What I am doing wrong?

[Riiz]

Dsr, Phan agreed with you and others in his last post, he stated he's used 50/50 and plants grew but he had the best results with 5k, which is close to what your arguing about.

I've personally used 50/50 lighing in a low light tank that is stocked with Russian purple guppies, but that is more for aestestics than anything else, but the plants still grow.

In the end the Kelvin rating is not really meant to determine the growing quality of a lamp, its just meant to tell a consumer what the light will like when in use. For example, GE 9325K PC bulbs should near the blue/white end, but produce some of the best reds and are nowhere near the lower end of the kelvin range, where red should be.

 

[DSR]

whoops. Sorry. But I have read enough of those post advising newcomers that K rating doesn't mean anything. It is frustrating. K does correspond, roughly to NM rating and we should be trying to simplify things rather than complicate them unnecessarily. (and, PHan is dead wrong on the NM rating as well... which is what has got my dander up)> I may be relatively new to this hobby... but I do copious amounts of research.

Thanks for pointing out my misstep, RIIZ. I have two daughters and if I could find the MLP we would be in business. LOL.

Phan, not trying to be a jerk, but I really just don't agree with the advise your are sending out...and when your advise is potentially costing other newbies money... it is frustrating... YOu know as well as I do that K rating has a relation to PAR as well as NM. If not, then I would suggest some basic reading on light waves/temps.

 

[Phyroath]

So in my case, the issues are with nutrients and CO2 however I believe Java moss should do OK or it is being burnt by such light.

Here are what written on the bulb 'Odysea Daylight T5 36" Quad True Actinic 12000k' and that is all.

 

[phanmc]

whoops. Sorry. But I have read enough of those post advising newcomers that K rating doesn't mean anything. It is frustrating. K does correspond, roughly to NM rating and we should be trying to simplify things rather than complicate them unnecessarily. (and, PHan is dead wrong on the NM rating as well... which is what has got my dander up)> I may be relatively new to this hobby... but I do copious amounts of research.

Please tell me what I got wrong about the NM rating? That plants don't use wavelengths in the blue NM?

I'll give an example of why K rating is pretty meaningless. Take a look at this article:

http://www.aquabotanic.com/lightcompare.htm

Compare the following bulbs:

ADV850
TL950

The bulbs have pretty much the same specs, 32w 5000k made by the same manufacturer. The ADV850 is comparable to some metal halides on a per watt basis, the TL950 is one of the worst performers.

Compare the ADV850 to the popular 9325K GE Fresh & Salt Aquaray and the ADV850 still outperforms it.

Lets take a look at the fabled ideal K, 6500k-6700k. The GE SPX65 is 6500k and the PC6700 is 6700k, both perform pretty well but are still not comparable to the ADV850.

Also take a look at the Hagen Glo series. The Power Glo is 18000k, about the middle of the pack in terms of performance. The Sun Glo is 4000k, looks totally different visually but performs about the same. The Flora Glo is 2800k which most people would balk at using, yet it's only slightly weaker.