[Blacksunshine]

Ello' fellow planted freaks! So yeah I got the bug kinda bad and am now on my 4th planted. And the litle flourscent that came with the tank just ain't cutting it.
The bulb it came with is some horrible purple light. So in my quest to replace I decided to retrofit it with a kit from AHS. Now for bulbs I can get the 6700K that AH has. OR I found these 50/50 bulbs on the Ebay that are half 7100K and half 8000K. My main goal here is I want a brighter spectrum light. Right now as a temp replacement for the stock fixture I have a 10K 36w PC fixture but frankly I feel that is too much light for this tank however I dig the color that it gives off.
The retro fit is a pair of 13wers and this is going over a 6 gal tank.
But before I drop coin and get a pair of 10K I was wondering if anyone has any exp with these bulbs or similar temp mixtures. like what color is the overall light that it produces? It looks like half may be a pink hue but the other half white. so possibly a good mix? what do you all think reguardless of if you've used these bulbs or not.

 

[jhoetzl]

Hmmm, I run a 65w 6700k/10000k combo and a 55w 8000k bulb over one of my tanks and i really like the coloring, but in a smaller tank, the coloring may be too drastic - not sure.

Also, I had a look on eBay and noticed this:

On this page,
"These bulbs are not power compact bulbs. "
Is that just their way of saying they don't have a mogul base?

It does sound like a decent color mix, and they are fairly cheap in price - don't know about quality...

 

[yoink]

On this page,
"These bulbs are not power compact bulbs. "
Is that just their way of saying they don't have a mogul base?

That is what I got out of it. I think he means "these are not screw in compact floursecents."

 

[Blacksunshine]

He shows a pic of the bulb. and they are straght line PC's from the look.

And yes thats the seller that I was looking at.
I will have to ask him on that I didn't notice the cavat about him saying they are not PC's. I don't know of any others that plug in that kind of socket tho.

I dunno. I think for now I might just stick with the 6700's that AHS sells. (wish they had the 13W's in 7800K) Actuallly now that I think of it I think I might go with a single 18W instead of dual 13w. (edit) or not. apparently AHS dosen't offer a 18w kit.

tho from the other seller I was also thinking of getting some of these mix bulbs for my 20 and 75 gallon tanks since its a flat rate on the shipping and those bulbs are cheap. ok.. I'ma bite the bullet and be the gunnipig.

 

[yoink]

Biax T4 4-pin rapid-start

Sounds like square pin to me. I would ask before buying.

 

[Blacksunshine]

And I did.
Basically I posed the question "what are these bulbs. From the look they seem to be straight 4pin PC's. Yet you state they are not PC bulbs. Will they still fire in a PC fixture that is rated for the same output as the bulbs listed?"

His reply was
"Yes, the bulbs look similar to power compact bulbs, but they are actully PL bulbs not power compacts. PL lamps generally run cooler than their power compact counterparts and emit light at wavelegnths for specific aquatic environments/needs. Please see the description for each bulb for details on specifications.

According to the manufacturer, as long as you have a ballast that matches the wattage of the bulbs and straight (4) pin end caps, these bulbs will fire up properly.

These are not power compact bulbs, but they were designed for aquarium/terrarium use and are a nice alternative. "

I've however never heard a a PL lamp. But if they work thats whats important, right?
As a side note when I was messing around with the AHS order form I accidentally hit submit order for the retro fit and bulbs from them. So I may not play gunnipig after all. altho I do need some bulbs for my 75gal cause 2 have gone out. And I would like to try some different spectrum over my 20 gal for mid day cycle. I may place an order anyhow for a couple bulbs.
I also noticed that he uses helios ballasts on his retrofit systems. I'm thinking that these might be the type bulbs that I already have in my helios fixture.

 

[jhoetzl]

Hmm, can't really find concise good info on the PL vs. CF situation.

But found a bit more...

q: What does "PL" stand for?
a: PL actually stands for "Philips Lamp". This is due to the fact that the company, Philips, first came out with this type of bulb. Many other companies, offer PL-Type lamps that are not made by Philips. However, the name is persistent: PL-Type.

http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/ecatalog/cfl/pdf/p-5768.pdf

 

[Blacksunshine]

yeah. I would say that they are infact then the same a a power compact only they don't wanna call it that because of the pin config. Kinda like Beta VS VHS technically they are the same thing only different media interface. OR Blue ray VS HDDVD effectivley the same thing different delviery method. output the same.

 

[MARIMOBALL]

realux look to be pc

Hi everyone I just saw this thread, and I just happen to buy last night a 24W realux 8000k/7100k for a fixture that had 50/50, but now will be used for a 3.5G Iwagumi planted tank. It fired up and made my tank look awsome. the box states its a biax T4 4 pin rapid start but it worked on my pc fixture. I would say the light looks to be as bright as a PC. I like it so much im going to buy 55w 's from e bay for my 100G tank. BTW I have 4 T5 coralife 28w colormax lights that give the same color and my plants love them. Hope this helps.:icon_smil