What counts is what the ballast says it will operate. Wrong lamp you
might have short lamp life, or worst case overheat and have a fire.
If its electronic they frequently operate over a range. If its
magnetic they are usually a lot tighter range.

Mike M

On Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:08:13 +0000 (UTC), Larry Blanchard
wrote:

OK, maybe waaay OT, but I've found a lot of general knowledge in this
group.

I have an aquarium hood that takes a 55 watt CF. One of the U-shaped
ones with 4 in-line pins. The fixture comes with dire warnings to only
replace with the same kind of bulb.

55 watts is too much wattage for the tank without some extra doodads
(mainly CO2 injection) - I get lots of algae growth. Eventually the
plants will win out over the algae, but in the meantime ...

I went out looking for a new bulb. Turns out they don't make 55 watt any
more, they make a 45 watt and a 65 watt. The stores all tell me the 65
will work, but they give conflicting answers on the 45 watt.

If someone here is well versed in the do's and don'ts of CF bulbs and
fixtures, please let me know if a 45 watt will work. They're too
expensive to experiment :-).

Thanks.