Using different wattage for PC light

[yohann976]

I have a power compact lighting system with 2-65 watt 10,000K lights and 2-65 watt actinic lights. I know that actinic lights do nothing for plants, but that is what came with the fixture.

What I want to do is add more useful lighting to my aquarium, but I am afraid that if I change the actinics to regulars, I'll get way too much light and too much algea as a result. I need to know if putting a lower wattage in a higher wattage socket will cause a problem. Will I be able to put in 35 watt PC lights in place of my 65 watt actinics?

[Skulljug]

No sorry - It can't be done. The rating of the bulbs must match the rating of the ballast.

It's like a fuse, If you use too small a fuse, the fuse (or bulb) will burn out in fairly short order, if you use to strong a fuse you risk damage to your control equipment.

What size tank do you have??- You would have 260 watts of light - Which would equate (PC are 35% more efficient than standards) to about 350 watts so depending on tank size this might be ok. I run 330 watts PC on a 4 ft 75 gallon tank and it is just about perfect for a high light tank.

When you say you want it to be more useful do you mean for plants? If so then the key here is to match the needs of the plants (and the types of plants) to the amount of light they recieve. If you can do this then your plants will outcompete the algae. The trouble is the more light, the higher the needs of the plants, but the higher the payoffs.

But as I said, all depends on the size and dimensions of your tank.

[yohann976]

Right now I have cabomba, swords, crypts, anubius, and rotila (mispelled). So I have a variety of light requirements. Also my tank is a 90 gallon without CO2, but I use Seachem Excel.

[Skulljug]

In that case yeah - You would have very high lighting - approx 4 WPG with no actinics - 2 WPG with them (what you have now) I assume that by useful light you are talking about plants? In that case I would say you should keep the two actinics and change out your 10k/10ks for 10k/6500k. This gives you 2wpg with a really good spectrum - Perfect for your plants and floursh excel.

P.S. I have also heard that Excel works better when you does flourish as well or your traces

Hope this helps!