Zoo Med T-8 Ultra Sun Super Daylight Fluorescent Bulb, 18″ L, 15 Watts
$26.42
Price: $26.42
(as of Apr 04, 2025 16:10:11 UTC – Details)
The Ultra Sun is a 6500K high intensity trichromatic full spectrum daylight lamp. With a CRI rating of 98, it provides excellent color reduction for optimum viewing of your freshwater or marine fish and live corals with a balanced full spectrum of visible light and UVA. Promotes photosynthetic processes in plants and marine algae. Ideal for all freshwater and marine fish as well as reef tanks. Zoo Meds line of fluorescent aquarium lamps are made in Europe for ultra high quality, color, and longer burn life. Our energy saving T-8 sizes can save you up to $30.00 per year in electricity over the thicker T-12 size lamps. Effective up to 10,000 hours.
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
Product Dimensions : 18.2 x 1.5 x 1.2 inches; 2.4 ounces
Manufacturer recommended age : 1 month and up
Item model number : UL18
Date First Available : June 15, 2004
Manufacturer : Zoo Med Laboratories
ASIN : B0002AQA8E
Generates less heat as compared to metal halide lamps
Ideal for all marine aquariums, reef tanks and fresh water aquariums
Made in the USA
Customers say
Customers find the light bulb provides crisp daylight color and is good for low-light aquarium plants. Moreover, the bulb works well for plant growth, with one customer noting it’s particularly effective for freshwater planted tanks. Additionally, customers appreciate its quality, noting it lasts long, and consider it good value for money.
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7 reviews for Zoo Med T-8 Ultra Sun Super Daylight Fluorescent Bulb, 18″ L, 15 Watts
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OneCoffeePlease –
Good light for plants -Natural looking light -My comparison of this light with two other Zoo Med lights – Photos of all three
Depending on your intended use for this light, this light may be ideal or it may fall a bit short your expectations. I purchased this light in search of light that would be good for our live plants while still providing the light spectrum for ideal fish color enhancement. To that end, I actually ordered this light, the Zoo Med Coral Flora Sun Plant Growth Bulb T8 15 Watts, 18-Inch, and the Zoo Med Reef Sun 50and50 Fluorescent T8 Bulb 15 Watts, 18-Inch. In this review, I intend to help you determine some of the differences and perhaps to help you make a choice as to which is best for you.After the Zoo Med Coral Flora Sun Plant Growth Bulb T8 15 Watts, 18-Inch, it seemed the Trichromatic was next best for maximum plant growth. This light is more in line with “sunlight” and is in the “yellow” light spectrum. This probably provides the most natural looking light of all. After using this for a while, I noticed that algae growth was stimulated. Plant growth was very good. In contrast, the Coral Flora Sun Plant Growth Bulb has a tones that fall more into the red spectrum (sort of a pinkish). The Ultra Sun definitely provides a more natural appearance. If that’s your goal, then this light might be good for you.While the Zoo Med Coral Flora Sun Plant Growth Bulb T8 15 Watts, 18-Inch seemed to provide the most ideal light for plant growth, my family and I really don’t care for the pink hues it casts in our aquarium. The aquarium is still quite beautiful, but we can’t help but compare it to the other two lights.Before I got very serious about aquatic plant care, the Zoo Med Reef Sun 50and50 Fluorescent T8 Bulb 15 Watts, 18-Inch was our favorite of these lights. This light casts hues that are in the “blues.” The blues seem to highlight the colors of fish in a very unique way that we liked. The one drawback is that the lighting is less than ideal for live plants. If you are going to work with a lot of live plants, then this might not be the ideal light for you.UPDATE 11/24/2015: Well, things have changed with our aquarium. I have completely revamped it with a dense concentration of plants. I’ve done a lot of research and I’ve spoken to a very reputable plant vendor about the ideal light for my situation. My best option has turned out to be the Ultra Sun Trichromatic. When one takes into account the natural colors of both plants and fish, this light provides an environment most akin to nature. The color contrasts are beautiful. Moreover, my plant vendor (sells here on Amazon – SubstrateSource), recommended this light over the other two. The 6500 K output is a big part of that reason. When used with Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel, plants will get nutrients they need. I previously mentioned that algae growth was stimulated by this light. I am finding that Excel will help control algae. My plant vendor recommended ten hours of this light per day, flexible give or take two hours.As a side note, I’ve noticed that Amazon’s prices for these light fluctuate greatly. Sometimes they are a bargain compared to pet shops, and sometimes they are ridiculously high. If price is important to you, you might want to do some price comparing before you buy.I wish you much success with your aquatic hobby. I hope my comparisons have given you some insight on these products. If you happen to be near a tropical fish store, you might want to call them to see if they use any of these lights. That way, you can visit the store to see for yourself how these lights look in an actual aquarium. If you have any questions about my experiences with these lights, please feel free to ask me in the comment section.FURTHER UPDATE: Well, I am going to try to capture the lighting differences of these lights with my camera. I’m posting pictures of our aquarium using all three lights. Photo 1 is the Ultra Sun Trichromatic. Photo 2 is the Reef Sun 50/50. Photo 3 is the Coral Flora Sun Plant.
