Change the Lights?

[FuzzyDragon09]

So I have a question about the lights in my tanks (10 gallon rectangular, 5 gallon Mini-Bow, and 2.5 gallon Mini-Bow all made by All-Glass Aquarium). I have a tenancy to drag out my stories by adding in all the details but bear with me.

I have a desk in my bedroom with a light fixture attached to the underside. I have for the longest time never used the light. It held a tubular bulb that got hot a minute after turning it on. I wanted to replace the bulb with a compact florescent bulb but didn't know what size would fit. I finally got fed up with it and picked up a GE 13 Watt Compact that is the equivalent of a 60 watt incandescent. Now I don't have to read/study/type in the dark (I have a floor lamp so it's not really dark).

Anyways, that got me thinking that I had heard somewhere that you can replace aquarium lights with compact florescent lights for a brighter more whiter light (not sure if true). I don't really like the incandescent lights because the tank looks so yellow and because the bulbs get so hot I almost never have the lights on. The only problems I have is that the 10 gallon and the 5 gallon say on the underside of the hood that I can use only 25 Watt bulbs or less (The 2.5 says no more than 15 watts). Now can I put a 13 watt bulb in place of the tubular kind? Would I be going over the wattage because they are supposed to shine as brightly as a 60 watt? Also I read on the label that the compacts are for "use in dry environments only". I don't have a problem in the 2.5 and 5 gallons because they don't have heaters but the 10 gallon gets alot of water condensation on the inside of the hood. The tank temp. is around 76 degrees Fahrenheit and my room temp is around 69 degrees Fahrenheit. The bulbs each have a protective plastic shield over them but I don't know if that will be enough to keep them dry (see hood picture). So any ideas? Is it safe or not? I am posting some pictures of the tanks with the incandescent lighting and with the compact florescent. For the 10 gallon I just dried the hood with a clean towel before changing the lights. I really like the compact so I hope it's okay (I took the compact out after I was done with pictures).

I didn't know how to add the pictures to the text box so I added them as attachments. In order they are my 10 gal. with Incandescent, 10 gal. Hood with Compact also showing the incandescent bulbs, 10 gal. with Compact, 5 gal. with Incandescent, and 5 gal. with Compact. Also the pictures aren't the best but I was just going for the color difference in the light (I took the pictures without the flash, except for the one of the 10 gallon hood, so they all look kinda yellow but you can kinda see the difference). You can really tell in person.

[JustOneMore20]

Yep, you can replace the incandescent with compact fluorescents. Make sure that they are daylight and not soft white or you'll have the same problem with the orange-ish light (though not as bad as incandescent). But, as long as you aren't growing live plants, if you are ok with the looks of the soft white, that would be fine. I've found it hard to find daylight bulbs in the number of watts I want.

I had a hood like that and the bulbs I used wouldn't fit with the plastic things over them (in the 10g hood). So you have to be careful with the condensation. I got really worried finally and replaced it with a compact fluorescent fixture. But I never had any problems.

[FuzzyDragon09]

So what if they did get a little wet? Do you know what it would do? The ones I put in to see how it looked were covered by the plastic so I think it's okay.

[AML225]

Everything said is correct. The wattage has nothing to do with brightness (at least wattage isn't really a measurement of light intensity). Watts are a unit of electrical power. A higher watt bulb will cost you more in your electricity bills. As for the water drops on bulbs, a cold spot on a hot bulb say in a splash can cause cracking and I wouldn't want really hot water to be dripping down on my fish.

[jones57742]

FD:

I can relate some hard earned experience here and maybe save you some grief.

I have two Eclipse 5s in which I wanted to replace the lamps with CF's as you described.

None were available in San Angelo so I logged onto the WalMart web site and lo & behold joy. The bulbs actually had dimensions quoted and I believed them.

I now have three sets of CF bulbs (by different manufacturers) in the garage as the published dimensions were slightly inaccurate and the bulbs were either too long or too wide to fit in the lamp enclosure.

TR

[FuzzyDragon09]

Originally Posted by JustOneMore20

Yep, you can replace the incandescent with compact fluorescents.
I had a hood like that and the bulbs I used wouldn't fit with the plastic things over them (in the 10g hood).

