Bulbs
- Thread starter ziggy2
- Start date
toehead11183;1190222; said:
Keep in mind that the actinic portion of the bulbs has no usable spectrum for plants, so only half of the wattage is really usable.
Ok I have read the stickies for the second time. Maybe I'm stupid, but I still don't know. I have a strip light that is 48" long and two bulbs. Is there a more effective bulb that will work in this fixture? I also have two 36" single bulb stripes.
ziggy2;1190896; said:
Short answer: probably not
Long answer:
I assume you have T8 or T12 standard fluorescent bulbs. These type of bulbs don't penetrate very far (effectively) into the water column. In order to fix this, you have to go with a new fixture, either compact fluorescent or T5's. Both of these do a much better job and are more efficient in getting light deeper into the water.
If you want to get better results from your current fixture, simply get new bulbs. Depending on how old your current ones are, most are effective for only about 12months. Replace them with something like a 'daylight' or 'sunshine' bulb from the hardware store. If it has the kelvin rating listed, go with something between 6700 and 10,000 K. This gives the best, most usable light spectrum for the majority of freshwater plants to grow with.
I've seen some decent tanks using only standard fluorescents though. More bulbs, give more light, helping the situation - to a point. At a certain point, adding more light is going to be detrimental to your cause. Unless you start adding fertilizers (and keep close tabs on the ratios of N : P [nitrogen and phosphate]) and supplement CO2, you're going to get algae.
Edit:
Need to know what size tank you have, and specifically the height of the tank.
A lot of the above info is relative to the specific plants you want to grow, your current water conditions (specifically pH and KH), bioload of the tank, and what percentage of you tank is going to have plants.
Provide as much (preferable all) of that info, and we can move on from there.
I can give you some of the info now. It is a 120 gal tank that is 24" tall. I have four ferns and three or four misc. plants I picked up at Walmart( I know that's a dirty word. but it's the only place around here that keeps any plants). As far as load goes. There are currently only three fish in the tank. Nothing bigger than 3". There will be more after this weekend. My Ph is 7.5 (a little low for Africans, but they don't seem to mind) I'm not sure where my KH is presently.
I would recommend switching to HO T5 lighting for a tank that deep. The HO T5 bulbs will penetrate much farther into the water column than the PC, and respectively the PC to the T12 or T8 bulbs.