"PowerGlow" Bulbs?

[RyanR]

Hey guys, It says these bulbs, are good for increasing color of fish, AND good for corals and inverts, it states on it, that it has an 18k output.. how good is this actually, and as far as corals go, what could do good under this lighting? Since its mostly a FOWLR tank, i will not upgrade lighting more then this, BUT if i can have SOME soft corals, that would be nice too.

[RyanR]

Anyone know? I want to start researching if possible, I am bored! :P

[alcohologist]

never heard of a bulb with an 18000 kelvin rating before. but since 20k bulbs colour up coral nicely, and 10k gives you good growth, i'd imagine 18 would be okayish for coral, maybe supplemented with a "daylight" tube.

[Reefscape]

As far as i was aware, the powerglo are a FW planted tank bulb???? maybe wrong on that and they have dual usage, just never heard of a marine system using powerglo bulbs....

[RyanR]

The box says,

Power~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb http://www.nazarite.net/africans/graphics/hagen-powerglow.jpg

30 W
36" (91 cm)
32.5 mm Diameter
Service Life - 9000 hours
Promotes coral, invertebrate and plant growth
High intensity
Photosynthetic deep marine spectrum
Total illumination for living corals, marine algae and freshwater plants

[Reefscape]

Does its say on the box, exactly what wavelength (nm) these emit on??? That pic above simply illustrates the different colours which emit through a given wavelength and not the wavelength of the the perticular bulb..

As a side note, zooxanthellae best uses 420 - 490nm range (blue hue), so, this is what "most" marine lighting systems are designed around...

[princess]

i have a power glo on my cichlids tankage .....it said used for marine on the packet but the colour doesn't look very marine like

[BIGgourami]

just use a 10000K and an actinic......

[RyanR]

Kind of hard to use two bulbs with one ballast, and a canopy that only has room for one... I have many ballasts, BUT the canopy doesn't have room for them...

[amehel0]

ok this is what i know

hagen put 18000k as good for plants yet it isnt
it is a general bulb for fish

so as a basic

lifeglo is for planted tan ks and s/a setups
powerglo is a general bulb verywhite good for african cichlids fowlr etc.
marineglo is a 24k(maybe less) bulb that is for corals.

also doesnt that picture say on the bottom thsat the blue is on the 400-480 nm part f the wavelength?

[sweeTang21]

no mater what the box says, that bulb will not grow much for coral at all. Its to wide range to actually help coral in one way or another. They will be lacking proper spectrum in both areas so your going to see very poor color and growth. 18000K is a wide spectrum number and will not even produce that great of spectrum for FW plants.

[BIGgourami]

Kind of hard to use two bulbs with one ballast, and a canopy that only has room for one... I have many ballasts, BUT the canopy doesn't have room for them...

one 50/50 bulb...... problem solved... lunch anybody?

[BIGgourami]

FW plants grow best under 7000K or close to lighting.... the very fact that it's a light bulb means it promotes growth... legally they can say basically anything they want....

[RyanR]

one 50/50 bulb...... problem solved... lunch anybody?

where do i get these?

[Reefscape]

These......

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/category-info.php?category_ID=202

or these

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/category-info.php?category_ID=203

[Danyal]

the coral will grow very well under a "FW" bulb, like around 6,7k but the colours will be very crappy. the biggest question isn't wheither or not you've got the right spectrum but if you've got enough light, a powerglo is a NOt8 bulb, the only place i could see it supporting a decent amount of coral is over a shallow(like 8~10" deep) nano

[RyanR]

These......

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/category-info.php?category_ID=202

or these

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/category-info.php?category_ID=203

by the looks of it, these don't fit in a regular flourecent ballast? we have a couple at work, I will try one.. Never figured they would fit a normal ballast!

[dodge4x4man68]

I use 2 40 watt aqua-glo 18,000k bulbs along with a 40 watt life-glo bulb on my african mbuna tank and I must say the aqua-glo bulbs really intensify the colors of my fish and the life-glo bulb makes my java moss grow very nicely. dont know what would happen with a saltwater setup using these, but I am starting a SW tank within the next week and have a 260 watt power compact for that setup, I may throw the strip with the hagen bubls on it just to see what it looks like

[BIGgourami]

dude with T8 or T12 floros the only corals you could even get to surviv would be shrooms...

the 50/50 bubls are compact floros..

and yes spectrum does matter.. the zoanthillae can't utilize EVERY spectrum of light, the pigments only work for certin K temps...

[RyanR]

dude with T8 or T12 floros the only corals you could even get to surviv would be shrooms...

the 50/50 bubls are compact floros..

and yes spectrum does matter.. the zoanthillae can't utilize EVERY spectrum of light, the pigments only work for certin K temps...

English please?

[sweeTang21]

i agree with big G. If the Corals food source, zooanthallae, are being starved of proper lighting then eventually they will die off. It may be possible, but not for long periods of time, nor would this make a tank look "good".

ill give it the fact that 18000k is in range of the coral but i dont think its intensity is all that great for stimulated growth.

[pufferfreak]

Can someone recomend a good bulb to get then. Like sweeTang21, what lighting do you have?

[BIGgourami]

English please?


the algea that lives insid the coral need a certain color light to make food for the coral... english enough? :D

here's what i would think is "good" lighting

Softies... NO to PC lighting
LPS... higher watt PC to T5's
SPS... higher watt T5's to halides or HQI

these are the mins for different types... they'll all do good under stong lighting but take care in introducing them so they don't get overexposed and 'burn'...
the lower the intensity the shallower the tank has to be...

i would think they'd all do best under 10,000K and actinic mix... but a halide unit w/o floros or T5's should be like 14,000K or even 20,000K to prevent scortching in smaller tanks with high wattage lights...

like in a 29 with a 250W halide the light shuld be like 14000K but in a 55 it should be 10000K

always start a new coral at the bottom of the tank and slowly move up in to the desired/necissary position

[Reefscape]

Just want to add a side note to this thread, regarding what light is needed for corals...Actinics are not required by corals to grow. Actinics merely provide a visual florese appearance to the human eye. When talking lighting for a coral, what is best for the corals growth, 6500k is THE best light to use. There has been many dicumented experiments over the years with coral growth under different lighting forms, and because 6500k is the closest to what the sun provides, it creates optimum growth. The downside of this lighting "colour" is the appearance it gives the tank, which is not overly appealing in my opinion....

Ok...thats it...just wanted to throw this into the mix as i seen actinics mentioned a few times .... :)

[sweeTang21]

Can someone recomend a good bulb to get then. Like sweeTang21, what lighting do you have?

For your tank, i would say get this unit::

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~lighting_fluorescent_cur rent_usa_nova_extreme_t5_high_output_ho_lunar.html (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage%7EPageAlias%7Elighting_fluorescent _current_usa_nova_extreme_t5_high_output_ho_lunar. html)

PC's would be great too, but i avoid heat if i can. I like using actinics because it helps the corals "wake up" before the bights come on. Its like stepping outside from a dark room to very very bright sunlight, makes your eyes hurt lol. By no means do you need actinic though.

My personal setup is a mix between PC 10000k and 460nm and a NO T-5 standard ratings as well. Per the par ratings i have potential in growing acropora and other higher light needed corals, but would do so because they would be very poorly colored and wouldn't grow for the beans lol.

hope this helps