50/50 bulb for stock Eclipse 12?

[RockinAR]

Is there a 50/50 bulb made for a stock Eclipse 12? I want a 50/50 instead but have never seen one.

[Physh1]

I believe those are 12" bulbs right? If so than nobody makes a 12" 50/50. My suggestion to you would be a Hagen PowerGlo bulb. That would be the best 12" bulb available for that hood.

 

It's pretty bright and the color is a pretty cool 12k-ish color. I've used them before and really liked it.

 

Cameron

[Twins Guy]

the newer eclipse twelves use a powercompact rather than a normal output fluorescent. i think...but if you can find a wattage spec on the bulb or in the hood you should be able to find the 50/50 you want. the more i think about it that might be a 13W pc. if it is i just bought one from hellolights.com and it looks great. half 10K/Actinic. just make sure the lamp bases are compatible with the socket.

[printerdown01]

I could be wrong, but doesn't coralife make a 50/50 that fits the eclipse 12 and eclipse 1? I could be wrong... It has been over a year since I have used NO lighting on my tank.

[RockinAR]

Originally posted by Twins Guy

the newer eclipse twelves use a powercompact rather than a normal output fluorescent.  i think...but if you can find a wattage spec on the bulb or in the hood you should be able to find the 50/50 you want.  the more i think about it that might be a 13W pc.  if it is i just bought one from hellolights.com and it looks great.  half 10K/Actinic.  just make sure the lamp bases are compatible with the socket.

 

 

Yeah, the new Eclipse uses a 13w compact light. Do these come in 50/50?

[OscarBeast]

HelloLights.com just came out with a new 50/50 13 watt PC bulb.

 

http://www.hellolights.com/13w5010dayac.html

 

It has true actinic 03 phosphors and a full 10,000K.

 

To my knowledge, these are the only 13 watt 50/50 bulbs out.

[Physh1]

Tha't pretty cool....I think that is the only one out.

 

Cameron

[MrConclusion]

AH supply also has a 13-watt 50/50 bulb listed at:

http://www.ahsupply.com/bulbs.htm

[OscarBeast]

Hmm, I did not know that they have 50/50s that size, but I don't think that ahsupply has true actinics.

 

That is why I purchased my lighting kit from ahsupply, but got my bulbs from hellolights.

[MrConclusion]

Their bulbs are panasonic, I think they're as "true" as any actinic PC bulbs. I have PC bulbs from many sources and there is no visible difference in the actinic tubes. I think "TRUE ACTINIC PC BULB" is a marketing slogan.

 

You gotta remember that these guys... AHsupply, Hellologhts, Customsealife, Coralife, etc, are not manufacturing the PC bulbs they sell. They're all resellers. There are only a few manufacturers. I have always had great experiences with 4-pin-square-socket Panasonic bulbs.

[OscarBeast]

If you ever see a PC that is just marked as actinic beside an actual actinic you will see the difference.

[OscarBeast]

Oh and panasonic makes both 7100K blue bulbs and true actinic bulbs. Both are clearly maked at Hello Lights, because they sell both.

[MrConclusion]

Hmmmm... all of mine say "Actinic."

 

I have never bought a "7100K" bulb.

 

I wonder why the confusion... I have seen some places selling "Actinic(7100k)" bulbs, so I always figured that the terms were interchangeable.

 

I guess I'm just lucky that I got the real actinics. BTW, some of them were from AHSupply unless I'm forgetting where I got them.

[OscarBeast]

Some companies call just about any "blue" bulb actinic, but real actinic bulbs use actinic phosphors.

 

The blue bulbs are good for adjusting the color in your tank, however the true actinics not only adjust the color, but they also make your animals fluoresce or glow.

[cranfordrd]

Forgive my stupidity but I am a lighting moron and am just planning a nano reef. Are you guys saying that I can buy an eclipse 12 and use the lighting set-up as is (no mods, no retrofit etc.) and JUST buy a new bulb for it (the new HelloLights 50/50)? That would solve my #1 problem as I am totally unable to convince my husband to take any interest in this and he would have to do all the "work" on the lighting. I know I would take off the bio wheel and just use the filter for water movement and occassional carbon when needed.

[OscarBeast]

Actually, what we were saying is that, yes, you can get a 50/50 13 watt PC bulb for a newer stock eclipse 12 hood.

 

But if you would like to know if this is all you need, yes, it is depending on what you want to do with your tank and what you want in it.

 

You either need to do a little research about the animals that you want to keep in the tank before you can determine what type of lighting you need OR you can simply ask what kind of animals can you keep with 13 watts of PC light over and eclipse 12.

[cranfordrd]

Thanks! You answered my question and I am very willing to go the easy way, use the stock eclipse hood with better bulbs and then limit my tank inhabitants to those that will do well with the lighting I have. I've been researching for weeks and NEVER figured this out until this thread, a major breakthrough in my planning! I guess I will start researching the right "stuff" for a 12g. I was planning a 7g with a retrofit (that would be before he divorced me for spending so much $$ on a fish tank), this is much easier. Any more info on "Eclipse reefing" would be great, I'm off to do a search now.