When I put in the compact bulbs to see what it would look like I had two different sizes. One was a 13 watt bulb and the other was a 10 watt bulb. The 13 watt bulb was almost too big for the plastic covers but the 10 fit perfect.

Originally Posted by AML225

As for the water drops on bulbs, a cold spot on a hot bulb say in a splash can cause cracking and I wouldn't want really hot water to be dripping down on my fish.

I think that the cracking would worry me the most. Mainly the hood gets wet from condensation because the temp. in the water below it is hotter than it. If the lights were kept on most of the day (say I got a 8-10 hr. timer) there wouldn't be much condensation would there? If anything I can always keep a towel handy when I need to take the hood off to work on the tank.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[JustOneMore20]

I'm not really sure what it would do if it got wet. I just know that electricity and water don't mix. But I don't think you have to worry too much about the condensation. When I had my hood like that over the 10g it always had condensation on the hood and I would just wipe it when I could (not very often). I never had any issues.


Yeah, the 10w bulbs will definitely fit under the plastic. I wanted more watts though, because I have live plants.....but I did at one time have the 10w bulbs and they fit perfectly.

[FuzzyDragon09]

So I went to Target and bought 3 (2 for the 10 gallon and 1 for the 5 gallon) GE 10 Watt Compact Fluorescent bulbs labeled Daylight 6500K that are supposed to be as bright as a regular 40 watt bulb. I would have gotten some 13 or 15 watt bulbs but I wanted something that fit under the plastic (just in case). I also got 2 light timers so I don't have to manually turn on/off the lights. Anyways, I love them. The tank looks brighter. I notice colors more (good to see if there is anything wrong with the fish, etc.). I also haven't had a problem with condensation. There is a little in the morning because the heater is always on and the hood is colder then but after a few hours of the lights being on, the hood dries completely. The only thing is that I now notice how dirty the inside glass of the 10 gallon is. There is hard cloudy white stuff all over it. Is it harmful or just unsightly? Is there some way to safely clean it out?

EDIT: I bought some Safe and Easy Aquarium Wipes by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and tried to get the hard white stuff off with them. It kinda worked. Some of it came off easily, but other areas I could only remove it by using the wipe and then scratching it with my fingernail. It worked better than when I just used a razorblade. I got most of it, so next water change I will try to remove the rest of it. It could be deposits from my hard Houston water, though why it would be in my glass tank and not the acrylics I dunno.

[DLLN]

I'm just curious, is two 13 watts in a 10 gal, to bright for the fish? I had the same problem, I had two incandescent bulbs and didn't like the colour so I put two 13 watt compact florescent but I thought it might be two bright for the fish. Is it? Also is is it best to have a your lights on a cycle with a timer? If so how long should they be on daily?

[emc7]

There are fish that don't light strong light. Certainly most fish don't need strong light. But a few floating live plants usually give most fish enough shade. I like timers, it means your tank always gets the same amount of light, which makes it easier to change if you have an issue. There are some light fixtures that aren't "self-starting" which means they don't go on unless you "push and hold" the switch. They just don't work with timers. I think 8-10 hours of light a day is a typical starting point. For live plants, you might go longer. If you have lots of algae, you might go shorter.

[JustOneMore20]

You can use vinegar to clean the hard water spots on the hood. I would wipe it with just a damp cloth or papertowel afterwards.


DLLN, I agree with emc7. 2 13 watt bulbs shouldn't be too strong for the fish, but there are some fish that are scared by bright lights. They may need to get used to the new light too, if they are acting scared now. I have some planted tanks with much brighter light.

If you don't have any live plants, 2 13 watt CF bulbs may cause some slight algae issues if you don't stay on top of water changes.

Timers are great. I would keep them on about 8 hours for unplanted tanks and around 9-10 for tanks with plants.

[FuzzyDragon09]

Originally Posted by JustOneMore20

You can use vinegar to clean the hard water spots on the hood. I would wipe it with just a damp cloth or papertowel afterwards.

Were you talking to me? The hard cloudy white stuff is everywhere on the inside of the glass and doesn't really form on the hood. The wipes I bought seem to be doing the trick with a little elbow grease, but thanks for the vinegar advice. I used it to clean out the tank when I reset it up this summer and it worked great.

[jamesandmanda]

my tank doesn't have the little white caps and ive never had any probs, even when its dripping wet.