Nano Lights

[Patrickmaniac]

I vote again~ xD

My pico tank is using a Clip-on White light PL; 7W with 7200K. $10 only from a LFS.

Tube lenght is abt 9+ cm only. plus the ballast only 13+ cm. Very short lamp. Cute.

But I have been sourcing for replacement tube that comes in Blue and White light. Cannot find. waaaaa~

Hi, I got a similar light setup as yours but its a 13 watt one. Just went to Rainbow and bought a blue and white light tube for $18. Ex but seems like not much choice

And another bad news is...I think the tube is spoilt so going to have to go down to rainbow to chnage the tube again....sigh....

[Firestarz]

Thanks

[nicholas_yeo]

Guys, most of the smaller PL tubes are not popular coz it takes as long to make them as a std 2ft 36W PL tube.... u have to sell those smaller version cheaper still. Not popular with manufacturers.

Secondly, keep the right color temp is harder for manufacturer to control in smaller size and alot of them actually just paste a label say 1000k or something. I measured a 1000k PL light b4 and it was below 700k in real case.

If u really want high power and compact, use those 'spiral' energy saver lamps from Philips / Osram that are market as cool daylight. They are above 700k and has good lumens. Good enough to keep mushies and leathers.... coz these soft corals are above 60ft depth in sea.

Also, it is harder to main actinic spectrum on PL. U noticed most are very blue at 460 - 470nm. The purplish type that carries 420nm is not available in PL actually; again this is due to mfg constraint. I personally like to use 420nm for actinic and this is best when comes to T8 tubes.

On the other hand, if u are not into corals and just some basic fish / invert like shrimps for a nano tank.....

LED lighting is catching up. I got a blue LED array from SLS for only $25 and it was strong. 3 of this (2 white and 1 blue) is enough to use for a long time plus they do not produce heat and last over 20k hrs. The lumens will not reduce drastically like flourcescent tube as LED is electronically fired up by excitation.

[elimmel]

coralife has PL arctinic at 420nm but is pretty exp....

just switched to mh n t5, cheaper in the long run.

now my 24G has 150w 14k and 2x24Wt5 HO arctinic