Philips plant and aquarium floresant specs

[redbelly]

I notice a fair difference in plant growth when i switch from the plant and aquarium tubes to the daylight tubes and i just found out at rona why.
the plant and aquarium tubes are 3400k
while the daylight tubes are 6500k

they have a binder full of the specs of all of their lighting.

[dpatte]

i cant prove it, but i also suspect i get less algae with daylight bulbs compared to plant/aquarium bulbs

[TBarb]

Lighting is a very interesting subject in that I have read so much about it yet there is no one means of doing it. IMO unless you are a diehard with extra cash the NO solution is the easiest, simplest and cheapest. If you take your time and shop around you can get some good deals for a 48in dual 32watt fixture with electronic ballast with pretty good light output.

For NO users out there, what setup do you have? I have 4 x 40 watt setup with two fixtures with electronic ballast. 2 bulbs are daylight tubes and the other two are fish/aquarium. It is a new tank in the cycle stage so I don't know if this setup is best yet but we'll see.

Question, is the 5000k bulbs just as useful as 6500k?

[BigDaddy]

The only real difference between 5000 and 6700K is the colour.  Plant growth was almost identical when I used these bulbs.

Now... 10000K lights in theory will penetrate through the water better if you have deeper tanks.  I had a Philips 9325K over my 25 gallon, and my substrate plants didn't suffer.

[redbelly]

TBarb, another solution to buying the fixtures is to just buy the balasts and end caps and if you have made your own hood then you can mount the bulbs much closer together to get a more watts per gallon.
as its the 4 foot fixtures though its probably still cheaper to buy the cheap fixtues at home depo and pull the ballasts out of them.

[NjOyRiD]

Philips 9325K quote]

where can you get that?

[BigDaddy]

TBarb, another solution to buying the fixtures is to just buy the balasts and end caps and if you have made your own hood then you can mount the bulbs much closer together to get a more watts per gallon.
as its the 4 foot fixtures though its probably still cheaper to buy the cheap fixtues at home depo and pull the ballasts out of them.

That's wrong.  In fact, if you mount the bulbs too close to each other, you get more restrike, which means more heat, which means less bulb output, which means LESS watts per gallon.

[TBarb]

True. If the bulbs are too close then there will be some negative effects. But how close is too close? Fixtures have bulbs about 1 inch apart.

Redbelly, I think I'll go with the ballast and end cap method next time. I'll probably also go with the T8 (or T10) bulbs to fit an additional bulb or two. T8's from my understanding put out more light at less wattage. Also, which Rona did you go to? I'd be interested to see that catalogue. I called a few places and Buchanan seems to be the place for all your bulb needs.

[BigDaddy]

The T number on the bulb only defines the diameter of the bulb.  A T8 bubl is 1 inch thick, a T12 is 1 1/2 inches thick.  Light output is not affected by the bulb's diameter.

Now... T8's are more EFFECIENT than T12's... but that's another story.

[TBarb]

hmmm perhaps I should have said "more efficient" in that you get the same output for less electricity? There seems to be a big push towards T8's?

[redbelly]

The Rona I went to is on Merivale and Hunt Club. There are several books with all the lighting info right near the florescent lightbulbs, the guy there pull out the book for me to take a look at when I was there last.

[tuvok]

the plant and aquarium tubes are 3400k
while the daylight tubes are 6500k

This struck me as fairly odd when I was reading up on lighting. I'm not sure why the plant and aquarium bulbs are marketed as such when from most of what I have read the colour temp seems too low for optimal plant growth. My suspicion is that the lighting may be sufficient for terrestrial plants and for simply illuminating a fish only aquarium but it does not seem suitable for fostering submersed plant growth. The bulb, in fact then, is a terrestrial plant and fish only aquarium bulb. Is this a reasonable conclusion?

[cichlid_girl]

yeah i would agree with you there. it caused me a great deal of fustration with my aquatic plants for a while before i started looking into the details a bit more. they just never really did very well. the plant and aquarium bulbs do however work quite well for regular plants... although i havent tried using the daylights bulbs yet...

[nickie]

I notice a fair difference in plant growth when i switch from the plant and aquarium tubes to the daylight tubes and i just found out at rona why.
the plant and aquarium tubes are 3400k
while the daylight tubes are 6500k

they have a binder full of the specs of all of their lighting.

Many sincere thanks for the interesting info on lighting , Im setting up a few new tanks and will make good use of your valuable information !.. John P.. (nickie)..

[frollo]

A good resource for lighting questions:  http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/ The krib is a very good aquaria resource.