replicating natural sunlight?

[dmopar74]

what standard flourescent light bulbs(preferably cheap, like from the hardware store) can be used together to replicate natural sunlight? im always amazed at the colors my fish have whenever the sun hits em, but the rest of the day is blah.

looking to run 2 to 4 bulbs.

 

[swede]

actually, you're better off getting a very high kelvin rated bulb. actinic pops color nicely, but can be pricey. see if you can find bulbs with a rating around 10,000 kelvin. this will give a nice bluish/white light that will really bring out colors. the sunlight emulating bulbs just don't look as nice. theyre closer to a red light and in a tank, they look better suited for reptiles. I accidentally bought a light that emulated the sunlight once, and i had to return it as soon as i turned on the light cuz it looked like crap

 

[swede]

btw, new avatar is classic

 

[davcheng]

you could try "daylight" bulbs. they're much whiter than the "sunlight" or plant growing ones, imo.

 

[jcardona1]

depends...what color are your fish? if mostly blues, purples, etc, then go for something like 18,000k. if you have greens, reds, yellows, oranges, etc, stay below 10,000k.

this made a huge difference with my pbass

 

[JakeH]

True "daylight is about 6700K, but that wont bring out the colors like real sunlight. Only real sunlight can provide enough full-spectrum light to do that. Flourescent tubes only give off about half the spectrum & then are filtered down to provide the most light at whatever color temp you choose. The real sun gives off tons of IR & UV, which are used by our eyes for more accurate color rendering. The closest you could get would be a large tungsten-halogen PAR or Fresnel light like they use for movies & TV, but they produce massive heat. Like the sun...

 

[JakeH]

You could do 1 Sun-Glo (4,200K), 2 Aqua-Glo's (10,000K) & 1 Power-Glo (18000K). That would probably get you close... Experiment with different combinations & positions from there.

 

[jcardona1]

True "daylight is about 6700K, but that wont bring out the colors like real sunlight. Only real sunlight can provide enough full-spectrum light to do that. Flourescent tubes only give off about half the spectrum & then are filtered down to provide the most light at whatever color temp you choose. The real sun gives off tons of IR & UV, which are used by our eyes for more accurate color rendering. The closest you could get would be a large tungsten-halogen PAR or Fresnel light like they use for movies & TV, but they produce massive heat. Like the sun...

good info. i think the only way to get close is to mix a large of amount of bulbs from the lowest to the highest K rating so you get all colors

 

[brianp]

Yes, natural sunlight is a wonderful thing and that's one reason the guys in Singapore like to keep their Dats in outdoor ponds. However, bear in mind that uv will "solarize" acrylic.....causing it to cloud over time. Also, uv will not penetrate either standard acrylic or standard glass to any significant extent.

 

[dmopar74]

good info. i think the only way to get close is to mix a large of amount of bulbs from the lowest to the highest K rating so you get all colors

i see thats the route im going to have to go, as one bulb would only accentuate certain colors.