Power Compacts

[harmanrk]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Hi, I have a 30 gallon (36 inch long)saltwater tank that is currently fish only, In the near future I plan to upgrade the lighting from my current 30 Watt single tube,normal outputflorescent to a 192 Watt power compact fixture. Currently I have a few polyps that came in on a peice of live rock, but I am looking to add more polyps, and some soft corals down the road, andwant to make I can meet there lighting requirments when I find something I want to add.#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#I am currently looking at a fixture that uses two 96 Watt tubes, with astraight (German) pin arangment.While looking online for replacment bulb availbility, I have noticed that bulbs with the straight pin arrangment are much harder to locate, than the square pin bulbs. Is this something that I should be concerned about? Will straight pin bulbs eventually be driven out of the market (ala BetaMax)?#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Robert#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[dakar]

I think both will likely be around for quite a while yet. Especially given the recent influx of bulbs from China and other countries.

Recently I'd hacked apart a Coralife 4x65w fixture to retrofit it into my canopy, they used the straight pin arrangement, but the repalcement bulbs I wanted were in the sqaure configuration, (and half the price) a simple fix. Replacing the endcaps for cheap was easy, took all of 5 mins to replace with nothing more than a jewelers type screw driver to do all 4 once I sorted out the wiring. (For future reference It's posted in the DIY forum, I'll be adding some more wiring schematics to it soon as well).

For this reason I would not worry too much over the pin configuration if you are able to get the fixture or retros in the bulb types and spectrums you want now, changing your mind later is almost always inevitable.... even if it takes changing the endcaps to get what you want.

[harmanrk]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Thank you for the information. Are the replacment endcaps a common hardware store type item, or something more difficult to locate?#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl##ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Robert#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[dakar]

They are not too easily found retail, like anything else we could really use they aren't normally stocked at the places I've checked, though some LFS's may keep a limited supply on hand, generally at a pretty significant markup.

Of course with online dealers they can be found just about anywhere.