Aquarium

Incandescent Aquarium Lighting Basics

Incandescent lighting is most commonly used for lighting your home, and is what most people associate with the term light bulb. The incandescent bulb produces light by passing electrical current through a wire filament, until it heats up to a temperature that the filament emits light. The filament is protected from oxidation by a glass bulb, which is filled with an inert gas, allowing the filament to burn for a very long time.

Incandescent bulbs are a very inefficient type of light bulb, typically converting less than 5% of the energy that they use to produce visible light.

Incandescent bulbs are available in many different colors, and are only useful for lighting very small aquariums, or as heat lamps, or decorative lamps. These bulbs produce a lot of heat and only low wattage bulbs are sold for aquarium use.

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