RE:Fluorex Lights ( Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #389)

["Gitte" <eladeria at rogers_com>]

Thanks for your comments, Wayne.  What interests me about this light
fixture is not just the watts per gallon, but its convenience and
compact size.  I appreciate that it might not be the "ultimate", and I
don't even know what "overdrive some 2' lamps" means (sorry!).  One of
these tanks is in my living room, so the fixture needs to be reasonably
attractive (or hidden).

I think this lamp would be a vast improvement on my 20G and my 10G
'cause the original fluorescent fixtures on these are (single lamp) 15
watts and 10 watts respectively.

Thanks again.
Gitte

> --------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> 
> I would stay away from those lights. If you want cheap 
> lighting go with a 4 x 32 watt ballast and overdrive some 2' 
> lamps. Fluorex does not publish any specs. to support their 
> claims and in fact appear to be telling lies about their 
> products. The replacement lamp for that fixture is either a 
> 27 or 36 watt lamp. Where 8000 lumens comes into it I don't 
> know. The only 8000 lumen CF is 3' long, 96 watts and made by 
> Panasonic. If you actually do track this fixture down and buy 
> it I would bet big money you will be disappointed.
> 
> There is no way to use a nominal lamp wattage to determine 
> how much light a fixture will produce. Like many others you 
> are being misled by the watts per gallon rule. Just because a 
> lamp says it is 65 watts doesn't mean it uses 65 watts and 
> just because it says 8000 lumens doesn't mean the lamp 
> produces 8000 lumens with that particular ballast. On top of 
> that the actual shape of the fixture has a profound effect on 
> how much light might make it into your tank. Anyone who wants 
> to know how much light their fixture will produce must know 
> the ballast factor of the ballast, the fixture efficiency and 
> the lamp lumens. If you wish to know how much plant usable 
> light will be produced you have to multiply the lamp lumens 
> by a correction factor which depends on the actual spectrum 
> of the lamp. There is no other way to do this without taking 
> some pretty sophisticated light measurements.
> 
> Wayne
>