birdie
12th October 2009, 01:10 PM
I have a Hailea FA400 71L Tank - http://www.hailea.com/e-hailea/product1/FA400.htm
It has tube lighting in the hood (under a plexi sealed section) but one of the tube "holders" has stopped working. This is the second time this has happened in about 10 months. The first time I took the tube holder back to the fish shop where i bought the tank and he just swapped it for a holder out of one of the tanks he had... and then it was all good for about 3-4 months but as of a couple of weeks ago its stopped working again...
I know its the holder because the bulb works fine in the other holder, and swapping the power leads between the two holders doesn't make any difference either... so its something to do with the holder, it appears that it could have a ballast inside the holder.. (it looks like a mini fluro light and mini holder for it).
So i know i could take it back and probably get another holder under warranty as its less than 12 months old but i can see this is going to probably be an ongoing problem seeing that its happened twice with-in 10 months... So i'm considering changing the lighting completely to some LED lighting... is it possible to get some aquarium LED lighting that will fit into the hood of my tank? (The tank currently has a Blue light (which is the holder that is not working) and a white light... so i guess i need to replace them both?)
Here's a couple of photos:
Hood (with the dodgy light removed):
http://www.birdiehq.net/images/fish-lights1.jpg
Dodgy Holder + Blue Blub (Which I accidently blew i think):
http://www.birdiehq.net/images/fish-lights2.jpg
I opened the end of the faulty light "holder" and it appears to have something substantial in heatshrink so i guess that must be the invertor for the light??? because I've pulled the hood to pieces and the lights get 240v straight into the holder... there is also a little 240v-6v transformer for the little fan in the hood (which either needs oiling or replacing... as it sounds really rough sometimes like a dry computer fan... which is odd as the tanks is less than 12months old)...
What is special about the LEDs for aquariums? just the colour temperature? or the brightness? or is just because they are "aquarium LEDs" that they are expensive?
Details of the current bulbs:
KES Brand
288mm length (not including prongs on both ends)
15mm diameter
T5
One Bulb is "BLUE" and the other is 6500K
Do the lights need to be anything special? Can I go to a local lighting shop and buy some "regular" holders and tubes (T5 i guess?) and use them?
It has tube lighting in the hood (under a plexi sealed section) but one of the tube "holders" has stopped working. This is the second time this has happened in about 10 months. The first time I took the tube holder back to the fish shop where i bought the tank and he just swapped it for a holder out of one of the tanks he had... and then it was all good for about 3-4 months but as of a couple of weeks ago its stopped working again...
I know its the holder because the bulb works fine in the other holder, and swapping the power leads between the two holders doesn't make any difference either... so its something to do with the holder, it appears that it could have a ballast inside the holder.. (it looks like a mini fluro light and mini holder for it).
So i know i could take it back and probably get another holder under warranty as its less than 12 months old but i can see this is going to probably be an ongoing problem seeing that its happened twice with-in 10 months... So i'm considering changing the lighting completely to some LED lighting... is it possible to get some aquarium LED lighting that will fit into the hood of my tank? (The tank currently has a Blue light (which is the holder that is not working) and a white light... so i guess i need to replace them both?)
Here's a couple of photos:
Hood (with the dodgy light removed):
http://www.birdiehq.net/images/fish-lights1.jpg
Dodgy Holder + Blue Blub (Which I accidently blew i think):
http://www.birdiehq.net/images/fish-lights2.jpg
I opened the end of the faulty light "holder" and it appears to have something substantial in heatshrink so i guess that must be the invertor for the light??? because I've pulled the hood to pieces and the lights get 240v straight into the holder... there is also a little 240v-6v transformer for the little fan in the hood (which either needs oiling or replacing... as it sounds really rough sometimes like a dry computer fan... which is odd as the tanks is less than 12months old)...
What is special about the LEDs for aquariums? just the colour temperature? or the brightness? or is just because they are "aquarium LEDs" that they are expensive?
Details of the current bulbs:
KES Brand
288mm length (not including prongs on both ends)
15mm diameter
T5
One Bulb is "BLUE" and the other is 6500K
Do the lights need to be anything special? Can I go to a local lighting shop and buy some "regular" holders and tubes (T5 i guess?) and use them?