Power-Glo vs .....?

[SBee]

I never even knew what bulbs were on my 80 and 90 gal tanks until I looked a couple weeks ago.

One is a Power-Glo.......and IMO looks the best. It seems to make the fish and the plants LOOK a lot better.

Another is a Sun-Glo, which seems really yellow and dull; this is my spare bulb I don't use it.

The last one is a Flora-Glo, and while the appearance is better than the Sun-Glo, and my plants seem to be growing nicely, I don't think the effect is as crisp as the Power-glo.

So, my question is, WHICH ONE IS ACTUALLY BETTER--for my plants???

 

[Slappy*McFish]

out of those choices, I would say the powerglo...but there is a bulb made by the same manufacturer called an aquaglo...it's even better for plants and I would combine it with the powerglo if possible.

 

[SBee]

thanks!

aghhhh I just looked at my 10 gal...the one I'm trying to grow lots of plants in.....without much success...........and it's an aqua-glo----so, I shouldn't change it?

 

[Slappy*McFish]

no success? what do your plants look like and what else are you doing for them? Substrate, CO2, fertilizer, total watts per gallon light, water parameters?...also, what plants are you trying to grow?...the aquaglo may not be enough by itself, but it would do very well mixed with a powerglo.

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

The aqua glow doesn't help plants grow at all, it's 18,000K which is way too high for plants to thrive. The best for plants is 5000K-6500K. I know because I stupidly got one and it made the tank look blue and the plants were all bent over. You can just go to home depot and pick up 6500K bulbs for about $5. It's worth it, trust me.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Hmm..I've never used them but I did get my info from here..
http://www.aquabotanic.com/lightcompare.htm scroll down to the chart...her bulbs are at the very bottom.
keep in mind, when dealing with plants' lighting requirements, there is more at stake than just kelvin ratings....you look at the PUR and PAR ratings.(usuable red and blue light)..it's more complicated than that and is explained in detail in the article...maybe my assumption is flawed, but by looking at the chart, it would seem to be a great match when paired with a powerglo...also here are the spectrum charts for these lights.

Aqua-glo

notice the high spike in orange/red light, as well as blue.

Power-glo

seems to be strong in blue and yellow.

Seems that if these lights were paired, you would achieve very high levels of blue and red light which the plants need. I can only imagine what it would be like if you had room to add the Sun-glo(very high in the green/yellow).
Sun-glo

would give you a pretty nice increase in lumens.