i have two 24 inch. 15w lights i dont understand the ratings as far as "k" the bulbs that came with it were 8000 k and the other one i purchased was 10000 k. can some one explain to me the principle behind this. and what are the benefits and disadvantages of more or less K. thanks in advance
Lighting ?
- Thread starter rjssniper
- Start date
its like the color you get the higher you go the bluer you get the lower you go the greener yellower you get
The different K rates will tell you the different color the light will tend to emit. The K stands for Kelvin which is the temperature. Different temperatures emit different colors. Specific organisms do better with different spectrums of light as that is what they have evolved to use. So the color that you need/want depends on what organisms you are keeping.
what would you recomend for lm bass. i just replaced a 8000k with a 10000k bulb i like the blue/green color it puts in my tank opposed to the 8000k. i still have a 8000 on the other side of my tank but m not sure about replaceing it. my bass seem to gain nd increase color quite often. i was told thats just what they do. but im trying to make small improvements on color enhancing. any ideas on what bulb to get would be greatly appreciated
I would say the 10k daylight would be fine if you just have fish. But if you are going to have plants as well I would suggest splitting with a 10k and 6500 (one of each bulb). Just to let you know I am still relatively new to the whole plant lighting thing but this seems to be working for me, you may want to wait for a consensus before you act.
from my understanding plants will grow under a 10K but there has been better growth seen under 6500 but if its working for you i'd say go with it. Thats one of the major things in this hobby is what works for one doesn't always work for the other. I'd say the 10k daylight is fine. If your plants start to wilt you could try the other one to see if it changes.
I would suspect the limiting factor on plant growth here would be total wattage, not the K rating. 30 watts of light is not much, and I suspect a 55 gallon or larger tank. You could do low light species, crypts, amazon swords, java fern, and anubias.
I do agree there, I am running about 2 watts per gallon on my 55 for my plants. But the watts depends on what species of plants you have.