Bulbs for old hoods

[cameracorpus]

I have a couple of 10gal tanks on a double-decker stand. They have the old 2 bulb incandescent hoods. Actually, they are a newer type I haven't seen, but they are still incandescent, and the fixtures are exposed to water without glass underneath them:



I attempted to find some 25W large base chandelier bulbs (preferably the daylight type) so that I could use them for low tech planted tanks without spending a bunch of money. To my avail, the smallest large base chandelier bulb HD or Lowe's sells is 40W. I don't want to melt the hoods, so those are out. Nor do I want to spend $20+ just to re-bulb these old hoods. Anyone have any suggestions? I saw in another forum where someone found some daylight 10W florescent bulbs at WallyWorld, but mine had no such animal. I have filters for the tanks and everything, but right now putting the whole mess on CL comes to mind.....

[Somefishguy]

You should be able to find the spiral daylight bulbs. They are with the rest of the bulbs. 2 packs of the smaller watts run around 5-6$ Look for the blue package that say daylight.

Thats what i use on all my planted tanks and my plants all grow very well

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5646244

[Mzungu]

You should be able to find the spiral daylight bulbs. They are with the rest of the bulbs. 2 packs of the smaller watts run around 5-6$ Look for the blue package that say daylight.

Thats what i use on all my planted tanks and my plants all grow very well

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5646244

+1.

[cameracorpus]

Thanks! Glad to know those do work for plants.

Here in Corpus, we have the same stores, but with limited inventories. I'll just keep looking! Luckily, I do travel a lot, and there are numberous Walmarts around here (duh, really?).

BTW, a buddy of mine writes the dates on all his CFL bulbs before installing them in lamps. Way to technical for me, but he is gonna call their bluff on the "warranties."

[Mike B]

Walmart sells a tubular style screw in 10 watt compact floursent bulb made for plants and aquariums in the pet dept. It costs about $5 each, picked up 2 a couple of weeks ago for the hood of my 14G. I have also used the spiral type daylight CFLs in the same hood with no problems.

[algarciajr]

I have used those same hoods before on my 10 gallon tanks, I went to a glass place and had them cut me a piece of 1/8" thick glass to sit in the lip of the aquarium trim. The glass piece is large enough to cover about 3/4 of the top opening. I leave just enough space to be able to install a hob power filter. Then I just sit the hood on the glass which gets covered up by the hood, that way the bulbs are not getting splashed with water. I have bought these bulbs.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18361/si1382996/cl0/coralifeminicompactcolormaxlamp20watt

[PhishPhreek]

I found the small flourescent replacement bulbs at a local 99 cent store and they work great.