Guess this goes here. Picked up a 10g with fluorescent light. Has an F8T5 bulb. A whole 8 watts. Looking to have a highly planted tank with a few fish. Anybody know if I can put a higher wattage tube in it without having to change the ballast? If not, what's the best approach?

:huh?: What, nobody knows nothin' about tank lights???

sorry, I just saw this post, I have a 10 gallon with a 15 watt bulb. the bulb is from all glass aquariums, but, Hagen(I'm pretty sure thats the company's name.) has some pretty good bulbs for aquarium plants. I'd go look at those, but make sure you get a bulb for plants, not just fish. I use them in every aquarium except my 10 gallon, but that's only because I don't have enough money budgeted for aquarium stuff right now. :P


hopefully this helped. and sorry for not gettign to this sooner.

i think the easiest thing to do would be to pick up a higher wattage fixture. you should only use the recommended bulb wattage for that particular fixture. you should be able to find something pretty cheap i would think. home depot may have something cheap that would work for you, though i don't remember seeing T5 fixtures there.

oh, yeah, I forgot about the fixture max wattage. that might be a problem. I think I bought my fixture from all Glass aquariums, at Petco for like...$20.00ish I can't remember exactly. but it will handle 15 watts. also like cich! said, try home depot, they may have one like that. however, the ones near me (in Arizona) have not had any thing smaller than i think 36", but granted it's been a while since I've been in need of a light fixture.

Bummer, no cheating huh. Oh well, probably better to get a new fixture anyway. Thanks!

But since we're on the subject, I've read articles about re-wiring the electronic ballasts on fluorescent lights with T-12's I think it was and it increased the light output around 30%. Overdriving I think it's called. Ever heard of that? Is it a good or bad thing to do? Would it work on other lights like T-8's or T-5's? Do the tubes burn out faster? Many questions.

Also, here's a high tech question. I've read that fluorescent light is brighter than incandescent and that a 15 watt fluorescent is as bright as a 60 watt incandescent. If so, would you get more wpg's from a 15 watt flourescent v/s a 15 watt incandescent? Or is it 15 wpg no matter what?

I hate it when it does this

I have never heard of overdriving, however I wouldn't try it unless you are good at wiring because the result could be disastrous. not only harming your fish, but possibly burning down your home or apt. It would burn down your Bulb faster seeing as it's pushing it harder than it was meant to go.

Yeah, fluorescents are brighter, or at least stronger than incandescent bulbs however, if the bulb is rated at 15 watts, it is 15 watts, it can't possibly be 60 watts. However, vs an incandescent in a brightness test, it would be equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent.

i hope this helped out. :) oh, and I don't pretend to be an expert, but, this is i think correct. :whistle:

i have heard of overdriving, my personal opinion is just get the correct fixture for the amount of light you want/need. i have never overdriven a fixture before but i would think it would most likely be the source for a significant amount of heat build up and would shorten the life of the fixture and bulbs. i think the main differences between incandescent and fluorescent are that incandescents are higher in the red range of the spectrum are less efficient and build up more heat.

Look up the ballast part via it's number, often times the ballasts have a workable range.
Often times one can replace the original ballast with one a couple grades higher with no ill effect. ie going from 10 watt to 25 watt should not be too big an issue but 10 to 50 would possibly be excessive.

I would avoid over driving due to potential fire hazard.