Home Depot bulbs

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, I too prefer more of the daylight range color/temp for my planted tanks (~6500K), but like said, the "K" range means little for plants. It's more what's pleasing to our eye balls. What matters for plants is the intensity of the PAR/PUR given off by the lamps, which generally is not a problem with new fluorescent lamps.

The problem with fluorescent lamps is the PAR/PUR output fades pretty dramatically in a relatively short period of time, like after 6-12 months. The tubes still work fine and look fine to the eye, but you'll notice the difference with your plants. Long story short, you have to change them out every 6-12mo for optimum planted tank results.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Yep, I too prefer more of the daylight range color/temp for my planted tanks (~6500K), but like said, the "K" range means little for plants. It's more what's pleasing to our eye balls. What matters for plants is the intensity of the PAR/PUR given off by the lamps, which generally is not a problem with new fluorescent lamps.

The problem with fluorescent lamps is the PAR/PUR output fades pretty dramatically in a relatively short period of time, like after 6-12 months. The tubes still work fine and look fine to the eye, but you'll notice the difference with your plants. Long story short, you have to change them out every 6-12mo for optimum planted tank results.

 

[skjl47]

Long story short, you have to change them out every 6-12mo for optimum planted tank results.

hello; This is my experience as well. I was replacing these plant tubes every year. I have gone to LED bulbs to see how they work over time with plants.

 

[FreshyFresh]

^ Me too Jeff!

Time will tell how long it takes our LEDs PAR/PUR to fade. Apparently they do too, it just takes longer than fluorescent.

 

[mr limpet]

So what K range would you say will bring out the Orange in my Koi Angels? They’re in my avatar.

 

[wfex4]

So what K range would you say will bring out the Orange in my Koi Angels? They’re in my avatar.

I just added some 4 foot T8 fixtures to a bunch of tanks as Lowes is/was having a sale on the LED T8 replacement bulbs. I ended up using the 6500K bulbs and am happy with the color of the lights. The orange from my koi platys looks great under them. If you don't like the look, you can always return them and replace them with a different Kelvin light.

 

[FreshyFresh]

With my orange, red and white goldfish, the lighting that IMO makes their color *pop* like crazy is purplish-red "plant" bulbs.

 

[tarheel96]

With my orange, red and white goldfish, the lighting that IMO makes their color *pop* like crazy is purplish-red "plant" bulbs.

That's absolutely true. Plant bulbs do make the colors on fish pop. This is because the extreme ends of the color spectrum are strong in plant lights ... the red-orange and dark reds (~600 - 660nm and higher) and the blues and actintic blues (~400nm - 480nm).

Otherwise, a lower kelvin bulb like ~3,000k will output more orange light overall and might be your best bet.

 

[mr limpet]

Just picked up 2 fluorescent bulbs at Home Depot. They said they were for plants and aquariums. They are T 8,700 lumens. It was either those or ones that said natural light 5000 k. I went with the plant and aquarium ones. We’ll see how they look tonight.

 

[mr limpet]

Just tried the new bulbs. Didn’t like them at all. Way too much of a yellow tint to the light. Guess I’ll return and get the natural 5000k light like most people liked.