hey everyone, can i get some help on lighting

[crr]

well my grolux tube stuffed up last week and ive been running on my backup light, which is a standard white fluro.

i thought i might go and pickup a new one today, i went to the aquarium place and saw they had red, blue and white kinds of bulbs.

so i asked the guy about them and asked would they change the colour of the tank if i went with a blue or red one, and he said no. Stupid me should of disregarded his answer and bought the normal white colour, but as i am stupid i went with the red got home and what does it do, its got very low light and turns everything a pinkish colour, i thought maybe they are to be used in light setups with more than one light, though i tld the guy i was running only 1 fluro.

could i just run the red one for 1 week and then switch back to my old white one for week and keep changing them, or should i go back to the aquarium and throw it back in the jokers face?

any help would be grateful.

[StereoKills]

I'd stick with white all the time.

[Bk718]

I'd stick with white all the time.

(ill keep my mouth shut on that comment...:evil_lol: )

I agree stick with white. If you want a night light then another color is fine

[crr]

so would it be detrimental to my fish if i kept the red light on as a main light?

could i trial it for a week or two and see how my plants are going?

if they start t go bad i can switch back to my normal white light.

[Bk718]

so would it be detrimental to my fish if i kept the red light on as a main light?

could i trial it for a week or two and see how my plants are going?

if they start t go bad i can switch back to my normal white light.

have a photo of the bulb? are we talking about incandescent or the t-8 bulbs??

I think the colored bulb will not deliver the right spectrum to the plants forcing them to die..

[crr]

this is everything i can find about it.

http://dollsonfire.com/images/1px0ux5qdcb61g2pq1kn_thumb.jpg (http://dollsonfire.com/viewer.php?file=1px0ux5qdcb61g2pq1kn.jpg)

http://dollsonfire.com/images/l98q8fmvisbeoj16135_thumb.jpg (http://dollsonfire.com/viewer.php?file=l98q8fmvisbeoj16135.jpg)

http://dollsonfire.com/images/fm2xsfcuy17oqy4oy2x6_thumb.jpg (http://dollsonfire.com/viewer.php?file=fm2xsfcuy17oqy4oy2x6.jpg)

http://dollsonfire.com/images/lz69capab0xes16178ee_thumb.jpg (http://dollsonfire.com/viewer.php?file=lz69capab0xes16178ee.jpg)

[Cory Keeper]

Unless aquatic plants use a different color spectrum (of which I HIGHLY doubt) that bulb would do poorly. It looks like you have a little blue and very little red. Plants prefer an almost pinkish color, but for aquariums, a 6500K would work just as well (although lacking in the reds, but more important, has quite a bit of blue)

This guy has done quite a bit of research on growing plants with fluorescent lighting. http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/fluorescent.html

Also, here is the spectrum that plants use.
64556

[crr]

yeah thats what i dont understand, the light obviously is advertised as a red light, though the graph says there is not much red on it, which makes me think the graph is a just a fake

the light definitely lights up pinkish, and isn't very bright, i tried taking a picture of the tank with it on but it doesnt show up at all