Now we can already hear many of you snickering at the thought of even discussing “Normal Output” lighting but yesterday’s thrift store find is a vintage relic from a bygone era. Once upon a time, Vita-Lites were the be-all, end-all light bulb in terms of spectrum and color rendition; the lamps are still used to provide broad spectrum lighting to birds, small mammals and people because the light makes people “happier”. Not only did we find a vintage Vita-Lite, this one came with the power-twist feature which is a small narrowing of the bulb which makes the bulb more efficient and easier to drive. Duro-Test Lighting still produces the vita-lite in a variety of form factors including the T12 power-twist but we are still fond of our vintage find and we can’t wait to put it over our crushed coral and bleached skeleton, under gravel filtered marine fish aquarium. Continue reading for another look at the power-twist.
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Wow, a blast from the past for sure, I remember our East Coast rep being real pushy with the Vita-Lite bulbs, he annoyed the hell out of me.
In high school I had a 140 gallon tank with six 36 inch Vita Lite twists and undergravel filters with a canister to "polish the water"! Raised an Orbic batfish from a tiny thing to a monster that outgrew the tank – he moved into a local dentist's 500 gallon display and lived for a long time. We were all amazed at the great colors these provided…Now I'm running Cree LEDs on a Betta Cube pico reef – times have changed for sure.
I lol'd when I read this. This is old for sure.
Great stuff. I used to use those on planted tanks, reptiles and reefs.
Amazing bulbs…I think they were the greatest N.O. bulbs ever made! They grew FW plants like crazy, and I was able to grow Caulerpa like…um…weeds! And the CRI was awesome!