Live Plants, is my bulb good enough?

hondaman

hondaman

Quisiera ser un fish!
Dec 15, 2005
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New Jersey
I am thinking about going with Live Plants, now my question is whether or not my tank is sufficient for it.

The bulb I have is labeled Eclipse Natural Daylight F30T836. I have looked online but cannot find any information on it.

Is this bulb ok for live plants?
 
Thats the prob. I am assuming that the 36 at the end of the model # is the wattage as is standard on most other bulbs.

I have never kept live plants so I want to make sure that my first attempt wont fail miserably.
 
How many gallons is your tank? Most plants like more light than what a standard hood supplies. You should shoot for around 2 watts per gallon of lighting or stronger if you want to plants that demand stonger lighting. The color temperature of the bulbs are also something to consider if you want to buy additional lighting. I looked for the specs on your lighting, but I didn't find anything helpful so I can't tell you where you are at right now.

I know that homedepot sells flourescent aquarium plant growing bulbs for alot cheeper than most pet stores. Also walmart sells flurescent daylight bulbs that screw into a standard lamp socket, they are a great deal. They are 30 watts and have a color temperature of 6500 K, and they are only $8 or so. I use two of those along with a compact flourescent hood which is 55 watts and has a color temperature of 10000K.

You might be able to grow some hardier plants with the lighting you have, but you will deffinatly be limited with the kinds of plants you can get by your lighting, substrate, ect... I would invest in more lighting if you really want to have plants that will grow.
 
All that "daylight" means is that they bulb emitts whiter light, which means that the blub emits multimple wavelengths of light across the color spectrum. Which is indeed good for plants. The color of light that is emitted corosponds with the K value. I don't know which K values are best for plants, but above 6000ish seems to be working well for me. Lower K valued lights have a yellower look to me.
 
F30T836

What is the length of the tube? 3 or 4 feet?

I remember researching similar numbers on tubes for their K ratings and believe it is broken down as follows: F30 is 30 watts T8 is a T8 tube (the skinnier ones as opposed to T12) and 36 means 3600 K.

Edit... that can't be right, either. If it's a 'daylight' the K has to be at least around 6000. The markings were for a different brand.
 
Last edited:
kveeti said:
F30T836

What is the length of the tube? 3 or 4 feet?

I remember researching similar numbers on tubes for their K ratings and believe it is broken down as follows: F30 is 30 watts T8 is a T8 tube (the skinnier ones as opposed to T12) and 36 means 3600 K.

Edit... that can't be right, either. If it's a 'daylight' the K has to be at least around 6000. The markings were for a different brand.
Click to expand...

Well I posted exactly what I saw on the bulb on closer examination it says....

F30T83 36"

So maybe the 30 is for watts. To start me off on the live plant journey, I went ahead and purchased 5 bunches of "sword grass". Is the light I currently have good enough?
 
Heres a pic of it. Is this good enough or should i get a new bulb? I have purchased and planted sword grass.

bulb.gif
 
The bulb is great, there is nothing wrong with it. But it is only a single bulb over 45 gallons (this is for the tank in your signature?). That gives you less than 1 watt per gallon; I don't think that will be enough for your plant. A different bulb will not help. All 36 inch bulbs are 30 watts. You would somehow have to get a second bulb in there, either by making up a second fixture, somehow, or retrofitting your existing one.
 
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