what bulbs to use for fresh water

[BRANTEK]

i just switched from salt to freah water my bulbs are currently compact flourecent 2-10 k daylight 96 watt and 2 ultra actinic 96 watt

anyone know whats the best to use for fresh water community tank with real planted plants and fish its a 125 gallon? looking for real good fish color aswell as good plant growth

 

[Kasakato]

Planted or non-planted? 10k bulbs can sometimes give you alage problems. And the colour of bulb depends on what kind of look you want. But if you are going non planted almost anything under 10k looks good.

 

[BRANTEK]

whats planted or non planted?

 

[Kasakato]

Planted= Real living plants in the tank
Non-planted=No plants or plastic ones

 

[Kasakato]

Colour= The "K" or "Klevin (sp?)" of the bulb.

Edit: Just saw that you are keeping plants. Il get you what you want in 5min.

 

[Kasakato]

I am talking to myself today

A bulb in the 5500 - 6500K range will be perfect.

 

[SCU33ZE]

heres some additional help.
K= kelvin

The higher the Kelvin goes the blue'er the light will appear to your eyes.
Lower around 2000K-3000K is yellow to our eyes.


I personally used an 18,000K bulb with no algae problems at all.

Now with a planted tank its best to be in the 3000K-7000K IMO, but ive heard color temperature really doesnt matter. Its light intensity that matters with plants.

If i were you id leave the 10,000K bulbs and add 5,000k-7000K bulbs in place of the actinic
HTH!

 

[BRANTEK]

thanks for the help i'll replace the actinics with a 6700k bulbs and see how that goes

 

[BRANTEK]

bulbs at a yr old so i'll be getting all new ones for the fresh water 2 10 k and 2 67k at 96 watt a piece