lighting question

[76brian]

I bought a used 4 lamp Aquatic Life T5HO fixture. What a nice unit.

Unfortunately it came loaded with lamps for a reef setup and I'll be using it for my freshwater project. I'm not sure if I can get away with using any of these for FW plants.

It has two 39w Actinic/Blue 420/460 (link), one 39w 10,000k (link), and one 39w "Purple" 460/620 (link)

Are any of these lamps of any use in growing plants? Do I really need a 6700k, or can I get away with some combination of what I have?

Thanks

[exv152]

I've never tried actinics on freshwater, but I've heard of others having a horrible time with algae of all sorts. I would suggest at least replacing those for now.

[Feivel]

no experince with your question i just know that t5 are crazy strong for a freshwater tank. unless you have some serious plants that need a lot of light and photosynthesize a lot, i agree on algae blooms being created from the strong source of light. i have a 75g reef and those are what i use. decent color combo too actinics will pop out the neon colors in your fish wich is an added bonus. i wonder what a planted tank would look like on actinic lights

i guess the question stand more as what type of tank do you have, what do you plan on doing with it. if you are already heavily planted you may need the lights right away. if you have a few plants maybee you could kick the t5 on for 2 hours a day for supplemental light and keep the stock bulb over top for the rest of the time. the fish will not benefit from the light. (the lights may make different pigments pop out, for instance the pink bulb will pop out more reds. the color specrum is also emmiting more red, blue penetrates deepest. i know that for corals different light combinations feed the photosynthetic cells and the become "happy" and emit a stronger red pop or the blues glow
maybee someone else could give you an idea on wich bulbs to buy for the fresh side of things. maybee you could keep the pink and the white change one actinic for a aquablue. keep the blues timed for the later night. oh and the neighbors will think you have a grow op from the glow. its crazy the comments you will hear from your neghboors. then they see the reef OH WOOOOOWWWWWWW ...... <----- thats what i love and live for The WOW factor

cheers hope any of this helps. im just bored this morning and babbled on a bit

[bitterman]

I don't know much about planted tanks, but I love the look of a 10k and Antinic combo on my cichlid tanks.

This was for a very low tech, low light planted 195/cichlid tank. Had Crypts, Java Fern and anubias that even flowered regularly.

Bruce

[charlie]

About 6 post down under this post in this very section you will find a topic "all you ever wanted to know about lighting", a very good read & touches on all your concerns.
Enjoy Errol

[1macuser]

Hi all,

I'm running the Deep Blue professional Solar Extreme T5 set up with 2 10,000k daylight lamps and 2 actinic -03 lamps on my fresh water tank and love the set up, the light run for 13 hrs a day and have no real issues with algae. I think having them hung to the ceiling a long with real good water movement helps with this.  Having this set up sure makes a big difference in bringing out the colors of the fish compared to the regular lighting set up.

[76brian]

About 6 post down under this post in this very section you will find a topic "all you ever wanted to know about lighting", a very good read & touches on all your concerns.
Enjoy Errol

I read a bit of that but I unfortunately have the attention span of a 5 year old lately and can't seem to take all of it in.

From what I was able to gather, I think I'll be better off if I just ditch the actinics and the purple, and I'll pick up a single 6700K. Then I'll have the 10,000k on one switch and the 6700k on the other.

I'll probably only use the 6700k anyways, as it's only a 33 gallon tank, and 39w of T5HO SHOULD be plenty for this paludarium setup.

[76brian]

I don't know much about planted tanks, but I love the look of a 10k and Antinic combo on my cichlid tanks.

This was for a very low tech, low light planted 195/cichlid tank. Had Crypts, Java Fern and anubias that even flowered regularly.

Bruce

It does seem like the 10k really makes the colours pop... I do like how it looks thats for sure!