Kelvin rating and T5 lighting

[TJs]

Hi all! I am fairly new to the planted scene, never before delving into it but I now have finally decided to take the plunge. I will be doing a standard 6' 150 gallon that is I believe a depth of 28". I have been patient, slowly accumulating EVERYTHING the last, almost year, simply so not to hurt the wallet all it one shot. Literally piece by piece including tank, stand and canopy. I now just need my large rocks and alittle driftwood to start my hard scape. I will be using Eco complete as the substrait, a Ehiem 2260 and Fluval fx5 as the filtration and using a co2 tank. Now that you all have the specs of everything else, on to the lighting and main concern...
I just picked up my lighting a couple days ago and have read and read about kelvins, par/pur ect ect ect. I decided to go with 2, 36" Current Nova Extreme 4x39w light fixtures for my lighting because I couldn't pass up the deal. Now those fixtures come standard with 2, 12000k powerwhite bulbs each and 2, 460nm actinic blue bulbs each. I know I will be replacing the actinic bulbs with either a 6500k or 6700k. My question is, could/should I stick with the 12000's that it comes with, or should I replace them as well? And also I guess a good question would be, in everyone's experience, what would be a good combo of lighting for me to use to support anything from low to medium to possibly even a mid-high light plant? I was originally planning on sticking with low-mid light, but I now am wanting to at least be able to support a mid-high light if need be(if I fall in love with a specific plant).
Thanks everyone for taking the time to help and read this LONG post. Just wanted to make sure everyone had all the info they needed so we didn't waste any time going back and fourth with the basic specs of everything from me. Have a great day!!!!

 

[Billbug68]

Personally, my first thought would be to just replace the blue bulbs. When the 12000k bulbs are old enough to be replaced, replace them with something else. Just so you're not putting a huge dent in the wallet replacing bulbs right away. Just my opinion, though...

 

[flitabout]

I am new at this too, and a lot of the information out there is terribly confusing But from what I can find you can do the plants under the actinic but they may not do as well and it may also cause any floating matter in the tank to fluoresce making it look cloudy. They also have the tendency to encourage algae growth. The 12000 should be ok. If you are going to replace the actinic I would go with something more in a warmer light range like a roseate. But keep it to the back of the fixture as it makes it look a bit yellow.
Figuring high to low light in a big tank is sorta hard. There is the basic rule of thumb 1-2wpg for low light 2-3 for medium 4-5 for high light and 6+ for very high light. But like the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule it only works to a point. Larger tanks need less wattage to acheive high light. If you want high light that opens up a whole other can of worms with ferts and the need for co2 to get balance so you don't get over run with algae.
The other problem is that everybody has their own idea of how to acheive that balance. So this ends up becoming more than just a lighting question

 

[Rivercats]

You may be able to do some medium light plants but not high light plants with that lighting. I have a 220g (6'x2'x30"tall) and have a dual metal halide-T5HO fixture. The T5HO part of the fixture has 4- 39w bulbs which when run alone is very low lighting. So having 2 of these fixtures at best in a deeper tank will provide possible medium light and I'm not too sure about that from what I've seen in my tank over the past couple years.

As for the 12000K bulbs, they will work for now but will put out a very blue light which will wash out reds and pinks in the tank. I'd try finding 6000K bulbs to replace the actinic bulbs or even get 2 6000k bulbs and 2 pink rosette bulbs. They will be higher in the red spectrum which will nicely balance out the higher blue light from the 12K's. Also if you can afford to I'd get Geisemann bulbs as they have excellent color spectrum and really make plants and fish look good but they also do very well with plant growth.

 

[aqua_chem]

12000K isn't inherently bad, it's just not as good for FW tanks for purely aesthetic reasons described. If you've got four bulbs to play with, the individual contribution of a single bulb is diminished. One 12000K and two 6700K bulbs would work great as you have the full contribution of colors. You run into 'washout' issues when you're using only 12000K or 10000K bulbs, or even only 6700K bulbs with certain colors (eg reds and blues depending on the bulbs). With multiple bulbs, there are lots of viable combinations to play with.

 

[TJs]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, so, I was leaning towards just doing all 65 or 67. I didn't think it would wash things out because they are rated so great for growing plants, but then again.. I've never had experience with this yet, therefore never seeing this for myself. I guess I just want the best balance of lighting for growth and for bringing out colors of the fish as well as plants. Maybe that should of been my question. I mean I can only read so much opinions on the Internet on so many different websites. I guess I just wanna know what has looked and worked the best for everyone in their experiences given my fixture. On a side note, I didn't realize how impossible it is to find those specific lights anywhere in a store. I went browsing today just to get some ideas and couldn't find anything. I was everywhere from home depo to Manards to a handful of chain pet stores and no one carries the exact watt of T5 and k ratings as I am looking for. Crazy. So yeah in your experiences, the best over all look and growth combination of lights given what I am working with?? I don't want my own trial and error. I want your proven methods.. Please?

 

[aqua_chem]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, so, I was leaning towards just doing all 65 or 67. I didn't think it would wash things out because they are rated so great for growing plants, but then again.. I've never had experience with this yet, therefore never seeing this for myself. I guess I just want the best balance of lighting for growth and for bringing out colors of the fish as well as plants. Maybe that should of been my question. I mean I can only read so much opinions on the Internet on so many different websites. I guess I just wanna know what has looked and worked the best for everyone in their experiences given my fixture. On a side note, I didn't realize how impossible it is to find those specific lights anywhere in a store. I went browsing today just to get some ideas and couldn't find anything. I was everywhere from home depo to Manards to a handful of chain pet stores and no one carries the exact watt of T5 and k ratings as I am looking for. Crazy. So yeah in your experiences, the best over all look and growth combination of lights given what I am working with?? I don't want my own trial and error. I want your proven methods.. Please?

10000K/6700K or 6700K/4000K (rosette) combinations seem to be to most common 2 bulb combinations. 4 bulb combinations aren't as explored, but a 2/2 split of either of those will work fine. What wattage/Kelvin combination are you looking for that you couldn't find?

 

[TJs]

I was looking for 36", 39w, anywhere between 65-67k. I found smaller wattage but it seemed as if the selections were very few and far between. I more than likely will just find some on the Internet as the selections tend to be so abundant. The only thing that scares me is the shipping with such fragile equipment. I can see just receiving a box of millions of small glass shards.

 

[TJs]

Also, what would be the difference in the two combinations, the 10k and 4k rosette with a 67k?

 

[Rivercats]

I've had all my bulbs shipped in for years without breakage. They had always come in packed in those heavy duty cardboard tubes.

That combination would work well.

 

[flitabout]

Check out drs foster and smith they have a great sellection of bulbs and their prices aren't bad either.

 

[aqua_chem]

Also, what would be the difference in the two combinations, the 10k and 4k rosette with a 67k?

The 6700/4000 combination would probably look "warmer" as it's redder. That seems to be the more popular choice for people (and I tend to agree). The 10000K/6700K combination would probably look more neutral (more blue influence, especially with some of the bluer bulbs). I like to think of it as the difference between morning/evening night and midday light.

 

[TJs]

Ok great! Well thank you all. I guess I will go with the 67/4000 combo. What exactly is/meaning of "rosette"? Sorry all the questions, just new to the plant lighting aspect

 

[aqua_chem]

Ok great! Well thank you all. I guess I will go with the 67/4000 combo. What exactly is/meaning of "rosette"? Sorry all the questions, just new to the plant lighting aspect

It's another term for the red bulbs that are usually 4000-5000K depending on manufacturer, etc.