Lighting on 10 gal tank is too yellow

[Italysa]

Hi, I'm new here and looking for an answer to my lighting problem. I recently broke down my 30 gal, freshwater (goldfish) tank and went with one of those small 10 gal "kits", with hood and filter. It came with two 15 watt, screw in bulbs, that make the tank look yellow and the hood gets pretty hot too.

My question is, what type of bulb can I replace them with, to get rid of that yellow tint?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa

[jennfier]

They sell 'Lights of America' brand screw-in light bulbs at Walmart (lighting section. not pets). 20W pack of two for $8.44. It's 6500K so no yellow cast. It's very bright. You can even grow live plants.

[mostlycichlids]

Hi, I'm new here and looking for an answer to my lighting problem. I recently broke down my 30 gal, freshwater (goldfish) tank and went with one of those small 10 gal "kits", with hood and filter. It came with two 15 watt, screw in bulbs, that make the tank look yellow and the hood gets pretty hot too.

My question is, what type of bulb can I replace them with, to get rid of that yellow tint?

Thanks in advance!

Lisa
if you are not using live plants you can replace the incadescent light bulbs with flourecent they give off whiter light and you can get them at walmart in the fish section as well the are about 4 bucks each.

[Ms.Bubbles]

Actually, you can replace the incandescent bulbs with screw-in fluorescent bulbs if you DO want live plants. In any case, Home Depot and places like that sell screw-in spiral 'daylight' CF bulbs (6500 k is the colour you should look for), which will be much more neutral-looking than a regular orangy incandescent bulb, but it will still be slightly yellow light.

[plah831]

yup, I second Ms Bubbles. I like the screw-in compact flourescents myself, not only for the spectrum as jennfier said (more pleasing to the eye and better for plants), but they also run much cooler than the regular incandescents.

[dougall]

Just to jump on the bandwagon, if you're not considering live plants, I'd keep the wattage of the CF bulbs down as much as possible, to try to avoid algae growth.

[Italysa]

Thanks for the replies! I don't plan on having live plants....but I'm wondering if I still have to stick with 15W, which is what the kit came with, actually, two, 15W bulbs. Someone mentioned 20W, is that too strong?

[hope]

Our 10 gallon kit came with the same lights and we just went and bought 2 of the screw in flourescent bulbs in the fish section at walmart. It made a world of difference!!!

[Italysa]

Thanks... I'll be going to Walmart!

[Mgamer20o0]

you can get lower watt power compact lighting. that will keep the heat down. you could always just put on bulb in and see how it looks.

[Italysa]

Well I bought two 10W flourescent bulbs in the fish section at Wal-mart....
the last two they had! The tank looks so much brighter now, almost too
bright!

Is it dangerous to run it with only one bulb?

There is a small section of plastic under the hood to protect the bulbs, but with the bubbles from the air stone, breaking at the surface, the bulbs seem to still get wet. That concerns me a bit.

[webcricket]

You definitely don't want the bulbs getting wet! They can shatter and that won't be good for the tank or you.

Can you move the airstone? You actually don't need an airstone if you have surface movement from your filter. Plus, if you move into a planted tank, you won't want an airstone with the plants as they will lose CO2.

[Italysa]

I've tried moving the airstone. It still hits the hood. I didn't realize that
I don't need an airstone, because of the filter movement ! That's good to know.
I've just always had one in there, so I thought I needed it... plus, I like the way the bubbles look. I'm gonna unplug it!

Thanks