which kind of hood

[Kaga's Kritters]

is there any difference between how good a fluorescent hood is compared to an incandescent hood?

[tropfish]

Well, you can't grow plants with incandcent ligths, and they get hot which could raise the temp of the aquarium if you have alot of lights, while flourescents stay cool. On the other hand, flourescents tend to be more expensive, but last longer then incandescents.

[richberstler]

I just got a hand me down tank with an incandescent hood. Compared to my florecent hood on my other tank I thought the lighting looked stale. I then went out and bought a new hood, which unfortunately cost as much as a completely new 10 gal tank, defeating the purpose of the free one I received lol.

But I would say it was well worth it as the tank looks crisp now.

[Drumachine09]

Well, you can't grow plants with incandcent ligths


Not with incandescent bulbs, but you can with an incandescent hood. I have 2 15w bulbs in my incandescent hood on my planted tank, and my plants are growing so large, I don't know what to do with them.

[tropfish]

Well theres really no such thing as an incadescent hood
its a hood with either incandescent bulbs or CF bulbs really. thats what i meant.

[Drumachine09]

Well theres really no such thing as an incadescent hood

Care to rephrase that? I am looking at two of them right now.

[Kaga's Kritters]

u all got my confused now. are incandescent hoods with incandescent bulbs any good or not.

[Drumachine09]

u all got my confused now. are incandescent hoods with incandescent bulbs any good or not.



Incandescent hoods with incandescent bulbs are terrible.

However, if you fork out the extra $6 for a pair of compact flourescents, there are an extremely good hood.

[tropfish]

See, but i dotn call them incandescent hood, their jsut hoods, the lights are incandescent, just like hood with floursent fixtures are hood, not flourescent hoods. That's all i meant by that.

[Kaga's Kritters]

if the hood is made to hold incandescent bulbs then we call it an incandescent hood, same with a flourescent hood. that is how we know what kind of hood we are talking about.


the incandescent hoods i see near me are usually crap and fall apart when you pick them up (at least the ones at the pet store i worked at did) are they all this crappy?

[Drumachine09]

I bought mine at walmart, and the only complain I have about them is the small feeding door, instead of the full-length hinges, like on fluorescent hoods.

[tropfish]

You can put CF bulbs in it, well i call it a hood but im splitting hairs, i'm sorry i think i need some sleep haha.

[Kaga's Kritters]

i cant find hoods for anything but a 10g at walmart....i need one for a 5 and a 29, as well as the 10

are the CFs easier on the electric bill than regular flourescents?

[Futureboy]

i cant find hoods for anything but a 10g at walmart....i need one for a 5 and a 29, as well as the 10

are the CFs easier on the electric bill than regular flourescents?

i think they use the same amount of power just in a differant design i could be wrong but

[tropfish]

they last longer, and dont heat up. They'll save moneyi n the end. They're Also more energy efficiant

[cocoa_pleco]

you can put CF bulbs in incandescent hoods, but to me incandescent hoods are old and useless like UGF's.

Fluorescents are the best general choice. they give out even lighting, unlike incandescent fixture, and fluorescent lights dont use much heat. I threw some CF bulbs on my incandescent hood on my auratus's 10g, and the dam light heats the tank so much i dont use a heater, it keeps the tank at a stable 80f

[A340]

I bought mine at walmart, and the only complain I have about them is the small feeding door, instead of the full-length hinges, like on fluorescent hoods.
This is one of my pet peeves on some small hoods as well. The one I bought at Wal Mart has this too, but it also has hinges on the back attaching the hood to the tank enabling you to open the whole caonpy without having to take it off.

Also, Incandescent bulbs, although quite nostalgic, don't really have many benefits over flourescent bulbs other than you can eliminate havng a heater for a small tank as they produce quite a bit of heat.

If you want an easy and cheap fix for an incadescent hood, there are mini CF bulbs (as mentioned in the above posts) available from both Coralife and Hagen that easily screw into the sockets. They are available in different wattages from 10w, 15w and 20w. They also come in 50/50 daylight/actinic, daylight and life glo set ups. They have their own ballasts and are much more effeceint and provide more wattage per gallon than incandescent bulbs.