what color bulbs best for African cichlids?

[red oscar]

check out the back cover of may aquarium fish magazine it will show you what fish look like under differnt lights just pick the one you like best

 

[doeth72]

any globe with significant blue in the spectrum looks awesome with cichlids. ive got twin fluor's in my 180 gal. tank one is a marine blue and the other a triphosphorus globe....looks awesome

 

[pesky2118]

Any kind of high kelvin color bulb will look nice, like over 10,000 kelvin. For reference, 5000 kelvin is about noontime sun in the tropics, and is pretty yellowish. Pure white is about 6700 kelvin, and past that gets more purple/bluish.

I think planted tanks look good with 6700 bulbs, and african/rock only tanks look nice with those 15-18000 bulbs. The downside of high kelvin bulbs is they don't appear as visually bright as lower kelvin bulbs, so you may need more wattage to compensate.

 

[ChosenOne]

I usually do the 50/50 bulbs. or one full spectrum and one actinic.

 

[fish head )'>]

Thanks for your help.
I went with adding a 48" T8 double bulb fixture and used one 18,000K "power-glo" and one 18,000K "aqua-glow". The two bulbs very slightly in the spectrum that they emit. In junction with the two 36" T12 fixtures, using 6,700K bulbs, spaning the 6 foot tank, the result is just awesome.

 

[jdllme]

I always used coralife 50/50 or just power glo.