Growing Bulbs

[Captain Hook]

I have seen a ton of flourescent bulbs available in a variety of intensities. I know djlen recommends 6700K bulbs, what do you guys think? Any specific recommendations? I need 2 - 24 inch bulbs for my tank and was thinking about getting 2 different types of bulbs but am not, how does this sound?

The ones I have found are:

FLORA SUN MAX PLANT GROWTH (8500K)
FLORA-GLO FLUORESCENT, unknown intensity
NUTRI GROW PLANT BULB, unknown intensity
POWER-GLO FLUORESCENT, unknown intensity
SUN-GLO FLUORESCENT, says standard intensity
TROPIC SUN 5,500K FLUORESCENT
ULTRA SUN 6,500K SUPER DAYLIGHT

[CHINABOY1021]

a person i know swears by power glos even though their 18,000K, they have peaks in the blue and red spectrum. i use 6700K life glos and they're awesome. they're really expensive though.

i would go with anything around 6500K. or a power glo. another good bulb for plants is 9325K distrubuted by all-glass.

[rich]

im pretty new to this whole thing but ive been messing around with plants and this is what ive seen. even with low light plants can do decent. not grow at alarming speeds but hang in there, grow a bit, and stay healthy. ive been using a GE plant and aquarium 24" bulb on a 29 gal tank. i have 3 hornworts, 2 crypts, and a red tiger lotus (which my girlfriend dropped in while i was lookin the other way). All of these plants have done well under the low watt, dim k bulb i have. the hornworts grow exremely fast yet the lower sections seem to lose a bit of color as i think the bulb doesnt maintain the intesity well enough. the crypts are going fine, no color loss and strong leaves. the lotus is the biggest surprise though... i told my girlfriend to wait till i had more light to put it in but she droppped it in anyways. i thought it would die for sure but it has grown and thrived. it doubled its size in just 2 weeks! its sprouted runners allready, its a deep red still. all of this is under the crap ge bulb. all the things ive read say the lotus needs high light but i dunno, mine is doing great with low light, some kents fert, and about 15ppm co2 injection. all this is in a tank that im still cycling!

just get what will work i say. 200$ on 3w per gal is pricy and do you really need the plants to grow so fast you have to trim every week?

[125gJoe]

6700K will be fine! :)

[Captain Hook]

Thanks for the input guys. I just checked out Hoa G. Nguyen's site and he has a number of growing bulbs listed. I saw some that sold for real cheap at Home Depot or places like that. I think I will look for some of these rather than blowing a bunch on the ones at the aquarium store. Rich's success has encouraged me to do this as well. I'm hoping that as long as I can find a couple bulbs that are somewhere around 6000-6700K the plants will prosper.

[CHINABOY1021]

the problem about home depot bulbs is that they are most likely t-12s. IME, t-8s are much brighter than t-12s. i got a life glo (6700K) and i cant look at it for more than 5 seconds. and i got a home depot daylight deluxe(6500K) which i can stare at all day. it looks like my computer monitor, the white background on this page. so i returned it right away because when i turned it on and off, there was very little difference.


edit:
another reason why i returned the bulbs is because there's not that much difference between the price. the LFS bulb is around double the price of the home depot bulb. but the LFS bulb is only around 12 CND. imo, such dim lighting is not worth saving few bucks.

[rich]

man mabye i should have you buy me bulbs. the LFS here is pricy! a 24" bulb of any sort is like 25$! and there all 15-20w. not much improvment on my GE bulb reALLY ID SAY. all the bulb set ups ive looked at online that i would like to have would run me like 125$ for the hood and bulb.

[Captain Hook]

$12 CAN for a life glo???? I checked big al's online and they are $35 plus taxes each. Please tell me where you can find them for $12 and I will buy them.

There are some cheaper bulb options I may look at but I do not want to spend more than $20 a bulb.

[GulfCstAquarian]

Allow me to second Chinaboy's recommendation for those 9325K bulbs. They're amazing. I switched from 6700K to 9325K a week ago and without a change in my fert regimen or CO2 levels, plants have started pearling again.

They're also called GE AquaRays. Dr's Foster & Smith (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=3810) carry them. The 24" bulb is $5.79

They look amazing, too. Look at how washed out the 6700K bulbs make the plants look on the right side of this pic. The left side is lit by the 9325K bulb...
http://www.plantedtank.net/forum/files/t-tank-6700k_vs_9325k.jpg

[ianjoe]

GulfCstAquarian, beautiful aquarium!

