need help with a light
- Thread starter TitanWarrior
- Start date
I beleive you tank has a single incandescent bulb, correct? IF so, your pretty much limited to another incand bulb, or a flourescent screw-in type that fits the fixute, such as:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=23441;category_id=1845;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=23441;category_id=1845;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
I would definately recommend the compact fluorescent. My girlfriend put a Coralife 10w 50/50 on her Eclipse Corner 5 and her crypts and java moss sprang to serious life almost immediately after she installed it. She's already divided the crypts twice in only a little over a month. I know they say that actinic blue is really only good for a reef system, but I would argue that after seeing the growth spurt on the plants in there, that increased blue light does have very beneficial effects on freshwater plants.
Last edited:
Actually she replaced a 6500k with this one. According to her, the 6500k just pretty much kept the plants alive...then the 50/50 would make them grow at a noticeable rate. She pretty much switches back and forth. Her big evil plan is to actually run both bulbs at once when she expands to a ten gallon.
Last edited:
yes.. me and my evil plans.. mwahahaha!
the coralife bulb is a 10,000K as opposed to the 6500K cf bulb that was in there before... maybe the increased color temperature is what accounts for the difference?
we split a hunk of java moss between our tanks... and his clump is pleasantly existing under his hagen aqua-glo, while my clump is thickening and going crazy under the 50/50, both with comparable wpg. the only logical conclusion i can come up with? java moss love enhanced blue spectrum long time.
as orion mentioned, heat may be an issue when you pop a cf in your ballast (those little marineland tanks seem especially predisposed to this problem), but we got around that by aerating the tank. those little bubbles slowly but surely dropped the temperature from 84 and rising to a steady 77.
anyway, i've said too much. good luck with your lighting adventures, titanwarrior!
the coralife bulb is a 10,000K as opposed to the 6500K cf bulb that was in there before... maybe the increased color temperature is what accounts for the difference?
we split a hunk of java moss between our tanks... and his clump is pleasantly existing under his hagen aqua-glo, while my clump is thickening and going crazy under the 50/50, both with comparable wpg. the only logical conclusion i can come up with? java moss love enhanced blue spectrum long time.
as orion mentioned, heat may be an issue when you pop a cf in your ballast (those little marineland tanks seem especially predisposed to this problem), but we got around that by aerating the tank. those little bubbles slowly but surely dropped the temperature from 84 and rising to a steady 77.
anyway, i've said too much. good luck with your lighting adventures, titanwarrior!
I According to the common knowledge though, most of the thick, bushy growth occurs from blue, while the taller growth occurs from the red. That is why a lot of indoor plant growers will use a combination of bulbs at certain growth points to achieve certain results such as green time, flowering time, etc. But that is from the world of terrestrial plants. The aquatic world seems far more complex.
Truth be told, in my opinion there is too much debate in the world of aquatic plant keeping about what bulb, what type of lighting, etc. I mean I have read about people who use basic t-8s and have great luck with something as complex as reef systems, and then someone else will shell out the bucks for an elaborate metal halide setup only to get similar results...or they find a great increase in growth...or they actually find they were better off with the simple t-8 setup. I've read claims that t-5s outperform t-8s and t-12s even though they put out a lower wattage. I've heard people say that Coralife bulbs are nothing more than overpriced versions of fluorescents you can buy at Home Despot. I've heard others swear by them to the brink of obsession. Some people insist that all of this stuff about lighting is nonsense and that a couple of shoplites with plain ol' standard fluorescents will do just fine.
Just seems to me that there are so many variables, as well as there being just luck. One expert might swear by something, while another refutes it entirely. Same goes for hobbyists. In fact, I dare say that aquarium lighting is the most confusing issue in the whole hobby. The more I research it, the less I understand it.
But to address the notion of the two bulbs in question - I say just experiment until you get the results you want. But don't assume there isn't something else we haven't considered. For whatever it's worth, between the 6500k and the 10000k 50/50, the growth difference in her tank is highly noticeable. And both bulbs have been used about the same amount of hours, as she keeps switching them back and forth. So it can't be anything about the age of the bulbs. I only see the effect and I say the 50/50 is doing something the 6500k is not. But of course consider the sort of plants she is using - they are crypts, java fern and java moss - all low to medium light plants, which means they are more attuned to the blue spectrum just by nature. That small increase in blue could be good for such plants, but might not have any effect on others. That's my thesis.
I'd actually like to hear from anyone who is bored enough to experiment with a 50/50 bulb on freshwater plants that generally like brighter light - I wonder if the actinic blue has any effect on them at all.
And just one last note - I have even read that some reef enthusiasts think actinic blue makes no difference in their setups.
