Where to get fluorescent tube light for old established tank

[Annie424]

Hello all,

I have a 10G moderately planted tank with a fish and snails (and sometimes ghost shrimp for enrichment) that has been set up for 20 years or more. It has an old style hood with a tube fluorescent lamp, which finally failed a few weeks ago. They used to be easy to find, but I cannot find a replacement bulb anywhere locally, everything is LED. No help so far with local fish stores and pet shops to see if they can order, can't get a call back. I tried again today with a local fish store but am not all that hopeful based on past experience.... Can anyone advise where I could get another lamp (or how to better search)? Amazon doesn't seem to be helpful as it's a smaller tank and I haven't been able to find anything that small, could be the wording I am using to search, but I've tried several things. Plus I'm worried about breakage with shipping, the last lamp I bought locally in an attempt to be proactive was damaged and I had to dispose of it, but my existing tube was still working and fine so my fault that it went off my radar. I've since moved the fish to a 5G quarantine tank I keep running just in case, and uprooted a few plants from the 10G on the side that are farthest from a light source (back door window) to put in the 5G tank. So far the plants left in the 10G seem ok but I am sure they are not all that happy, and want to fix this fast. I'm sure the ones I transplanted are even more unhappy. The LED lighting in my 5G backup tank doesn't seem to be as good, it's really bright white in-your-face and not soft, if that makes sense. It's harder on the eyes. I am hoping to move everything back quickly to the 10G once I can find a similar K rated replacement fluorescent tube light. Current bulb that failed is 5500K daylight, which maybe could be a little higher for the plants but the betta has been really happy with it. Who knew finding a replacement light bulb would be this hard? Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

 

[Fishfur]

There are LED based tubes made that replace the original flourescent tubes, which are going the way of the dinosaurs as older technology usually does. They look just like the originals but have LEDs inside instead of gas.

Not all sizes are available, unfortunately, so you need to know the exact size of thd tube that has burned out - post that and perhaps a search will reveal a replacement then.

An image showing the underside of the hood would be useful to see too.

 

[MasterPython]

If there is a hydroponics store in town they might have the right size.

 

[A201]

Walmart still sell fluorescent tubes online.

 

[70iselin]

A lot of those flourscents are phased out. You might have convert it to led

 

[wranglerEd]

Annie, try Lowe’s or an Industrial Catalog place I delt with daily when I worked as a Buyer at a large Pet food mfg. plant, it’s called Grainger…. They are all over the country and pretty much everything from electrical supplies, tools, safety supplies, etc.. You will need numbers off your existing tubes and sizes.

 

[bgarthe]

I have had to order special bulbs for my night insect collecting hobby. One place to try is 1000bulbs.com. They really have a huge stock and selection. And you can call and speak to a human.

 

[Annie424]

Thank you so much everyone!! I will look into all of these suggestions and hopefully find a replacement this weekend. I really appreciate all responses, and sorry I have been late to reply, some life changes have happened all of a sudden since my initial post. My failed tube is a ZooMed brand. While I know I bought it for the fishtank in the aquarium section ages ago, it seems to be for reptiles? Fishfur , do you have a site I could try to find an LED replacement in a tube that you mentioned, in case I run into no joy? Thanks again to every one.

There are LED based tubes made that replace the original flourescent tubes, which are going the way of the dinosaurs as older technology usually does. They look just like the originals but have LEDs inside instead of gas.

Not all sizes are available, unfortunately, so you need to know the exact size of thd tube that has burned out - post that and perhaps a search will reveal a replacement then.

An image showing the underside of the hood would be useful to see too.

I'm not sure how to do this anymore (upload photos), I'm sorry, I'm older and sometimes struggle with easy tasks like this. I did measure the dead tube and it is 18" including the two prongs at each end. The hood doesn't have a name on it, but the casing where the bulb goes lifts off, and there is glass underneath. In front of that is the part that lifts up to feed and do water changes, etc. Does this help?

 

[Redshark1]

I'm in the UK and am wedded to T8 and HoT5 tubes.

The aquarium specific tubes ran out from aquatics stores.

I was able to get horticultural purpose tubes from eBay that have the exact same light.

Some of these were new old stock. What I mean is brand new items that for some reason were kept in storage until the seller aquired them and put them on eBay. Not ones still manufactured.

I committed to buying a large number for the economy. My lights are likely to last my lifetime based on my calculations. There are several reasons why this is what I want including the quality of light and the warmth of my aquariums being important to my cats!

 

[wranglerEd]

 

[MCMLXXXVII]

Need to know the bulb number not the length. It should have a number like t8f15. If it isn't readable on the bulb you will have to access the ballast in the fixture itself and it will tell you what bulbs it can run. The t# refers to the diameter. A t12 is 1.5", a t8 is 1", and a t5 is 5/8". The f# is the power in Watts it is rated for. 18" length will usually be f15 to f18.

Fluorescent tubes have been Out of production for awhile now especially t12 so your stuck with whatever remaining stock is out there and 18" isn't a very widely used size.

There are led retrofit bulbs that are gonna be more readily available. But this will require you to either know the bulb number or rewire the fixture to bypass the ballast.