Coralife MINI 20 Watt 50/50 Compact Fluorescent - Thoughts?

[andsoitgoes]

Good to know, and at 18 bucks CDN each, that's GRAVY!!

Can't wait to get 'em going... now, there's no benefit to running pure actinic light w/o the 10k bulb, is there?

[Flusher]

I'm a fan of the Coralife CFLs. The 10W bulbs aren't of much use, but I've run two 20W over a 6 gallon, four 20W over a 13 gallon, and two 20W plus two 15W daylight and a 15W actinic over a 16 gallon.

I'll be putting two 20W over a 7 gallon 'fuge on my next tank, but the display will be large enough to warrant T5s.

FYI - Canadian Tire, Home Depot, etc, sell medium-base sockets for about $5 each. Adding a $5 electrical cord and figuring out a way to attach these to a DIY canopy is simple.

Here are some old pics, before I swapped out the spiral bulbs for more Coralife 50/50s:




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FERRARI 312B HISTORY

[Farrmanchu]

I use 2 20 watts over my frag tank (10 Gal. half full), and I am able to keep SPS frags, they don't grow upwards much, but they uncrust downwards quickly. I find many Zoo types prefer this type of lighting when well fed. Everything looks pretty good under them too, comparable to my T5 HOs, not quite as much blue. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention my Pulsing Hand grows like wildfire under those bulbs too.

[gbeef]

here's the setup i have under my hood im running one sunpaq 32 watt bulb they are only 12.5 " long i got mine from mops.ca you can get a 50/50 or a 10K/65000K i also have 2X 9 watt coralife lamps under that hood.

[dockrat]

Well just to throw in my opion the coralife bulbs 50/50 screw in bulbs never have worked very well for me the ballast always seems to fry after about 3 months... My solution for my 5.5 was just to mod the original abs hood, I used a 6500k cf buld form HD and stuck it in then and then guted the Coralife fixture 2X9W removed the bulbs and clips and marked and cut the plugs that plug onto the light bulbs, I then extended the wires with 5ft or so of 18g wire so that the balast could still sit in the Alum fixture on the floor and power the bulbs (no need to remove the balast but you can if you want)
then i mounted the bulbs in the abs hood right beside the 6500 bulb i used 2 antic bulbs for this... But having said all that it might be better to just build a new wood hood and use 2 x 28w bulbs with a small ballast from HD .... that was the original plan when i set up the 5.5 but i got side tracked and upgraded to a much larger tank... well i hope some one will find this useful...

[andsoitgoes]

guh - My only problem is that I'm about as much of a handyman as a dog with no arms and 4 tails!

That said, I'm willing to pay someone to do it FOR me ^_^

[dockrat]

well i never use it if I can find my old 5 galon hood that is moded ill trade you it for a new one... the hood is in good condition but there are 2 small rivets showing on the out side that are holding the lights in place. you will have to replace the bulbs as well after you get it.