over the same 10 gallon tank, with the glass top installed, the light intensity went from [email protected] to [email protected] This is about as high as I think I want to go with the PAR level without looking at using CO2.

10 gallon with 2X 7 watt
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Millwood
Illumination was a problem for me, because I never had the right equipment. Since I have started to study more about what I need in order to get some good results, I got addicted to all this bulb topic, and one evening scrolling different models on amazon, I found this smart bulb https://www.amazon.com/smart-light-bulb-bulbs-color/dp/B0922Q43LY/ which is just amazing. Now I don't have to leave my bed in order to turn the light on or off, because I can do it from my smartphone, and also can change the colours however I want.
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