I currently have a 55 gallon tank with a pair of severums and the lighting in the tank to me seems to be a bit dull and gives the water a yellowish tint. It's a standard 4 ft. fluorescent 34 watt bulb. Should I have a bulb with more wattage or a different type of bulb all together to brighten up the tank or is this enough? I've had it in for about 10 months so maybe it just needs to replaced. Any info. is appreciated.
55 Gallon Lighting
- Thread starter frp13187
- Start date
wattage shouldn't be a changing factor if you don't have live plants in your tank. try different spectrum/intensity of lighting. Its also recommended to change the bulbs out every 6 months or so, but since you don't have to rely on lighting to keep anything alive, just change it when the lighting gets dull like you stated.
frp13187;2480724; said:
Purchasing an Oddeysea 260watt light fixture is what I did to my 55g, well actually 100g....Same length 4 foot though.....I grew a bunch of plants.....I am not a known plant grower, but it was easy and also fun...The fish colors actually got better after a week.....My piranha got darker and were exhibiting more swimming.....
It's actually about the K (kelvin) rating of the bulb. If your bulb is giving a yellowish color it's probably a lower K rating, somewhere in the 4000K range. Look for a bulb with a K rating of about 5500K-6500K which is closer to the color of mid-day sun and will give more light in the blue area of the spectrum.