Re: [AGA Member] Re: fish/plant light -- or - When is t5 not a **T5**

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

Hagen doesn't have a bulb factory -- they have a
manufacturer put thier name on the bubls. That makes it
harder to find out what they are. --Write to hagen and ask
them to cough up the data. Or move on to something better
than standard fluoresecents.


RE the normal output 13 watt bulbs, can you fit in a third
or 4th? A pair of those works well on a slow fgorw 12 or 15
gallon tank. Not so hot for a tank twice that size.

There are two kinds fo T5 bulbs. The regular standard
fluorescent bulb that's come in a 5/8" diameter and the
High Output bulbs that come in a 5/8" diameter. The 13 watt
bulbs are normal output fluorsecents.  All the high
performance hoopla is abouot he HighOutput fluorescents.
I'd go back to the store and explain some of this to the
guy there -- he apparently hasn't done much research at
all, it seems to me.

You might try some High Output T5s to get up closer to get
a bit more light.  Or a 55watt power compact. That will fit
a 30 gal and give more light -- about the same as a 54 watt
HIgh OUtput T5. The 55watt PC can be retrofitted into the
hood the 20 watt bulbs were in.

Where doesn one find this stuff. They only way to find the
stuff is hunt and hunt (and remember the sites Wayne Jones
ever posted about because he did a lot of hunting re
bulbs). And this info isn't usually readily available for
consumers -- manufacturers don't trust consumers with
objective information -- subjective stuff is much more
effective on the madding crowd. The commerical and
inudstrial pages have info so that engineers and lighting
contractors can design systems for diff applications, like
lighting an office building economically, and fit specific
requirements like building codes. 

One place to look is in the catalogues. Not the consumer
catalogues -- those are noninformative sales pitches for
compact fluorescents and incandescents.  You want to look
in the business or commercial catalogue. And sometimes you
have to go to the european catalogue because their is stuff
sold by Phillips, for example, that isn't in the US version
of thier catalogue until a few years later.

Here is the Osram/sylavannia catalogue, or part of it:

http://ecom.mysylvania.com/sylvaniab2c/b2c/z_login.do;jsessionid=ID4001DB0.021826088790573794End

A 2' High Output T5 fluorescent is rated for 24 watts and
about 1600-1800 lumens. A pair of those might suit you
better than two 13 watt bulbs. Although not a lot more
watts, the high output T5s have more lumens per watt than
standard fluorescents. But they must run on an electronic
ballast.

A 54 watt High Output T5 is nominally 4' in length, wihc is
to long for your 30 gallon tank. but one that's folded over
on itself, i.e., a PC 55 watt is only 22 inches long.

I run two 55 watt PCs on my 30 gallon, but it's a fast grow
tank with CO2. If I took off the CO2, I'd drop back to one
bulb or a pair of 36 watt PCs.

Btw, High Output T5s are considered a "Specialty" bulb by
Osram.

Is this getting easier or harder? 
Scott H.
--- Paula Hofmann <paula.hofmann@gte.net> wrote:
> Ok, I did some research on the bulbs I have.  One Aqua
> Glo and one Life-Glo 
> by Hagen.  Both T-12, 20w.  I have a 30 gal tank.  One is
> 5 years old, the 
> other 3.  Don't know which is which.  From what you said
> in your previous 
> email these bulbs provide barely enough light, and the
> T-5s will provide less 
> for my low light plants.  Now that it is spring, I will
> have increasing 
> natural light, not to mention sun, until the Fall
> Equinox.  I thought about 
> wraping the plastic "reflector" with foil to increase the
> light I already 
> have.
> 
> The T-5 is supposed to be a high-performance bulb.  Where
> do you find out 
> about lumns on a particular bulb?  I went to the website
> on the box and the 
> bulb I'm researching is not even listed, much less any
> specifications.  I 
> also went to  a couple of other web sites I know about
> with no luck.
>

=====
S. Hieber
-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Takashi Amano and More at
the AGA Annual Convention
Nov 12, 13 & 14, 2004
Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia, USA

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