What's the best kind of light to get the most colour out of your fish? I'm not sure what kind of bulb my tank came with but it's making my guppies like very gray, drab and dreary when they are directly under the light. They look a lot better away from the light near the back or lower part of the tank.
Lighting
- Thread starter Judge92
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BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
I got a ColorMax bulb for my T5 fixture and it really makes my guppies pop. They appear a bit pale under daylight spectrum bulbs and nearly colorless under regular bulbs, but they glow under the ColorMax.
How old is the bulb that you have now? I generally replace my T8's every ~6 months just so they look brighter. Seems like my compact fluorescent bulbs start fading faster than the T8's. A good 6500*K bulb should help brighten everything up.
BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
My CFLs are only a couple months old. I don't know what's in the ColorMax bulb, but it works.
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
My africans were pretty colorful when I just had a 10,000k t-8 over them... once I added a 420nm actinic with the 10,000k, their colors really started to pop.
There's a lot of abbreviations and short forms thrown into this 
What exactly is the "K" numbers and what do they mean? What is T-8 and such. At my LFS there are bulbs that are "marine-glo" "power-glo" and such. I believe the "power-glo" is purple-y and they suggested that one.
What exactly is the "K" numbers and what do they mean? What is T-8 and such. At my LFS there are bulbs that are "marine-glo" "power-glo" and such. I believe the "power-glo" is purple-y and they suggested that one.
BigJim
Aquarium Advice Addict
The K numbers are the Kelvin spectrum measurements. The numbers increase across the spectrum from red to blue. Warm white CFLs are ~2500K, daylight bulbs are ~6500K, some marine bulbs are 10,000K - 20,000K.
T8 is a fluorescent tube light. They measure fluorescent tubes in 1/8" increments. T5 = 5/8" dia. T8 = 1" dia. T12 = 1.5" dia.
High K spectrum bulbs make fish and corals "pop" more. Not quite sure why.
T8 is a fluorescent tube light. They measure fluorescent tubes in 1/8" increments. T5 = 5/8" dia. T8 = 1" dia. T12 = 1.5" dia.
High K spectrum bulbs make fish and corals "pop" more. Not quite sure why.
