correct lighting/bulbs

toked

toked

must...get....more...
Jan 7, 2005
83
0
0
Tampa, FL
www.own-age.com
ok, so i went through all the motions like many of us and came to realize i need more lighting to successfully grow plants well. i bought a 48" power compact strip that came with 2 10k bulbs and 2 10k 50/50 bulbs.

they've been on my tank roughly 5 days and with my diy c02 i am definitely seeing a difference. my question is tho, besides the 50/50 not being ideal for freshwater plant growing, are the other 10k lights ok? i'm trying to find out from those of you who successfully grow great plants exactly what lights/bulbs you have. obviously i need to replace the 50/50 bulbs, should i also replace the standard 10k bulbs? if so what k rating bulb(s) should i go with to get the optimal growth rate. btw this adds up to 220w with all four bulbs which should give me 4wpg.

thanks in advance..
 
The spectrum between 5000 and 10000 is best for aquatic plants. The biggest factor in determining what you use is really personal preference. Lights on the lower end of the scale are more yello. Lights on the higher end of the csale are more blue. I am using a 6700k PC bulb and my plants are growing well. I know a fwe folks on the board who use 9325K bulbs and like them. So long as you are in the range listed at the beginning of this post, your lighting is fine, so just experiment and find what you like.
 
toked said:
thanks for response. i'd like to experiment but i dont have $20-30 to spend on extra bulbs to experiment with ;) just looking for more concensus on bulb ranges.
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Heh, few of us do. But, when your bulb goes out, you can always go more blue or more yellow on the next one, depending on how you felt about the previous one. Like right now, I want to go more blue on my next bulb.
 
well i mean i'll definitely keep the currently lighting system going. i have no idea what impact if any the 50/50 lights have on my plants. i know that i dont really care for the blueish/whiteish light that it creates but if it does help any at all i'm for it ;)
 
I use 2 - 55W 9325K (by far my favourite), 1 - 96W 6700k/10 000K, and 1 -96W 10 000K.
My plants grow like crazy, and the colour on the tank isn't bad, but it's slightly greenish to my eye. I prefer the colour from GE 9325K bulbs to anything else, and from everything I've read these bulbs supply a great deal of useable light to the plants (more per W than my other bulbs).
If you've got actinics on your tank you may experience algae blooms, and take into account that the light from them isn't really useful to your plants - replacing those 50/50s with something 5000K-10 000K will give them a lot more useable light.
 
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