Twistedben –
A high-quality, natural-light bulb
My older T8 18″ bulb fried like a piece of toast after about two years of using it. I’ve purchased other Zoo Med products and have never been let down by them. This T8 Ultra Sun is no exception.It sports a much brighter and warmer light than my previous fish tank light. It doesn’t have that fake bluish LED light that I have come to despise, but rather has a more natural sun light look. It doesn’t nail that warm bright sunlight look, but that’s very difficult to accomplish in any lighting scenario. Let’s put it this way, it gets as close to a natural light as possible for a fish tank light.My live plants have been growing pretty well, so it’s definitely helping with plant growth, though I can’t attest to an exact increase.In a 35″ tall hexagonal tank, it’s radiance manages to reach all the way to the bottom of my tank, without being overwhelming or too bright. My fish seem to love it and the colors in the pearl Danios pop out prominently. It’s just a well-made bulb that I believe will last a long time. I believe it to be worth the extra money for the quality involved. I will definitely continue to purchase Zoo Med products for my aquarium. See the picture for the lighting in my tank. Mind you, this bulb, besides at night, is the only lighting on at the time of the picture. Ignore the dirtiness of the tank. It needs a cleaning.
Tommy D –
One bulb I will use on my planted tank.
Low light level plant grow well under this light. Just replace every year to get the correct spectrum.
Janran –
Didn’t last 10,000 hours
I bought this bulb to be used at my desk as an under the shelf florescent light. I choose this one because I try to use full spectrum light at and around my desk/office since I find that it reduces eye strain and stress. So I’ve have a pretty good idea how long the bulb was used. And it was definitely less than 10,000 before it went bad today. I purchased it June 25th 2012. It took approximately a week or more to arrive (I didn’t have it expedited) nor did I install it as soon as it arrived. There could have been several weeks between receiving it and installing. But since I don’t know exactly when I installed it, I decided to calculated the hours in use as if I installed it 5 days after I bought it. From that day to this, would be approximately 659 days, and using it approximately 12 hours each and every day (which is probably also an exaggeration, although I work a lot of weekends) I only got 7908 hours. This is only 79% of what’s its rated for in the product description.So for that reason, although I thought the quality of the light was good, but since the life span was not as stated,therefore I can only give it 3 stars.
MT –
DOA
Tube arrived DOA. Luck of the draw I suppose. Shipper packed it very well.I’ve used these tubes in the past and they work quite well for freshwater planted tanks.
Sanman66 –
Good light
i needed a better light for my 60 gallon planted Community Tank because the lights I had that came with the tank marinland natural daylight wasn’t providing my plants with Enough light. I put 2 in my tank and noticed more that the light were definitely better then what I had. the other lights were more on the yellow side and these lights are more in the blue side. My fish do show more colors specially the red and blues and more of the neon blue comes out. I don’t know if it’s going to help my parents cause I just got them. I will updated if I see any changes with the plans. They look like good quality and we’ll see how long they last. I recommend getting them they are good lights.
Stuart hill –
Great product..great delivery time..fair price..have just ordered a spare