Color Spectrum Confusion

[JamesMJ2]

I am a little confused here. I am going to get a 55watt Power Compact light for my 20gal Tank(perhaps 40 gal soon) I went to AquaticBotanic and read the article on lighting. The section on Kelvin caught my eye because of this... "Color Spectrum or kelvin
The term kelvin designates the color spectrum of the light bulb. A "full spectrum" bulb is anything between 5000k and 6500k. This has nothing to do with brightness, and bulbs that are very high in the color spectrum, (10,000k) have no value to plant growth. Standard fluorescent, VHOs, and MH all come in full spectrum."(Robert Paul H.)
Does this mean that a bulb with 10,000K won't give a plant the needed light, or does it mean that a buld with that much Kelvin is just over kill, but still covers the neccessary 5000k-6500k? I couldn't find a bulb that was high enough watts but down in the 5000k-6500k range.

 

[Chrismac]

here is a pic for you to tell the difference I just put it up may not be approved yet.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=293


Chris

 

[Guest]

Quote:

A "full spectrum" bulb is anything between 5000k and 6500k. This has nothing to do with brightness, and bulbs that are very high in the color spectrum, (10,000k) have no value to plant growth.



I totally do not believe this, from experience, IMO, it is light intensity, NOT spectrum, that affects plant growth. I have 2 tanks with full spectrum bulbs on them and the plants grow fine, Perhaps not as fast as my other tank with 6500k bulbs on it, but they still live and thrive. Just get the most watts you can, don't worry about the spectrum. I don't have a bunch of science to back up my position, just experience.

 

[fishfreek]

I just put it up may not be approved yet.

Its approved now. Although I did move it to the Other category.

 

[JamesMJ2]

Thanks for the info, I was hoping to hear from you Corvuscorax, I heard you were the person to talk to about plants. Also good to hear that they will thrive in that light because they are dying now under the crappy flour tube I have. BTW What am I looking at Chrismac??

 

[fishfreek]

You can see two differnt color bulbs. The blueish bulb is the bulb rated at 18000Kelvin and the white/yellowish bulb is 4200K

 

[JamesMJ2]

Does that mean that the higher Kelvin bulb is better? I would imagine that the blueish/purplish light is more attractive then the whitewash of Flour tubes.

 

[Chrismac]

I find the power-glo and the aqua-glo are both nice with the sun-glo it evens out the color
i have each bulb set up on a seperate balast and there is a difference when I put one light on at a time.
corvuscorax is correct the "color spectrum, (10,000k) have no value to plant growth." just looks nice.

Chris.

 

[Guest]

corvuscorax is correct the "color spectrum, (10,000k) have no value to plant growth." just looks nice

Nooo not what i meant! it was a messed up quote from JamesMJ2 original post.

I belive its intensity, not spectrum that counts. I use full 10,000 on 2 tanks, plants grow fine, are healthy, look good.

Read my above post carefully chris, sorry bout the confusion, i should have done the quote right. my bad.

 

[JamesMJ2]

There are two PC lights on this page I am looking at http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/sc_view.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=9654 .One is the "All-Glass Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights" and the other is "PowerCompact SmartLite Strip Lights" I like the 2nd better, but I am not really sure what the bulb it comes with is?

 

[Chrismac]

He he he opps Sorry corvuscorax
I was wondering where I went wrong I did realize that I read that line twice from you and James LOL. I suppose being so used to seeing the Quote in a smaller box the word Quote didn't register lol.