Talk about the confusing world of aquarium lighting!!
Truth be told, in my opinion there is too much debate in the world of aquatic plant keeping about what bulb, what type of lighting, etc. I mean I have read about people who use basic t-8s and have great luck with something as complex as reef systems, and then someone else will shell out the bucks for an elaborate metal halide setup only to get similar results...or they find a great increase in growth...or they actually find they were better off with the simple t-8 setup. I've read claims that t-5s outperform t-8s and t-12s even though they put out a lower wattage. I've heard people say that Coralife bulbs are nothing more than overpriced versions of fluorescents you can buy at Home Despot. I've heard others swear by them to the brink of obsession. Some people insist that all of this stuff about lighting is nonsense and that a couple of shoplites with plain ol' standard fluorescents will do just fine.
Just seems to me that there are so many variables, as well as there being just luck. One expert might swear by something, while another refutes it entirely. Same goes for hobbyists. In fact, I dare say that aquarium lighting is the most confusing issue in the whole hobby. The more I research it, the less I understand it.
But to address the notion of the two bulbs in question - I say just experiment until you get the results you want. But don't assume there isn't something else we haven't considered. For whatever it's worth, between the 6500k and the 10000k 50/50, the growth difference in her tank is highly noticeable. And both bulbs have been used about the same amount of hours, as she keeps switching them back and forth. So it can't be anything about the age of the bulbs. I only see the effect and I say the 50/50 is doing something the 6500k is not. But of course consider the sort of plants she is using - they are crypts, java fern and java moss - all low to medium light plants, which means they are more attuned to the blue spectrum just by nature. That small increase in blue could be good for such plants, but might not have any effect on others. That's my thesis.
I'd actually like to hear from anyone who is bored enough to experiment with a 50/50 bulb on freshwater plants that generally like brighter light - I wonder if the actinic blue has any effect on them at all.
And just one last note - I have even read that some reef enthusiasts think actinic blue makes no difference in their setups.
Talk about the confusing world of aquarium lighting!!
Last edited:
Actinic blue doesn't make a difference in almost all reefs. Anything above 6500 K has plenty enough blue. The problem is with excessive red/yellow which most green nuisance algaes prefer. All actinic content is for aesthetics. The majority of corals are farmed/collected in awful shallow water. You can get graphs for how the spectra shifts as water deepens, but for most stuff collected you can assume 6500 to 10K.
I can't explain what's happening in her tank. I can live with your thesis. I admit I don't know a great deal about lighting for freshwater. I do have some combat experience with lighting reefs with T8's, and can tell you i much prefer MH over fluorescents for a number of practical reason. I know for reefs a couple of shoplights can be made to cut it, but you have to get so many other things right for it to succeed. MH is much more forgiving of, for example, water discolouration sapping it's comparatively weaker penetrative power (as it's not from a point source like a MH bulb). And yes, T5's do give out more lumens than higher wattage T8's, and that's understood too (reflector shape,efficiency)
I guess we have to ask ourselves how much do we know, and how much do we want to argue/debate. We can always know a bit more.
I can't explain what's happening in her tank. I can live with your thesis. I admit I don't know a great deal about lighting for freshwater. I do have some combat experience with lighting reefs with T8's, and can tell you i much prefer MH over fluorescents for a number of practical reason. I know for reefs a couple of shoplights can be made to cut it, but you have to get so many other things right for it to succeed. MH is much more forgiving of, for example, water discolouration sapping it's comparatively weaker penetrative power (as it's not from a point source like a MH bulb). And yes, T5's do give out more lumens than higher wattage T8's, and that's understood too (reflector shape,efficiency)
I guess we have to ask ourselves how much do we know, and how much do we want to argue/debate. We can always know a bit more.
Oh yes IF
1. When you say T% I am thinking of the HO output T5's that are normally sold for the aquarium trade, not the NO T5's that are sometimes fobbed off.
2. If you get fixtures with decent 'seagull reflectors'. These collect light normally reflected back into the bulb and transmit it down
Decent T5's are much brighter
1. When you say T% I am thinking of the HO output T5's that are normally sold for the aquarium trade, not the NO T5's that are sometimes fobbed off.
2. If you get fixtures with decent 'seagull reflectors'. These collect light normally reflected back into the bulb and transmit it down
Decent T5's are much brighter
I was actually checking out this Coralife strip - http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=32847;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
(But not sure if I'd be better off with the simple t-8 double strip)
http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=23835;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
They're both about the same price...so yeah I'm not sure what to do.
(But not sure if I'd be better off with the simple t-8 double strip)
http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=23835;category_id=1853;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
They're both about the same price...so yeah I'm not sure what to do.