PC lights?

[blueboy]

has anyone ever tryed those PC's that screw into a standard socket? i'm having trouble finding lighting for a nano and thought these might work, but havent heard much about them. thanks for any comments

[Ram_Puppy]

Blueboy, I have six of them over my 30 gallon hex + a 175 watt 14K MH. I think they are great little lights, if i ever get around to building a 4 gallon cube, I will use 2 of those as my lights.

[greasemonkey]

I used them on an old 10 gal 2 years ago and was dissapointed. They create too much heat and not enough light. Coralife makes an 8" aqualight I believe.

[Ram_Puppy]

hmmm, I have not had a heat issue with them, and because I have a 30 gallon hex, nothing fit inside the canopy, that was the only way to go for PC's, I have been satisfied.

You do hav to remember however, that the ballasts are onboard with these lights, so yeah, they are going to generate heat. If it's the only thing you can fit though... oh, and the heat is no where as bad as a MH, and a simple fan on the canopy will whip it away.

[GaryP]

I have a 10 watt in a 6 gal. hex. It works great. I'm using it as a back up supply of macro and pods for my fuge. I have more pods in the 6 gal. than in my 30 gal. fuge when you take into account the volume. Of course the pods aren't being siphoned into a main tank either.

Gary

[witecap4u]

I use 2 of the 19W 6500K's from home depot on my fuge, and one on my minibow 2.5. They are pretty decent bulbs and hold up to the humidity very well and actually, mine are totally encrusted in salt creep right now, time to clean them.

cs

[blueboy]

thank you all for sharing your experience. this is for a 16G cube(16x16x16), it currently has 18W PC, was thinking of adding a couple more bulbs. with the 19Watters that would give me 56W. i think that should be adequate, it is primarily for a mantis tank, i just want to be able to keep some polyps in there to make it more interesting. i'll be building a custom hood so i can add a fan no problem. what kind of sockets are you guys using?

[witecap4u]

I just used a cheap incadecent light strip from a 10gal, one bulb on each side, for my sump. The minibow has a built in socket.

[Ram_Puppy]

Blueboy, at home depot they sell a weatherized rubber coated medium base socket (standard size for most light bulbs) I used that to A) Avoide corrosion, and B) keep anything that might corrode from dropping into the tank, has worked like a champ so far. You might also want to get a tube of heat shrink wrap for the wires, or at least make sure you tape em up real good with electrical tape.