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Growing under Lights

Question using aquarium lights

15 years ago

I have several penn-plax aquari lux lights. Some are 40W-48 inch, some are 15W-18 inch.

Question 1: Do I need a special lighting fixture to use the 40W narrow tubes?

I tried putting 1 into a fixture I have with normal fluorescent lamps, but it would light up in the corner a purplish color, but not the whole tube.And these are brand new narrow tubes and I have 8 of those, so I would love to be able to use those for my plants if at all possible.

I also have 20+ of the 15W -18 inch tubes that fit into the regular aquarium top fittings and I have about 15 of those light fixtures.

I hope I can use some of those for a set up to start seeds etc.

Any input greatly appreciated.

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Comment (1)

hautions11
15 years ago
These "narrow tubes" you speak of are most likely T8 fluorescents. (although they could be the even more modern T5 size, but I have not seen these as specialized aquarium bulbs yet). T8 ballasts are indeed different than the traditional larger diameter T12 size. You will have to get fixtures for them which are, sadly, not as cheap nor as commonplace as T12 shoplight fixtures. The good news is that if you have a glut of T12 fixtures you can go ahead and use the sockets and reflectors and simply retro-fit them with T8 ballast kits which should bring your overall costs down. Google is your friend for this.
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