The swing arm lamp I have above my fancy guppy display and breeding
aquarium has been killing incandescent and I am pretty sure
fluorescent light bulbs screwed into it. I have a standard 15 watt
fluorescent hood light (in a standard aquarium top mount also. It
appears to be a lot dimmer all of the sudden and since noticing it the
fluorescent screw in bulb in my swing arm lamp died after 2 months (no
more) use. Since then I have been using incandescents in the swing arm
lamp and they dye in an hour or two which is why I don't use that lamp
anymore.

Could someone explain to me why the light bulbs in the swing arm lamp
die way too early? Up to now I have been keeping the screw in bulbs
about 6 inches above the water's surface, is it true according to my
friend that a little water on screw in bulbs from the bubbles bursting
at the surface of my aquarium will cause the screw in bulbs to be
destroyed? I have extensive hobbyist experience with electrical and
electronic equipment and I can't figure it out yet. I tested the
voltage at the swing arm lamp and it's a standard 120 volts ac
according to my multitester and the problem will not go away yet but I
am going to try moving the screw in bulb to the side of the aquarium
away from the bubbles and surface and see if that bulb lasts longer.

Could the tube fluorescent light be dying causing bad electricity on
the light circuit (electrically)? Could the ballast be pulling too
much current through the parallel-connected swing arm lamp destroying
the screw in bulbs (I have never heard of this before, after all it's
a parallel connection)? I tried an older tube fluorescent bulb with no
brighter light and an old tube fluorescent hood that has a built in
ballast and the light with both tube fluorescents on is still weak.
Both tubes have a automatic fluorescent light starter and they both
seem to work just fine if not for the tubes' dimness.

Also - I have one corkscrew valisneria and 1 standard valisneria
spiralis with one offshoot, one small Amazon sword plant, and two
narrow chain sword plants in this tank since about 2-3 weeks ago after
buying them by mail and they seem fine except I have noticed little to
no plant growth so far. Is this normal or do I need more light or
what? I did get them shipped to me from across the whole country so
they may have (almost definitely actually) been exposed to cold
temperatures, would that cause them to stop growing for a while? I've
had some elodea densia in this same tank for about 2 months now and
except for initial fast growth it just sits there, and some of the
elodea is dying (not enough light?). The water conditions are; ph -
about 6.8 - 6.9, soft water, and the tank has over filtration so there
should be no ammonia (not enough fish for otherwise yet) or nitrites
but may have significant nitrates which I understand should be good
for the plants from what I have heard. Thanks and later.