# CFL yes or no?



## Lugnut (Aug 12, 2010)

I have read lots of conflicting answers to using cfl lighting. Can someone shed some current advise about using these? Ultimately are these spiral bulbs not effective? Because to those of us with more ambition than money, we are liking the idea of an inexpensive solution. Although I am not one to jam a square peg in a round hole and say that looks good.
Thanks for any input. 
If you have done this succesfully maybe you can throw a picture on here for us to see.


----------



## J-P (Oct 17, 2010)

dang ... thought this was about foot ball


----------



## tharsis (Oct 9, 2009)

I have had great success using the spiral cfl in both my 10 gallon and 20 gallon tanks. That being said I am not exactly growing difficult plants (anubias, dwarf sag, vals, hygro difformis etc), so ultimately I think it depends on what you want to get out of it...


----------



## Lugnut (Aug 12, 2010)

did you use any type of reflector? and how many of what wattage bulbs did you use? Thanks


----------



## willknowitall (Oct 3, 2010)

i tried one on one side of a tank, it was a 42 watt 6700k bulb
i got more algae with that bulb then my 150w 8000k halide on the other side of tank


----------



## tharsis (Oct 9, 2009)

on the 10 gallon I had 2 15 watt cfl's in the hood with aluminum foil taped to the underside. 










For the 20 long I had 2 walmart clip on desk lamps with 20 watt cfl in each.


----------



## WillyJ (Jun 22, 2010)

On the cheap! This is my (recently set up) walstad tank with 2x26w, 1x13w 6500k CFls in the clip-on fixtures with reflectors and a mirror. Seems to work pretty well, and the price was right.


----------



## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs.html tells you about all you need to know about those bulbs and how to use them.


----------



## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Heres the hood I built with a 5 piece vanity & 4 computer fans, using 5-15watt CFL's over a 20 Gallon long:



















These are old images and the tank is much more filled in growing plants successfully. I will put a more updated photo up so you can see how the growth is.

Also here is a sticky about just this subject under the lighting section
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/85667-par-data-spiral-power-saver-bulbs-2.html
. On page 2 user: !4x4nmore provides some very helpful information on CFL bulbs, there positioning and the use of reflectors.


----------



## Franco (Jun 13, 2010)

Chafire,
that hood is awesome. What do you do for filtration on that tank?


----------



## Franco (Jun 13, 2010)

I'm using 2 GE 15 Watt 6500K CFLs in a hood I got from Petsmart ($22) for a 10 gal Walstad type. It has great polished aluminum reflectors in it. The reflectors don't go clear to the end so I added aluminum foil at an angle so the higher light coming off the end of the bulb wasn't wasted.
It is maybe medium light. Taking the cover glass out of the hood would probably yield a little higher lighting or even allow a bigger bulb.


----------



## Lugnut (Aug 12, 2010)

Thanks again for all the response so far. I went to Lowes and bought 2 smaller aluminum clip on light fixtures like willyj. I have 1 18 watt daylight bulb in each fixture and I like the amount of light already, but I know there is a lot more than that, but so far so good. This was enough for me to decide to build my own creation using these little buggers. If anyone is interested Ill post my progress.


----------



## jeffvmd (Apr 16, 2010)

Here is what I did with my 20 gal long tank.
3 13 watt GE 6500K CFL from Walmart.









I just got 3 brushed steel desk clip on lamps from walmart and made use of shelf brackets to make the stand and brace for it.


----------



## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Filtration used to be a toms rapid mini, but I upraded that to a SunSun canister filter(not sure on the size though)


----------



## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi Lugnut,

Erik Olson came up with a CFL light that a couple of GSAS members have adopted. Here is a post from the GSAS email chat; I believe the tank is a 29 gallon:



> After some mentoring by Erik, I went to Wal-Mart and bought their 10.5in Chicken Brooder fixtures and a pair of 26w (100 watt equivalent) energy efficient 6900k spiral compact fluorescents. The light I had owned was $110 new and I thought it was too loud and the bulbs were over $20 to replace and the new set-up was $24 all included...and I WAY prefer it.
> 
> 1. It is absolutely Silent!
> 2. The light seems more crisp
> ...


----------

