Mini Compact Fluorescent

[brently78]

I have a ballast that has the "old" metal halide bulbs in it, I want to have a reef tank and I was wondering if I should just use the "Coralife mini compact fluorescent 50/50" bulbs that just screw into the old metal halide sockets, or break down and buy a new ballast that will hold the fluorescent bulbs?. The mini compact lights have "50% 10,000K Daylight, 50% Actinic 03 Blue" is this okay for a 30 gal reef tank?

 

[gsd]

The mini screw in PC bulbs have built in ballasts in the bulbs already, it would not be wise to plug a ballasted bulb into a ballasted socket as such. You'll find the screw in PC type bulbs to be poor choices for most tanks and on a 30 gal I doubt you'll be happy with the results unless you add a lot of bulbs.

 

[brently78]

Originally Posted by GSD
The mini screw in PC bulbs have built in ballasts in the bulbs already, it would not be wise to plug a ballasted bulb into a ballasted socket as such. You'll find the screw in PC type bulbs to be poor choices for most tanks and on a 30 gal I doubt you'll be happy with the results unless you add a lot of bulbs.
Okay, thank you very much, i'll invest in the fluorescent lights then