what spectrum lights do i need?

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quick061

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Nov 19, 2002
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what spectrum lights are usually the best for a medium planted tank? 5100k, 6500k? i don't know, never done planted tanks before so i have no idea really what setup is the best.

right now i'm finishing up a hood with 4x40w 48" bulbs and am not really sure what intensity light i need to put in it. its too bad they're all on the same balast or i could have done stages and had a dawm/sunny/dusk setup but unfortunately i can't.

btw this is for a 80g tank that's 48x18x24" if that makes any difference.
 
My range 'limit' is 5500K to 8800K.
The higher the Kelvin, the bluer is will appear. The lower the value, the more yellow it will look. The 'limit' (for me) I mentioned will look white. Always try and get 'full color spectrum'. It should say that on the packaging, but may not always...
 
5500-6500k will work fine either way. I personally use bulbs at around 6400k. I don't like how the bulbs in the 5000k range look.. a bit too yellow for me.

-Richer
 
thx for the info, i think i'll start out with 3 6500k and 1 5100k and see how that looks.

i was just wondering, is there a good place to buy these online? the lfs's around here suck :mad:
 
What kind of bulbs are you looking at? Normal fluoresecent light tubes? or compact fluorescent lighting?

The normal fluorescent light tubes, you can get at your local home centre (ie. Home Depot)... most bulbs rated in the 5000k-6500k range are called plant bulbs.
For compact fluorescent, I use www.ahsupply.com for my bulb needs. They ship fairly quickly (considering where I live, they actually ship pretty darn fast), and are pretty realiable.. I've made a few orders from them without problems.

HTH
-Richer
 
Originally posted by quick061
thx for the info, i think i'll start out with 3 6500k and 1 5100k and see how that looks.

i was just wondering, is there a good place to buy these online? the lfs's around here suck :mad:
Click to expand...

If you're talking about normal fluorescent bulbs...

The Philips Daylight Delux (#F40DX) is 6500k and the GE Chroma50 (#F40C50) is 5000k. Those would match your numbers very closely and they are both available at Home Depot. The Chroma50 comes in a bright orange package with the word 'Sunshine' written in script on it, and the Philips bulbs come with no individual packaging; they're sold loose out of large boxes. Luckily, the Philips bulbs come with green colored endcaps (most come with silver) so they should be fairly easy to find. Each bulb should cost around $5.

I ran different combinations of these same bulbs on my tank for a while...and I had a GE Plant&Aquarium bulb too. From top to bottom, the order of the bulbs in this picture are:
Top: GE Chroma50 - whitish color
Second: GE Plant&Aquarium - pinkish color
Third: GE Chroma50 - whitish color
Bottom: Philips Daylight Delux - blueish color

light_04.jpg


:)
 
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