Ballast and bulb questions (slightly off-topic) - Lighting

TortoiseBoy · 02-13-2006, 11:17 AM

Hello,
You people have been great sources of information for my 90 gallon planted tank, so I thougth I would mooch off of your lighting expertise some more. I have a 4' shoplight over my leopard tortoise tank. The bulbs I have in there are T-5's at (I think) 54 watts. The bulbs themselves are just daylight office bulbs, though, and I want something with some more UV capability to it. First, does anyone know of any full spectrum bulbs that include some UV that are T-5? If not, is it safe to run NO T-8 bulbs in the shoplight if the ballast is designed for T-5 bulbs? Any other suggestions for how to use my existing shoplight and still get a reptile-friendly bulb? Sorry, I am no electrical genius. Thanks so much for any help you might be able to offer. Have a good week,

TB

AaronT · 02-13-2006, 01:28 PM

Aquamedic makes daylight bulbs called 'planta' at around $15.00. Check out www.innovativelights.com. I've been using them on my planted 75 gallon for several months with good success. GE also makes a 6,500K (could be 6,700K) bulb that is even cheaper ~$10.00

dennis · 02-13-2006, 02:02 PM

The T5 ballast should work with the bulbs. It would overdrive the bulbs some which should not hurt anything. I would expect a slightly shorter bulb life(technically they are tubes) but not by much.

Do you have the specs or manufacturer/ballast number of the fixture? If I knew that I could tell you for sure, probably

TortoiseBoy · 02-14-2006, 10:21 AM

Thanks for the information, Aaron and Dennis. I did look into Innovative Lights and have an email in to them asking about the spectra of their bulbs. The difficulty is that desert herps seem to need a higher spike in UVA and UVB than is typically provided by a full spectrum bulb. I am not sure about the ballast for the shoplight, Dennis. I will try to look for some sort of markings on it tonight and let you know. If the ballast is capable of driving the usual herp bulbs, that will be a good solution. Thank you both for your responses.

TB

AaronT · 02-14-2006, 12:11 PM

I forgot to mention, those are both T5 HO bulbs like you already have in your setup.

TortoiseBoy · 02-17-2006, 11:25 AM

I received an email from the folks at innovativelights.com and they said that their lights are designed for aquariums. No joy on the UVA or UVB end of the spectrum. I did manange to look at my fixture and it says HBSL-15 on it. I didn't crack it open to look at the ballast itself. Still think that NO 40 watt bulbs would work with the (apparently) 54 watt ballasts, Dennis? Thanks again,

TB