Lights for a ten

[Super_Blueberry]

I know it's not ideal, but will 2 5000k spiral cfl's support at least low light plants in a 10g?

 

[Old Scales]

Hi Blue, hope you are well.
Those should work okay for lowlight plants. The 5000 K. may show up a little on the pink side for your eyes but the plants can use it. If you ever have cause to, you could get the 6500 K. daylight CFL's which would be a little more efficient. In theory the higher the frequency of light the better it penetrates water. Although the difference in this case would be small. You should be able to grow Anubias, Java fern, and some crypts and some other lowlight plants that's available. IMO

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Yea I know 6500 is best. I picked up a 10 for my daughter off cl and it came with 50/50 reef bulbs, which look sweet but are useless for plants. When we set it up if she doesn't go with a solid pink decor, it will give me an option to use some of my cfl's i have laying around and stick some of my extra plants in there.

 

[Old Scales]

Pink decor, huh? Don't you just love little girls. I have two daughters myself. LOL

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Ok. Next question. I looked up the specs on the 50/50's: it's a 10 watt, and the one half is 10,000k, the other half is actinic 03 blue. Again, not ideal, but is it useable to grow low light plants??

 

[Old Scales]

The 10,000K and actinic 03 are used in saltwater set ups. The 10,000K is usable by plants but is the high end of the spectrum(blue end) for them. Note that algae uses bluer light better also. The actinic 03 is for corals and is useless to FW plants. You could use the 10,000K and then a redder 5000 or 6000k to balance it though. Hope this helps. OS.

 

[wildroseofky]

I have two CFL lights on my 10 gallon and grow high light plants in it. I got a three pack at Walmart for $11. I got 23 watt ones and then found 26 watt lights. Both were 6500k. I have one over my 5 gallon and have high light plants in it too. Cheapest way to go and get great plant growth.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Yea, just as I thought, but thanks for confirming.