soft white bulbs... good spectrum?

DarkSoul

Mad Scientist
Mar 12, 2007
1,227
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London, Ontario
I just purchased a 45W softwhite CF.... this thing is a monster for sure.

I want to use two of them for my daughters tank, but im not a big fan of the reddish colour they emit.

does anyone know how good a regular softwhite bulb would be for a planted tank?

or, can I buy two of these lights in a more 5500K range?

this bulb cost me $15

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I don't know if you have Walmarts in Canada since it has been a number of years since I was there last, but locally they have 6700k bulbs 23w bulbs for around 5 bucks each.
 
they got 45W bulbs?

I want two of these monsters in my fixture, and room for a blue one for effect :)

I can do it, I just need to get light sockets, and gut the entire fixture now.

is 90W too much for a 35 gallon...... without CO2, which wont be until much later down the road.
 
I have more of a problem with algae when I use "white" type than with other light bulbs or tubes. Maybe the blue one you want to use will cut it enough to prevent a problem. I think others have used them without issue, but that's just my experience.
 
they got walmarts in canada , gonna haveto agree with mg, try home depot they seem to have a better selection of bulbs
 
I always forget about home depots........probably because the closest one to me is 30 mins away by car.... all the way at the other end of the city.

I was really surprised to have seen this monster bulb at a Zellers.
 
I know I could go and purchase a 150W CF, but it would never fit in the hood no matter how I modded it.

I think I might just go with 4 15W bulbs, as they will fit perfectly, with only the need for sockets, and it will give me 60W total.

considering the tank is 35, and i have probably 30 useful gallons, that gives me about 2WPG, which is fairly good?
 
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