Question regarding lighting

[xxxcellarator]

hi, i have a 40 gallon aquarium with quite a few plants in it. i also have a DIY CO2 system, which consits of two 2Litre bottles and the use of a Limewood Air Stone to transfer teh CO2 into the water. I made teh top of the tank myself however, so i am using a regular tube for the light. its a 30 Watt, 36 inch Tube. My question now is, is this light good enough for my plants, or woudl getting something that costs $30 from a place such as BigAls be worth the investment for the plants. Im thinking about the tubes specific for plant growth, like i remember one was called AquaFlora. And would those kind of tubes help improve plant growth over the current tube that i have? thank you!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Most plant bulbs are in the 6500k and 12000k range. But what counts more is where the spectrum peaks are. If the peaks are in the reds and blues, then they will do better. Also, might find similar bulbs at the local hardware store or Lowes and Home Depot for a lot cheaper as well.

 

[rich311k]

One 30 watt bulb over 40 gallons is not much light. You may want to think about adding at least one more tube to that setup.

 

[Glenc]

I agree with Rich. I know the bulb you are talking about. It's made by Quantum, It's called a lightning rod. The aquaflora is a T-6- 6700 k NO flouresent. Great bulb, very bright. I use them in 3 of my tanks. It is more powerfull than a typical T-12 or T-8 and great for colour and growth, but over a 40 gallon you would still need at least a couple of them. They would definatley be better than what you have, if you don't mind forking out the dough for them. If you decide to get them, I'd recomend the 6700k aquaflora and the 11000k ultra daylight mixed together. I've had great results with this combination, both in colour and growth. Good luck.

 

[xxxcellarator]

adding more than one tube to my setup is quite hard and costly. i dont want to throw away my current fixture. so i just want to get soemthing (if possible) thatll be much more suitable for my plants, yet still having only 1 Tube. Would getting something like a VHO tube or something that has a lot of Watts help? and would a 20 000k tube be better than a 10 000k one? thanks

 

[src]

Check out the retrofit kits at AHSupply. I found they worked wonders for my tanks.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

No, 20000k won't make it better. Should stay between 6500k and 12000k. As for the VHO tubes, that would only work if you change out the current ballast I believe.