Success with Daylight 6500K Spiral CFL

Which Tank Will Do Best

  • Tank 1

    Votes: 4 28.6%

  • Tank 2

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • Tank 3

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • Tank 4

    Votes: 4 28.6%
  • Total voters
    14
Nolapete

Nolapete

Monster Tank Builder
May 29, 2007
5,274
1
0
New Orleans, LA
Has anyone had success using Daylight 6500K Spiral CFL bulbs in incandescent fixtures? I'm particularly interested in using them over small tanks.

Which wattage do you use?

How many bulbs do you use?

Tank capacity?

CO2?

Plants grown?

Light level (low, mid, high)?

Ferts used?



I'm planning on utilitizing them in a series of tests on several 10 gallon tanks.

Constants:
Eco-Complete Planted substrate
dry ferts from Rex
water supply
powerhead driven sponge filter
75 watt heater
PRIME water conditioner

Constants with slight variance:
livestock (cherry shrimp, endler's livebearers, otos, albino ancistrus cat)
initial plants to be determined but will be similar mass of each in each tank

Variables:
Tank 1: 3-4 wpg
Tank 2: 5-6 wpg
Tank 3: 7-8 wpg
Tank 4: 9-10 wpg

Based on Rex's information, I think that Tanks 1 and 2 will fail to produce significant growth and/or may have plant demise.

Tank 3 will most likely be successful to the satisfaction of most hobbyists.

Tank 4 will most likely struggle with algae problems.
 
I predict problems with all 4 if you do not inject CO2.

I think 1 will do the best. The WPG is too high on all the others.

Read some of Tom Barrs(plantbrain) post on low light CO2 injected tanks.
 
Yoemen said:
I predict problems with all 4 if you do not inject CO2.

I think 1 will do the best. The WPG is too high on all the others.

Read some of Tom Barrs(plantbrain) post on low light CO2 injected tanks.
Click to expand...

Read Rex Grigg's information on lighting small tanks. You are incorrect that the wpg is way too high. A common misconception about lighting small tanks.
 
Also, I'm not looking to do low/mid light with this. This is a test that will determine if spiral daylight 6500K bulbs are a viable option for high light on small tanks.
 
Yoemen

they are not as efficient as bulbs thus think you can put 3 26w over and not have as much light as just one reg 55w bulb.

it all depends on what your putting in the tank i think. best to have 4 tanks out all the same and try it out. i am always a fan of starting with less light and adding more as you need it.
 
rich311k said:
I thing 2 - 3 is going to be the best. Will you use the exact same fert routine on each?
Click to expand...

Yes, the same everything except for the light. Even the layout of each tank will be the same, so that it will be easy to determine which is the most successful.

I'm wondering how much time should be allowed. Any ideas on when the final results should be determined?

I think I'm going to buy some action figures or maybe plastic soldiers to stand next to a few of the plants as a comparative feature.
 
Tank 1 - Will grow plants fine
Tank 2 - Will grow plants faster
Tank 3 - Will be tough to maintain
Tank 4 - I wouldn't want to maintain it

The wpg rule don't work too well for small tanks but it doesn't doesn't mean you need extreme lighting in smaller tanks, you just need to go above a certain threshold. 60w over a 20g tank is considered high light, it certainly isn't any less over a 10g tank. I know I have no problems growing "difficult" plants with 60w in my 12g.

Sure, more lights will mean faster growth but sometimes fast growth isn't desired, like tall plants for small tanks. Faster growth also means more work and less margin for error.

I think you've misread Rex's example in his article, he compares 220w over a 55g tank to 70w over a 10g tank to show you why the wpg breaks down. Well, 220w over 55g is very high light, so 70w over a 10g is also very high. I certainly wouldn't recommend going over 60w and I think 60's higher than necessary.
 
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