I have had cichlids for little over a year now. I have a 90gallon tank and have recently noticed that my light really does no just for my malawi cichlids. My question is does anyone know the best combo of light to really make their colors pop. I have a 48" single strip perfecto light and really want to up grade. But I am not going to spend 400bucks on a light fixture. I would really love to have their color look like how saltwater fish look. I mean could i use artic light bulbs?
best lighting to bring out cichlids colors.
- Thread starter c8227
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I have a 55 gallon mbuna tank and I use a 50/50 bulb by zoo med called "reef sun" I have mostly blue fish and it really brings out the blue in them but my orange ones still look great as well. I also like how the cool light looks on my rocks. I bought mine from Kensfish.com for pretty cheap.
I agree with blue, reef sun 50/50 is great. It'll also make the fish with lighter colors (like white) have a blue hue.
well i have heard about the 50/50 bulbs but what i noticed too is that the bottom sand sand isn't as bright as to when i had my 55. And the 90 is twice as tall. So i'm thinking that a double bulb fixture would brighten it up. But i also heard that cichlids don't really care for a lot of light.
The metallic blues do look alot better with actinic, like the fryeris, peacocks, etc... I don't think anyone was comparing cichlids to sw fish, though they are alot more colorful than other tropicals.
