# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Xenon lighting, etc



## aychamo (Jun 12, 2004)

Hey guys!

I spent nearly an hour at the hardware store today trying to fight lighting alternatives to my 10 gallon tank's current lighting.

I saw they had a xenon fixture, which was made for under-cabinet lighting, and it would work on my tank with it's dimensions. The fixture had 3x18w xenon lights, and was about $35. The package mentioned that they were low temperature and did not have produce harmful UV rays.

Would xenon lighting work for growing plants? Or, more importantly, is the 3x18w equivelant to a 3x18 flouresccent? 

Also, I saw small nice, small, 23w compact flourescent lights, but I couldn't anywhere in the store find the "housings" that you would mount the CF lights in. I did see a few lamps that had 13w CF lights in them, and it seemed like it would be easy to harvest the CF lighting fixture from them.

Also, I saw some nice shop lights that had really good reflective coating in the back of them, and either a 13w or a 26w CF bulb in them. It seems like I could modify the shop lights to fit nicely in my fixtures. My question here would be how does it work if say I have a lot of light, but it's over a small area. Err, like my tank is 20" across, and the "bulb" of these lights was only say 8 inches. I could lie them facing opposite directions, but there would be areas of the tank not covered directly overhead by light. Is this an issue? I could probably put a third to cover the entire area, that would give 3x13 = 39w. 

Anyways, I'm just curious what you guys think about these ideas, and specifically the xenon lighting.


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## aychamo (Jun 12, 2004)

Hey guys!

I spent nearly an hour at the hardware store today trying to fight lighting alternatives to my 10 gallon tank's current lighting.

I saw they had a xenon fixture, which was made for under-cabinet lighting, and it would work on my tank with it's dimensions. The fixture had 3x18w xenon lights, and was about $35. The package mentioned that they were low temperature and did not have produce harmful UV rays.

Would xenon lighting work for growing plants? Or, more importantly, is the 3x18w equivelant to a 3x18 flouresccent? 

Also, I saw small nice, small, 23w compact flourescent lights, but I couldn't anywhere in the store find the "housings" that you would mount the CF lights in. I did see a few lamps that had 13w CF lights in them, and it seemed like it would be easy to harvest the CF lighting fixture from them.

Also, I saw some nice shop lights that had really good reflective coating in the back of them, and either a 13w or a 26w CF bulb in them. It seems like I could modify the shop lights to fit nicely in my fixtures. My question here would be how does it work if say I have a lot of light, but it's over a small area. Err, like my tank is 20" across, and the "bulb" of these lights was only say 8 inches. I could lie them facing opposite directions, but there would be areas of the tank not covered directly overhead by light. Is this an issue? I could probably put a third to cover the entire area, that would give 3x13 = 39w. 

Anyways, I'm just curious what you guys think about these ideas, and specifically the xenon lighting.


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## Steve Hampton (Feb 13, 2004)

Personally I steer away from the xenon lighting. Running the xenon lamps at 10-12 hours a day would probably require replacing the lamps several more times compared to CF, PC, or Normal Output Fluorescent lamps. Additionally I'm not sure of the color of the xenon lamp and whether you'd be happy with the way it renders the colors in your tank.

Doctors Foster & Smith has a new affordable CF fixture for 10 gallon tanks you might want to consider. Here's the link.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=11420&Ne=40000&R=154&N=2004+113176

The retro kits from AH Supply is always a good choice too.

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


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## imported_pineapple (Apr 28, 2004)

I pondered over several similar types of lighting for a while and after reading that they were rated for 2000-3500 hours, I realized they were for intermittent use - not 11 hour daily use...

Andrew


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## aychamo (Jun 12, 2004)

So, the general consensus seems to be that the lights are fine, they just will burn out more frequently?


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