However, i believe that tank lighting has a lot to do with personal preference.
I prefer the right side of your tank as far as lighting goes, just my opinion. I prefer a little more yellow tone in the light. Ive tried a 5000k bulb and thats a little too yellow. On up to the 10000 and thats way too sterile looking for me. The 6700 fits my taste fine.
How old are were your bulbs when you changed them. As you know, the bulbs intensity fades over time. maybe your plants were reacting to the increased light with the new bulb?

peace out,
ian

[Captain Hook]

I agree that the right side of the tank looks nicer, well at least in my opinion. Thanks for the recommendation of the $6 bulbs. I guess I will have to decide how much I am willing to spend then look for the appropriate bulbs. If the cheaper Home Depot or similar bulbs work just as well I should just save some money and go with them.

[125gJoe]

I'll be number three to say the right looks better and greener. I have had 10,000K bulbs and the lights changed the color of my pants from green to a "washed-out" yellowish/gray.. I have also had the 8800K's and they were a little better, but the 6700K's looked real nice! (6500K's would be fine too)

Since I haven't used that exact "9325K" bulb, I can only guess it would look in between the 10,000K and 8800K. And, that would be way too 'white' and bright for my tank.

[GulfCstAquarian]

Thanks for the compliment. I suppose it all comes down to personal preference, then. Most people I know were blown away by the improvement from the 6700k to the 9325k. This picture probably isn't a good way to tell since the left side is full of reddish plants like Sunset Hygro and Rotala indica, as well as the brown driftwood.
Check out this thread (http://www.plantedtank.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2211&start=67) for more pictures comparing the full tank under 6700K and the full tank under 9325K.

[djlen]

I checked the thread and saw no pictures with your posts.
Don't understand why.

Len

[125gJoe]

I also checked the thread and there were no pics..

Even on the "home" website, page 2 and 3 are no longer available.

I'd really like to see the comparison with just the 6700K lights, then the other higher 'K' lights.. I know 10,000K's "killed" the green color my plants have... :(

("killed the green color" = "washed out" the green)

[GulfCstAquarian]

Go to page five (it took a while for the bulbs to get shipped). The pictures start there.

These 9325K bulbs aren't the typical high-Kelvin reef bulbs you guys are thinking of. I've got a 10,000K bulb that is as far from this bulb as can be. The light is more like the "beauty lights" or a Gro-Lux bulb. A lot of red and blue output (key areas of the spectrum for plant growth) give the bulb a somewhat purplish tint, but still brilliant white.

Also note that I only wired up these bulbs at 55w (2 outputs from a Workhorse5 ballast), while the 6700K's were run at 70w (all four outputs of a Workhorse5 ballast). They aren't as bright, and the plants *still* showed increased pearling.

Here is a picture of the bulbs, side by side (6700K obviously on top):

[125gJoe]

I just went to the link, and to page 5 and still no pics.. :confused:


Seems like those 9325K bulbs have a 'coating' on them, or some other gas added to color it some..(?) It doesn't look like the 10,000K or 6700K "white" light bulbs I use.

Is there a way you can post the comparison here on Aquaria Central?

[GulfCstAquarian]

The 9325K's are standard tri-phospor tubes, but the focus is on blue and red spectral output with little green. Midrange wavelengths are more intense to the human eye but serve to grow algae more than higher plant forms.

Aquaria Central only allows 550 pixel wide pictures so I had to resize. Here is the picture with just the 6700K bulbs...

[GulfCstAquarian]

And by the way, yes these look nothing like the 10,000K or 6700K "white" bulbs you generally see. These are optimized for plant growth (tailored to the Photosynthetic Action Spectrum). This just goes to show you how misleading the Kelvin Color Temperature rating can be. It is an index designed for incandescent bulbs, still being applied to fluorescent bulbs.

Here is the tank lit with only the 9325K bulbs. Even the fish's coloration is much improved. Harlequin Rasboras look brilliant and the orange hues on the Sunset Angels stand out a great deal more...

[joe schmoe]

Originally posted by djlen
I checked the thread and saw no pictures with your posts.
Don't understand why.

Len

Everyone, you have to register and login to see the pics.

I was stumped myself for a while. :D

[125gJoe]

Wow - comparing those 2 pics makes a big difference!
Do they make them in Power Compacts? If so, I'll get them when the time comes to replace my PC's..