Okay, so I got excited in the home depot, and bought a 36" T5 dual florescent strip. I took out the old 24" T12 strip from the hood, drilled a couple of mounting holes and bolted in the new dual T5. Ta-da. Lights the ENTIRE tank instead of the center. The problem is the T5 bulbs that came with it are.. well.. yellow. So I go looking for 34" T5 bulbs that hit daylight..

Now comes the problem. Most bulbs I find that are 36" T5s are the 39W HO T5 bulbs. Those won't work.. will they? I did find one place called buylighting.com that sells daylight bulbs that size and wattage, but with nearly $9 shipping. Any better options? Places that might carry it I'm not thinking of? Anyone done this, or did everyone else go with T8?

Thanks!

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Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp

In other words, you're looking for bulbs in the 5000k to 6500k Kelvin spectrum range and 21 Watts? That K range is generally considered "daylight" in various parts of the world.. I order my bulbs from 1000bulbs.com. I just did a quick search for your type of bulb (three feet/T-5) and I came up with F21T5 - 21 Watt - T5 High Efficiency Fluorescent | 1000Bulbs.com.. Note these are 21W bulbs, not 39W like the HO you mentioned..

I would say that even if shipping is $9, that's a one-time fee and if you order in greater quantities than what you immediately need, it will be well worth it.

My shipping rate from 1000bulbs also comes out to nearly $10.00. Yet for an order of 6 bulbs of your type, if I order the $2.71 Plusrite brand, I only pay about $26 w/shipping included for six bulbs, or $4+ for each. I think that's still a pretty good deal for a bulb that is kinda rare even in my neck of the woods.

That is exactly what I meant. I wasn't exactly clear on explaining the fixture came with the 21W T5s (F21T5). 1000bulbs.com? I'll give them a go.
Have you had good luck with the plusrite bulbs before? I would go for the GE or sylvania if it was worth it, but I also don't want to throw money away to have the expensive name printed on the glass of the exact same bulb.

Thanks for the link

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Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp

Based on my experience, the Plusrite bulbs work just as well as the GE. The one big difference between the two commercial brands is that GE is the American-owned brand, with bulbs made either here in the USA or overseas (my bulbs clearly say 'Made in Hungary'). Plusrite is the brand name used by the Chinese manufacturing corporation called Jiangsu Plusrite Electric Co., Ltd. Plusrite are 100% Chinese.

Honestly, I usually do buy GE.

Sounds great to me. By the way, those are great looking tanks you have.

Thanks

__________________
Matthew
30G AquaClear50: Lightly planted, platies, ottos, kuhli loaches.
10G Sponge filter: Heavily planted, ottos, red cherry shrimp