Lighting

[nitrous]

when i bought my 55 gallon tank used it came with a full strip light(48inches) and the bulb is standard one bulb. in the tank i have some very colorfull rainbows. to extentuate the colors of my rainbows what type of light will i need? im thinkign higher K, into the blues correct? i know that mid K is a yellowish but the fish are orangeish and blueish so i wnat to bring them out a lot. what bulbs at HD or somewhere else will do this and what should i look for in them?

thanks

 

[mr funktastic]

u wont find a bulb at home depot with a high k rating.u will actually need to buy an aquarium bulb. i love my powerglo bulbs which give off a purplish blue light and are 10 000 k. a little pricy but u will notice an HUGE difference in colour.

 

[malkore]

you don't need a fancy aquarium bulb.

however you do need to find a fluorescent bulb that states it's a Daylight bulb. Anything 'soft' is gonna have that ugly yellow tinge. Daylight bulbs will be closer to true white light, and a little better for plants too.

Phillips and Sylvania both make nicely priced daylight bulbs. I think I get them for under $7 at Ace Hardware for a 2ft t-12 20watt bulb.

 

[mr funktastic]

yes u can get the daylight bulbs which are great for plants but they are not very good for colour. to get the colour u need a higher k rating which i have never seen more than 6500 in places like home hardware. but if u find one please tell us who makes it because alot of people would appreciate that.

 

[greenmaji]

I like the daylight bulbs.. GE's daylight bulbs have a whitish/blue color to them.. I got them at wallyworld (from lack of decent retail around here )

 

[nitrous]

do they enhance your fish colors?