Best light to show off blue shrimp?

[candacecook1025]

I am planning on upgrading my hood and light for my planted shrimp tank soon. Obviously the main beneficiaries will be the plants, but I also want to show off the amazing color of my Blue Velvet shrimp. They look kinda pale under the generic basic light I have now. All the light technology is over my head, so I was just going to go with the recommendation from someone at the LFS regarding the hood and light bulbs. But is there anything specific I need to get to show off the blue shrimp better? Any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!

**going to cross post in the inverts forum as well, so hopefully nobody gets ticked off if they see the same post there too.**

 

[Mebbid]

I would try 10000k lighting. it should be good for the plants and is quite white in appearance with a little blue tint so it should show off the colors of everything. Generic tank lighting is 6500k which has a bit too much yellow to show off a blue shrimp.

 

[Rivercats]

What type bulbs do you have? T8, T5HO's, LED's or ???

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

A color enhancing light such as the Finnex Monster Ray makes for a good companion light to existing light systems. It uses RGB LED lights to color enhance. Another great option would be the Current Satellite LED Plus.

 

[Rivercats]

If you upgrade to T5HO's I've found Geisemann Midday and Aquaflora bring out the colors in both plants and fish. That is the lighting the Blue Velvet shrimp I'm getting will be under.

 

[candacecook1025]

Oh geez...this already sounds so complicated. I currently have a very generic hood with the crappy little lights that come with it. I am getting (and I will warn you that I do not know any of the technical names) a hood with a single strip light. It's a fairly cheap upgrade. Really not looking to get anything too fancy. It will really be wasted on someone like me lol. The guy at the LFS showed me a full-spectrum light that started with Zoo something. I will check out the items you all suggested and see what I can afford to do. Thanks!

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

How big is this tank? What type of plants? Probably can do full spectrum cfl bulbs for cheap. What's your budget?

 

[candacecook1025]

Just a 10 gallon.

I hope to upgrade my 60 gallon in the future as well...I want to go planted and get better lights...but I want to focus on my 10 gallon first.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Sounds good... but what type of plants do you have now, or planning on growing in the 10g? How about budget for new lighting? Is this a shrimp only tank?

 

[Billbug68]

A dark substrate and background will also help show off the colors a little better.

 

[candacecook1025]

I have a dark substrate and a black background, although that doesn't matter much bc I am covering it up with a moss wall. I have java ferns, amazon swords, water wisteria, Italian val, Hydro sp. Japan, dwarf sag, moss balls, java and flame mosses, and a couple others that I can't name. All super easy and lower light plants. I just know that they will do better with better lighting. My budget is not huge. The hood and bulb that the salesperson showed me will cost about $50, and that's close to the top of my budget.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Do you know what light and hood the 'salesperson' wants to sell you for 50$?

Anyway... for not much more, you can get a nice, very capable, and sleek Finnex FugeRay. With a dark background/substrate your shrimp will look pretty nice in its color temperature of 7000K.
Amazon.com: Finnex FugeRay Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 20-Inch: Pet Supplies

Here's a picture I took not too long ago from my cellphone of my Tangerine Tiger shrimp. It's under a Finnex Ray 2 fixture but has the same color temperature as the FugeRay I recommended. IMO, the color pops enough when you have a dark contrasting substrate as what Bill recommended earlier.

Edit: excuse the diatoms... it's a new setup