What would be the equivalent light level?

[krap101]

Okay, I have w 65w bulbs over my 29 gallon. One is a 65w "plant" bulb. It is pink, and has one big spike at 450nm and dies down by 380 and 520 (approximate) nm. The other 65w is a 12000k and has spikes at 350, 450, and 500, with little spikes in between. I'll try to take a pic. I was reading around and people were saying 12000k was useless for a planted tank, but isn't the nm values more important than the k value? Like the ge 9325, which is supposedly a nice bulb, and its made up from the "spikes" in the spectrum.

So would this be like the equivalent of 100w or is the 12000k totally useless?

 

[fort384]

both temp and spectrum are important. 12000K is a bit high, but I don't think it would be useless. That is quite a bit of light over a 29.

 

[krap101]

Here's a pic..

Well, I didn't really want to go with the 50/50, and 1 bulb would be 2.2wpg, 2 would be 4.4, so.. I wanted some carpet plants, and started co2/ferts, so.. hoping for the best.

 

[fort384]

yup, as long as you are keeping an eye on your N/P/K dosing, and dosing some trace and Fe, and injecting CO2, you ought to get some good results. I have 96W of t5ho on my 29 (half 6700k and half 10000K) and my plants grow like crazy. I trim once a week.

 

[krap101]

I got some bacopa caroliniana, and as a stem, its putting out roots at each of the sections, and its looking ugly, so is this good or bad? Its about 5" high and seems too short for a trim..

 

[fort384]

Yeah stems will do that from time to time. You could trim it and plant the old section, that might help get some new growth with no roots.