# Black light issues - need some help



## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

You can find UV compact black light bulbs - they are either spirals or truncated tubes that fit in standard lightsocket.

http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/contentimages/catalogimages/watermarked/plec-blb-11w-bc.jpg

http://searchlighting.com/images/pics/lightbulbs/BULB_blacklight.jpg

I've used two in my front hall ceiling fixture, and it worked VERY well for the black light effect. If you have a larger room, you may need to try a few more bulbs but the only way to see how well they work is to try them. 

Just make sure that you don't get the cheapy "blacklight' bulbs that look like incandescent bulbs - they are not real blacklights and are dangerous as they get VERY hot. If you are paying less than $4 per bulb - it's a cheapy bad one.


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## nightdancer16 (Oct 5, 2009)

Ahh, this is exactly what I needed to know, thank you! All my friends suggested I go ahead and purchased a couple of the cheap $2.99 bulbs, but it seemed a little too cheap. Thanks for the links, now I know what i should be looking for!!


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## madammorrible (Aug 9, 2009)

I had an electrician friend of mine come out Friday to put in ceiling speakers for my daughters party and asked him the same question. He said the fluorescents are the only way to go for these kinds of things. I got 48" lights with the bulbs at lowes for $25. The internet has a 10% off floating around as well. If you don't find a valid coupon your local post office should have one in their change of address packet. Hope that helps and good luck.


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## Stochey (Sep 22, 2009)

I have a lava lamp that I was going to use in my black light room but the light takes too much away from the affect. The light bulb in the lava lamp is 25watt or 25 something... I think it's watt. 

If I replace that with a black light bulb... would it make it a black light lava lamp? Could I find a 25 watt small bulb like that?

Suggestions?


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Stochey said:


> I have a lava lamp that I was going to use in my black light room but the light takes too much away from the affect. The light bulb in the lava lamp is 25watt or 25 something... I think it's watt.
> 
> If I replace that with a black light bulb... would it make it a black light lava lamp? Could I find a 25 watt small bulb like that?
> 
> Suggestions?


I don't know that they make them that small... There is a compact UV black light like this:
Amazon.com: Chauvet Handheld Blacklight: Musical Instruments

But you would need a bulb that is the same sizing as the one you're replacing, I I haven't seen that small of a bulb.

Added to that, a lava lamp works by heat convection - the heat produced from the incandescent bulb is what makes it work. A UV or just a regular florescent bulb works at a much lower temperature than incandescent... so it may not have the heat necessary to get the lava effect.

My suggestion would be to go to an art supply store and get some colored acetate film (Art and craft supplies from TexasArt.com.) and make a sleeve (may need to do a few layers) of whatever color looks good to you and fit it over the lamp to tone down the light but still be able to see the lava effect using it's regular bulb.


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## 13ghosts (Aug 16, 2008)

Walgreens at some point before Halloween last year had a sale on the Feit spiral blacklight bulbs, I bought a few for around $6 I think it was.

I had a lot of luck with the LED blacklight bulbs too, I got a few off of ebay last year.


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## Stochey (Sep 22, 2009)

AH. I was afraid it'd be something like that. 

Thanks Frankie's Girl!

I might look into making the sleeve...


Hey, does tonic water really glow under a UV light? Does it wear off over time?


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

Stochey said:


> AH. I was afraid it'd be something like that.
> 
> Thanks Frankie's Girl!
> 
> ...



Just call me a font of useless knowledge! (well, not so useless NOW!)

Yes, tonic water glows in black light - sort of a blue/white color. It is from the quinine that makes it "tonic" water. Perfectly safe to drink too, so it would be an awesome drink mixer if you have a black light near the drink station. You would have to remove the quinine to make it STOP glowing, so it doesn't ever fade as far as I know.

Tonic water - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The quinine was added for medicinal purposes - as treatment against malaria. Tonic water can fluoresce in bright daylight since quinine is so sensitive, so it's no wonder it glows so brightly in blacklight.


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## nightdancer16 (Oct 5, 2009)

Frankie's Girl said:


> Just call me a font of useless knowledge! (well, not so useless NOW!)
> 
> Yes, tonic water glows in black light - sort of a blue/white color. It is from the quinine that makes it "tonic" water. Perfectly safe to drink too, so it would be an awesome drink mixer if you have a black light near the drink station. You would have to remove the quinine to make it STOP glowing, so it doesn't ever fade as far as I know.
> 
> ...



Ooohh, that's fun. Do any other mixers glow under a black light, or is tonic water the only one?


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## sulquirid (Oct 7, 2009)

*Hi*

How come the drawers look as if they're suspended in mid air?? Looks great.


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## leighanne4585 (Aug 28, 2009)

We do black light beer pong, we set it up in the basement & use the long black lights and the bulbs... The more the better! It can seem very dark with just a few bulbs. We do have a large basement so with a smaller room you most likely wont need a ton but I do think you will need a little more than the 2 bulbs. My husband bought 2 neon bowls from walmart this year for the 'water cups' & they glow AMAZINGLY (in the Halloween section)! We are going to try to find neon cups as well. last year I did have white cups which glowed awesomely as well. Someone on here suggested replacing water in jello with tonic water so we are going to try that w/ our jello shots as well. The more black light reactive items you have in the room the more fun it becomes. We also cover the rest of the ceiling with glow in the dark webbing which helps with the lighting problem a bit. Best of luck!


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## nightdancer16 (Oct 5, 2009)

leighanne4585 said:


> We do black light beer pong, we set it up in the basement & use the long black lights and the bulbs... The more the better! It can seem very dark with just a few bulbs. We do have a large basement so with a smaller room you most likely wont need a ton but I do think you will need a little more than the 2 bulbs. My husband bought 2 neon bowls from walmart this year for the 'water cups' & they glow AMAZINGLY (in the Halloween section)! We are going to try to find neon cups as well. last year I did have white cups which glowed awesomely as well. Someone on here suggested replacing water in jello with tonic water so we are going to try that w/ our jello shots as well. The more black light reactive items you have in the room the more fun it becomes. We also cover the rest of the ceiling with glow in the dark webbing which helps with the lighting problem a bit. Best of luck!


Sounds faboosh! Yeah I'm trying to get it set up for beer pong - I'm trying to block off the light from the living room and the light from the windows in the room. I ended up buying one 18 inch long blacklight, and I'm getting two more bulbs... I'm HOPING that'll do it... it's such a small room... Let's hope!

I think the tonic water is a GREAT idea! I might have to steal that - let me know if you end up trying it and it doesn't work! 

Thanks for all the great ideas!


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