New Lighting

[Devon6209]

Hey guys. I'm upgrading my lighting soon and am putting in fixtures that house T12 bulbs for a 60g planted tank. What bulb would be better of the two pictured? The 2nd bulb was labeled as plant bulbs but has no specifications on its K value and it's cri is 90.

 

[Retired_AF]

Here is a link that gives a lot of info on lighting. I hope it helps...

Aquarium Lighting; Reef, Planted Light Information. PAR, Bulb, Watt, Kelvin, Nanometers, MH, LED.

 

[aqua_chem]

As an extremely broad strokes rule of thumb, "Plant Bulbs" are usually 4000-6000K, "Daylight" bulbs are usually 6000K-8000K, and "crisp white" are usually 10000K. Really, the bulb manufacturers can call it w/e the heck they want.

As long as it's in the right range (5000-10000K) and full spectrum, then color rating doesn't really matter. Either get something that is aesthetically appealing to you, or attracts you for some other reason. The plants should be fine.