Coral Reef Lighting

[nauticalnut01]

I have a heat lamp that was used for a reptile cage. Would there be any way to convert it to a safe, inexpensive Reef lamp? What do I need to do and buy? It is an adjustable output lamp, and it can vary from low output to high. It is a very nice light, so Id like to know if this task is possible. Thanks!

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

nope no way to do so properly, most reef tanks require metal halide or T5 lights. no way to take a standard incandescent or halogen lamp and convert to metal halide as they require ballasts and slighty larger sockets T5 is completely out of the question as they are tubes not bulbs.

you could try to put in a compact flourescent bulb (CFL) and turn it into a light you can use on say a freshwater aquarium but theres no way you could ever light a reef tank with something like that unless it's a very small tank (nano reef).

 

[nauticalnut01]

ok thanks.