fluorescent tubes

T

ThirdEyE

AC Members
Jan 12, 2003
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wilson, new york
www.toolband.com
i'm using 2 4' long 40 watt "daylight" ultra bulbs.

they're a little too bright for my liking.

anybody know any other bulbs that have a dimmer appearance without sacraficing quality?

"daylight" tubes

initial lumens: 3050
color temp: 6500
color rendering: 75
 
I also have shop lights over my tank, I have a total of 4 flourescent tubes. They include 2 daylight ultras, 1 plant and aquarium, 1 sunshine bulb. I feel this works best for my plants at the most cost efficient method.

All the above bulbs are from GE, so any hardware store should have them. The GE sunshine bulb glows orangy, the GE plant and aquarium glows pinkish and the GE daylight ultras glows bluey white.

So you can try either combination of the above...
 
What I've done in the past as a short term fix is try to block some of the light from entering the tank.

If your lights don't run HOT and you are sure you want to reduce the illumination (permanently?) you can wrap black electrical tape in a long spiral along the length of the tube. If the tape is 3/4" leave 3/4" of the tube showing between the wraps. Results may vary.

Alternatively, especially if the lights run HOT, place some non-combustable sheet material on top of the cover glass. Strips of scrap galvanized sheet metal come to mind.

Or just remove one of the bulbs. Modern fixtures will still light the remaining tube. (Or install a grow light bulb with 1/4 the lumens!).

Gumby7
 
they're a little too bright for my liking.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by too bright? The type of plants you have should determine the amount of light you need. Using only two 40W bulbs on a 55G is a minimum amount of light for a planted tank. Any lower and nothing will grow. You might want to think about adding a canopy to house the lights. That way the lights would stay within the canopy and reflect directly into your tank. You also might want to think about adding another fixture to increase the amount of light if you are ready to seriously get into planted tanks.
 
Hey ThirdEyE, I know exactly what you mean but I think RockysDad is correct about the plants determine amount of light. Maybe a darker background and/or gravel would "absorb" some of the brightness? Do you have any floating plants? How about some (or more) to shade the rest of the tank. I know squat about planted tanks but I would think overdoing the floating plants may affect those below so don't over do it.
 
...

well i should have worded the first post a little differently

i know only 2, 40 watt tubes is low wattage for a 55, i'll most likely build my own canopy that'll hold 4 when it gets warmer out.

when i said "dimmer" i meant the appearance, the shop light floods my room with tons of excess light. Of course a canopy would solve the problem but since all the tools are outside in the unheated garage i'd build one in the spring.

when i build it i'll need 2 more tubes anyway, so buying 2 "dimmer" ones now isn't really a big deal
 
If you get a couple of "plant bulbs," the amount of light visible to the human eye will reduce a lot--and the plants still get the blue/red spectrum (dim to our eye) that they need.

I run one "plant bulb" and one sunshine (daylight/full spectrum, 5000K) bulb side-by-side above my planted tank, and I really like it. I run both bulbs during the day, when the sunshine bulb provides a spectrum which is bright enough to the human eye. Then I turn the sunshine off in the evening, leaving just the plant bulb going, which reduces the tank's appearance to a really nice, dimmer "dusk" sort of level. And throughout, the plants are getting a full shot of the type of light they need. Then I turn both lights off when I go to bed.

So I guess what I'm suggesting is that you replace half your bulbs with "plant bulbs," which are much dimmer to the human eye but provide exactly what the plants need--light in the red/blue spectrum. That would bring your total light level down quite a bit.

Oh--and I got the plant bulb at Lowes and the Sunshine at Walmart, for $6 apiece. Yes!!

-- Pat
 
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