[Fred_E_Krugar]

Now here is a stupid question. When using a pig tail bulb in one of my poor mans tank with a shop reflector, I am using two 26watt=same output as 100watt incandescent bulb. I read that you cant go by the equivalent output of the cfl to determine wpg. Why is that??

I did a little testing for my self. I went and bought two G.E. reveal 60 watt bulbs to have 120 watts on a 20 gal. tank, the tank was not near as bright as the 2 cfl bulbs (all bulbs are at 5100K so that is not the reason). Also my plants pearled alot more using the cfl bulbs.

So what is the deal? Why can you not go by the equivalent output? What does it matter what wattage it uses, but what amount of light it produces?? Can someone please explain this to me??

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Incandescent bulbs produce lots of heat with the wattage going to them and not as much light.

Fluorescent bulbs are much more efficient and dont "waste" as much wattage producing heat and most is used to produce light, hence all of the "equivalence" ratings on the CFL packaging.

Aquarium lighting was never intended to use incandescent lighting, so all of the "WPG" stuff refers to fluorescent wattage's