I'm about to upgrade my lighting on my 125g planted tank to 2 36" T5 HO fixtures from fishneedit.com with all 4 bulbs being 6700K (it's that or 10K or 14K ). Thought that would be a good base to see if I needed to fine tune anything. I've seen the 5700K plant bulbs and didn't know if I needed to try them later? Just wondering if that would be a good start ?
upgrading my lighting
- Thread starter Fedex3d
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tropicalmackdaddy
Aquarium Advice Freak
6700k is about the best you could get, your aiming for 6500k.
You can use any color temp from 6000K to 10000K for plants. Over 10K is high in unusable blue light for the plants. Plus the different color temps in the bulbs will make the tank look different. In my 220g I have a mix of both 6700K and 10000K bulbs, the 67K giving a softer light and the 10K giving a very bright light.
dwayne.aycock
Aquarium Advice Freak
I agree I do something similar. I have a T8 5000K natural light above my tank and 18 white LEDs (submursable) inside the tank. The LEDs are at 8000K. The natural light (T8) offers a warm halo effect over the plants, and the LEDs present rays of light like the sun. This gets light into the corners and benefits the smaller plants.
Just my thoughts.
Good luck!
Dwayne
Just my thoughts.
Good luck!
Dwayne
aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
Lights down as far as 4000K and as high as 12000K or more (Hagen makes a FW viable bulb at 18000K) can be used for plants. The kelvin rating is about the worst way you can evaluate a bulb, worse than watts or bulb type by far. Plants are capable of using blue light, and in fact us it quite well. They just also other wavelengths of light to do well. About the only color that plants can't really use at all is green light, and that's almost exactly the color maxima for 6500K. What's far more important is what color you want to look at for the next two years.
Sorry Aqua chem but for me, the k rating is the best way to evaluate lights. It tells me what spectrum the bulb is using as well the overall color I may expect. We know that lower k value is more "yellow" vs something like 10k being a more bright white. The area of interest for us is the blue spectrum, which in excess can contribute to algae growth. The k value is the only real key for separating this bulb from that bulb; as not all bulbs are created equal. Finding what u like, and works, is the difficult part of this hobby.
Thanks to everybody! Gonna get the 2 36" with 6700 in one &10000 in the other. Then l can run one 6700 & one 10000 in each fixture. One to highlight the fish colors while the other will help with the plant growth.
I have 2-36" as well as 2-24" t5 Ho on my 125 and very pleased with results. I think you'll be happy with ur selection.
Speaking of plant bulbs. If I may add to this thread, what does everyone think about the flora, plant (rosette) bulbs for plants? Are they a hit or miss? Necessary or not? Thoughts?
Speaking of plant bulbs. If I may add to this thread, what does everyone think about the flora, plant (rosette) bulbs for plants? Are they a hit or miss? Necessary or not? Thoughts?
mohican said:
Talking to one of the guys at Petsmart, who seems to be pretty knowledgeable, he spoke very highly of them. He was showing me the spectrum of the bulb, and even though it was rated at 5700 and a little dim, they actually help with the growth. They changed theirs out to one floramax with one 10K and have seen some improvements in their plant growth.
Brian_Nano12g
Aquarium Advice Addict
My fixture uses 2 PC bulbs... I just changed them out recently to one 6500K and one 10,000K bulb and the lighting is perfect IMO. I'm not too fond of the overly yellowish warm hue of lighting around the 6000K range so why not mix them, my plants certainly love it!
On a side note, there's a specialty LFS here in AZ (called AquaTouch) that stands out from the rest, simply because they specialize in planted aquariums (among other things)... so much so, it's like night and day difference when you compare this place to other LFS's, and trust me, I've been to many here and Cali. Anyway, they have the most amazing display tanks, both ADA Iwagumi style and nature planted tanks with so much hard to find flora you'll be amazed. Well long story short, last time I was there, the clerk was getting me some plants from a tank and I noticed when he lifted the hood that the fixture had white bulbs (6500K/1000K) and a 'PINK' bulb.. I'm not sure if this is new or not, but I haven't seen much of those around. I've read that the pink bulb are heavier in the red spectrum that would stimulate plants to grow taller, while the whiter bulbs are more toward the blue end which promotes bushier growth... Perhaps the mix makes bushier and taller plants... Something to consider? Or is this just a color enhancement thing?
My personal opinion, go with some HO LED fixtures. They come in almost all light spectrum and combinations... they're a little more expensive but they've gone down in price. Plus with the added savings in electricity and longevity, they'll pretty much pay for themselves!
On a side note, there's a specialty LFS here in AZ (called AquaTouch) that stands out from the rest, simply because they specialize in planted aquariums (among other things)... so much so, it's like night and day difference when you compare this place to other LFS's, and trust me, I've been to many here and Cali. Anyway, they have the most amazing display tanks, both ADA Iwagumi style and nature planted tanks with so much hard to find flora you'll be amazed. Well long story short, last time I was there, the clerk was getting me some plants from a tank and I noticed when he lifted the hood that the fixture had white bulbs (6500K/1000K) and a 'PINK' bulb.. I'm not sure if this is new or not, but I haven't seen much of those around. I've read that the pink bulb are heavier in the red spectrum that would stimulate plants to grow taller, while the whiter bulbs are more toward the blue end which promotes bushier growth... Perhaps the mix makes bushier and taller plants... Something to consider? Or is this just a color enhancement thing?
My personal opinion, go with some HO LED fixtures. They come in almost all light spectrum and combinations... they're a little more expensive but they've gone down in price. Plus with the added savings in electricity and longevity, they'll pretty much pay for themselves!
