nova extreme 4x39 watt. help.

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stratusfearrr

stratusfearrr

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Feb 25, 2009
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so i just recently bought a nova extreme 4x39 watt light strip, with 2 10000k bulbs, and 2 actinic 460nm bulbs.

the tank is a 46 bowfront
first, what the heck does 460nm mean?

second, my main goal is to pull out all the red in my plants, hence the more light. i was thinking of running the 2 10000k bulbs from noon till 10 pm. and run the 2 actinic bulbs for a few hours (2 or 3) during that time.

third, does this sound ok? my main goal is to get my plants that require 3 or so wpg to look good, will this do it?

i dose liquid co2 daily, and a plant fert. weekly. weekly water changes are going to start soon.
 
Slappy*McFish

Slappy*McFish

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The 460nm is the wavelength of the light the bulb emits. It is an actinic blue light which are commonly sold as either 420nm or 460nm. Personally, I'd would get 6500-6700K bulbs to replace the actinics. The 10,000K bulbs alone will produce more than enough blue light. The 6500-6700K bulbs are most commonly used with plants and will provide a good balance of red and blue light for the plants and yellow green light for your eyes. The bluish white light that the 10,000K bulbs produce will balance the greenish/yellow hue of the 6500K bulbs which many people find the most visually appealing.
With 4 bulbs total, you could even replace one of the 10,000K bulbs with one of these:http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13821+13827&pcatid=13827
This light alone would bring out the red colors of your plants.
I'd go with one of the pink plant bulbs, one 10K and two 6700K bulbs.
 
Last edited:
stratusfearrr

stratusfearrr

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Feb 25, 2009
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Slappy*McFish said:
The 460nm is the wavelength of the light the bulb emits. It is an actinic blue light which are commonly sold as either 420nm or 460nm. Personally, I'd would get 6500-6700K bulbs to replace the actinics. The 10,000K bulbs alone will produce more than enough blue light. The 6500-6700K bulbs are most commonly used with plants and will provide a good balance of red and blue light for the plants and yellow green light for your eyes. The bluish white light that the 10,000K bulbs produce will balance the greenish/yellow hue of the 6500K bulbs which many people find the most visually appealing.
With 4 bulbs total, you could even replace one of the 10,000K bulbs with one of these:http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13821+13827&pcatid=13827
This light alone would bring out the red colors of your plants.
I'd go with one of the pink plant bulbs, one 10K and two 6700K bulbs.
Click to expand...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13821+13823&pcatid=13823


as of right now im only running three bulbs. i was thinking one of the above bulbs, one 10k, and one plant grow (the one you suggested)

Does that make sense?????

THANKS
 
SuBXeRo

SuBXeRo

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Jul 22, 2008
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i bought the 4x54 watter and it came with the 2 actinics which i removed since they dont do anything for plants. I have the 2 10k bulbs and then i bought 2 6700k bulbs that are by current usa from foster and smith and am now boasting 216 watts of usable light for my plants.

actinic bulbs produce a different wavelength of light such as 420nm or 460 as stated above. Wavelength has to do with the color of the spectrum, different wavelengths have different colors. Forinstance red is in the 650nm range andyellow is in the 570nm range. To elaborate more on the subject, the human eye can only see the color spectrum which is only about 250nm wide and thats the rainbow for ya. Anything lower (uvrays) we cant see but are harmful and anything higher (microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, gamma rays) can be harmful or extremely useful, we just can see them.

Also keep in mind that despite bulb temperature (kelvins), this is not always an accurate representation of the useful eneergy output by the bulb that plants use. This is when you get into PAR values. PAR is the amount of useful light that the bulb puts out for plants and different bulb types put out more useful PAR numbers than others. As a general fule of thumb, 6700k provides the most energy with 10k not far behind. Many people mix the both so that you dont have just yellow light in your tank as for some thats not too appealing. I have 3wpg on a bowfront with mixed light and co2 injection and my plants grow like weeds and im able to carpet dwarf hairgrass just to give you can idea. You should also think of pressurized in the future instead of dosing all the time, high initial cost but you can get some really steady results.
 
S

schaadrak

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Sep 3, 2006
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stratusfearrr said:
i dose liquid co2 daily, and a plant fert. weekly. weekly water changes are going to start soon.
Click to expand...
With that much light, you're going to have to get a little more involved in your CO2 and ferts. This means pressurized CO2, not liquid (which I'm assuming is Seachem Excel) and more than just "a plant fert" (which I'm assuming is a single bottle that claims to cover all of your plants requirements).

I would suggest you look into the EI method of fert dosing and get a good understanding of what your tank requirements are going to be with that much light before you switch entirely to the new lights. Maybe just run one or two bulbs until you get everything in order.
 
Slappy*McFish

Slappy*McFish

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Feb 18, 2002
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