What color temp light bulbs do you use?

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chasgood

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 7, 2004
Messages
412
Location
Moore Oklahoma
My eclipse uses bulbs that say daylight. I'm guessing they are about 5500K. The light doesnt seem to be white. The tank has a yellowish cast. Been thinking of changing out one of the 2 bulbs with a 7500K or higher.
What kind of bulb do you use?
Does the tank have a neutral color or is it yellowish or bluish?
 
If it looks yellowish to you it is likely 5500 or even lower.

If you are not growing plants it does not matter much, but is a question of how you like the tank to look. A 6500K bulb will appear much whiter, as they do not have much yellow to them at all, to my eye.
 
I use a 9300K on my 10g tank. It puts out a pinkish light that brings out the blues and reds pretty nicely. In the larger tank, I normally have a 6700K, but that died (for now) so I am currently using a 5500K and a 9300K. With two 5500Ks, the tank looks too yellowish, anf two 9300Ks make some of the fish look bland. The combination works good until I get my 6700K back.

I would reccomend that people shop around for bulbs. Some stores have bulbs on the cheap, and changing bulbs can make a huge difference in what your fish look like.
 
A 10,000K bulb will give you a much whiter, slightly bluer color. As grimlock said, 9325Ks and aroung that rating will give a red/pink color. I find that a good combination of bulbs is best. I combine the 10,000Ks and 9325Ks to create a vibrant greenish hue.
 
Went to the lfs and petsmart. All they had was 20watt T8 24". My eclipse says no more than 18watts. the lfs will call zoo med on monday and let me know the price of there 17watt bulbs. Could order it online but would like to give this store some business.
 
I use 6700k bulbs on my planted 10gals, and their absolutely flourishing.

I use an 18,000k bulb on my 30gal, along with two bulbs that I'm not sure about.
 
im using 2 5500 on my 10 gallon (kinda yellow) (might be driftwood or light) and dont know about the 29 gallon but the 5 has 1 5500 (i think)

im planning to replace all 3 lights with the more expensive kind. i got all of them from wal mart b4 i knew the difference with the thingy. ill probally replace all of them once 2/3 of the lights go out. which will probally be like 4-7 months
 
Krap.

The 6700k bulbs I have on my 10gals.

Their the bulbs from Wal-Mart. Screw in Compact Fluorescents. Look for those, They are great, and are pure white.
 
Not really

and yes, your water can yellow if you odn't do water changes like your supposed to. All the disolved waste floating in the water easily turns it yellow.
 
i usually do it 1ce a week and at least every 2 weeks. so its not frmo my driftwood?

because this is how my water looked after i put the driftwood in there (soaked like 1-1.5 months b4) or when i tried putting peat in there.
 
hmm. i dont know how im going to get my carbon in there :p. i got the penguin in my 10 gallon and it comes with the readymade thingys.
 
lol right when i turned my lights back on (tried checking the 5500 thingy or whatever) one went out hahahahahaha
 
My favorite bulb I have is the Power Glo. I think it is around 18k. I couldnt recommend these bulbs highly enough. They bring out the best colors and glow of the fish better than any other and they give the water a pure bright whitish color. btw I tried about 5 other bulbs before I found these. The aquaglos are also pretty good.
 
Lighting has always been a problem with small tanks, mostly because the lamps are incandescent and heat up the tank. Today I found new flourescent bulbs small enough to fit in a hood for a 10-gallon aquarium, only 4 watts of power and 15 watts of light each, for only $4.95 each. They are made by "Commercial Electric" in candelabra base, with an adapter included at no added cost; sold at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. So far, so good. Just take out the old bulbs and put these in; what a difference it has made!
Saturday July 31,2004,19:16 - Titusville, Florida (on the Space Coast!)
 
I could not find any pigtail fluorescents at my Walmart with a temp even approaching 6500 - I ordered the All-Glass bulbs online that are 6500K.
 
the walmart here the lights of america kind are 6500, 10 watt, 5$..

anyway will. how long do these bulbs usually last. because one of mine went out in 6 months and my dad got annoying. doing all this math crap. not saying i couldnt keep up with his math but he was saying you (i said i thought 6k hours) would need 1k hours a month for 6 months and thats only 720 hours and you would lose like 1.8k hours. i was saying like all light bulbs dont last the same amounts of time and was a lil reluctant to buy me a new bulb. he was saying they should last 2 years and how you can buy 20 watt lights from watever for 2$ cheaper. but id rather have 2 10 watts (1 at each end) than one side lighted (1 20 watt) and one side not.
 
I don't know anything about the rating you are using: 6500 or 6500K. To what does that refer? I just needed to replace standard bulbs that were 15 watt, low light and hot. These fluorescent bulbs are white and cool, using only 4 watts to produce about the same lighting. They don't seem yellow, but I don't have anything like them to compare.

Since I just got them, I have no idea how long they will last. The package claims 6 years at 4 hours a day, or 8,000 hours (which is only 5.4 years)!
 
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