Best lighting for a 20L

[Emg]

Any suggestions for the best type/brand/Kalvin bulbs to use in a dual flourescent striplight fixture for a 20L planted tank ......

I'm guess I'll have to stick with low light plants since I'll only be able to get 40 watts max with this light fixture..I believe...

Thanks for the help ! ;)

[Emg]

Gee...I knew this was a boring question.......no one wants to even take a shot at it ?? :girl:

[phanmc]

basically, any bulb that looks good to you. Ignore the type, brand, special labels as their benefits to plantgrowth are negligible. Plants will grow just as well if they have the yellowish soft or warm light (30,000 kelvin) hanging over them as having the much brighter and whiter specialty bulbs that are rated at 100,000 kelvin.

In general, the lower the kelvin the more yellowish things will look and colors will be washed out a bit. The higher the kelvin, the whiter and clearer everything will be. 65,000 kelvin "daylight" bulbs are popular because they offer a very bright but natural light that simulates the daytime sun. Some people find that the bulbs with kelvin rating around 100,000 kelvin gives off a sterile almost bluish light and that it also washes out some colors in the red spectrum.

[Aquabum]

I had a 55w cf. 9325k and a no. fl. 20w over my 20g long. The color was very appealing. The 20w was used to brighten up the corners of the tank.

Lissette

[Emg]

Thanks Phan and Aqua.... I guess I'll just stick with what the fixture came with for now....and see how it goes. I just really want to get it right straight off the bat.

I figure I'll set this tank up with the plants and everything and wait before putting the fish in right away. I'm going with a pair of german blue rams..since I have sooo many...lol.... I don't know what if anything else I'll put in. I want to see if the rams will learn to hatch and raise out thier fry without eating them. If I can get them to do that I'll have some fry who may learn proper parental habits and be more successful raising thier own tykes as well.

Just a fun "heck, why not" interesting little experiment to keep me busy. :D

[Slappy*McFish]

basically, any bulb that looks good to you. Ignore the type, brand, special labels as their benefits to plantgrowth are negligible. Plants will grow just as well if they have the yellowish soft or warm light (30,000 kelvin) hanging over them as having the much brighter and whiter specialty bulbs that are rated at 100,000 kelvin.

In general, the lower the kelvin the more yellowish things will look and colors will be washed out a bit. The higher the kelvin, the whiter and clearer everything will be. 65,000 kelvin "daylight" bulbs are popular because they offer a very bright but natural light that simulates the daytime sun. Some people find that the bulbs with kelvin rating around 100,000 kelvin gives off a sterile almost bluish light and that it also washes out some colors in the red spectrum.

You put one too many 0's in those Kelvin ratings. Most bulbs are in the 3,000-19,000K range. Plant lights are generally 4,000-10,000K. The best 'looking' lights generally fall in the 6500-6700K range.

[flyfly]

my last bulb was 6700, and it was crazy bright, it looked like Africa at noon. This time around I went with 5000, its a bit mellower, Im diggin it