"Jeff Ludwig" jeff at rockytop_dot_net writes:

In any case, I would like to know if I made a mistake in buying this lamp.
Should I perhaps return it before it's assembled and find something else?

What is the make of ballast and how large is the tank in question? Home
despot sells an electronic ballast (GE) designed for driving 4 F32T8s which
is very reasonably priced and good for DIY projects. This gives you a lot
of flexability, it's model number: #B432I120RHHD

Check out:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/downloads/ballast.pdf
it can drive much more than the 4xF32T8s... unfortunately the document is
kinda hard to x-ref.


Thanks for the response!

My aquarium is a tall 20 gal. (75L) measuring 24"x12"x16". The reason I chose
48" lighting is because I can hang it above the aquarium and it is more
reusable than 24", that would be the right length for this tank (e.g. I can
use it in the garage if I decide not to continue the hobby or reuse it if I
want to get larger aquarium).

The ballast in the fixture I bought is an instant-start electronic one that
can drive two T8, 32W fluorescent tubes and is manufactured by Advance
Transformer. It seems to work fine and all, but I'm a bit worried about
finding tubes for it. It seems that the manufacturers of specialty aquarium
bulbs only make them in T12 or T10 format[*], so I'm stuck with general
purpose ones from Philips [**]. Would you recommend that I try to get a
refund on that and buy a 4-bulb T12 ballast/fixture+ballast instead or is what
I have good enough? Going by the watt-per-gallon rule of thumb, the lighting
should be enough (62W/20 gal = 3.1 W/gal).

* By the way, do you know if one can use T10 bulbs with a T8 ballast?
** What would be the optimal color temperature and/or CRI for plants and
fish? Philips has bulbs ranging from 3000K to 6500K temperature and
CRI from 75 to 98. Would any of these be good enough?

Again, thanks for the response!

Richard

P.S. Sorry for replying to late, my news reader marks all articles that are
without a parent as read and I didn't notice it until I went to Usenet
archives at Google to search for some info about T10 bulbs.

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein