Different Light Spectrum

OK well I've got a bit of a choice this time as to which tubes I buy (T8 tubes) in the LFS I can get Arcadia Freshwater/Original, Interpet Daylight+, Interpet Tri something or other, Gro-lux, aquaglow & Powerglow (I think). I already have a Arcadia Original tube but wonder what's the best combination to have as I have two tubes to replace (total of three tubes, 25 watts each & tank is 20g uk). I usually just go for a mix of the two arcadia tubes since that's all I can usually get but now I have a slightly wider choice.
I haven't been able to find any information about the grolux,awuaglow or powerglow unfortunetly.
If anyone can recommend the best combination that would be brilliant

Ksam,

IMO the best combination is the Arcadia Original tropical + Arcadia freshwater. Interpet Triplus is also a great bulb but slightly pinkish for some people's taste but I myself prefer it as it does highlite some great colours

Grolux is a brilliant bulb as well. The spectral graph is similar to the Aquaglo but it offers much more in the Blue and the Red spectrum then any other bulb. It really takes out the pinks in the plants and fish.

Aquaglo offers good colour combination and viewing but IMO offers not as much as the ones mentioned above for the plants.

Daylight plus is a good balance of everything but I would avoid it in much deeper tanks.

I am attaching an image of spectral graphs of some of the bulbs to give you a slight idea.

Nim

Thanks for that
I think I'm gona go for a Grolux tube, Arcadia tropical & Arcadia Original, hopefully the combination of the three will help balance each other out and by the sounds of it the plants should really like it

Thanks again

I picked up the grow lux tube today, it's not too bad still to pick up the Arcadia tropical since it wasn't in stock but so far so good It's less pink than the Arcadia orignial tube, you can't really tell just looking at them but if you take a photo of the tubes together the difference is really noticable.

Arcadia original in the middle, Growlux at the front and older daylight tube at the back (to be replaced by the tropical)


It's quite strange looking at the pic cos to look at them otherwise they all look white, lol.




Ok so it's time for another question........................now that the lights are nearly sorted I'm looking at different CO2 methods, I use basic nutrafin units on other tanks but the prices have really gone up reacently on them and I just refuse to pay it (especially since I'm gona upgrade my others in a few months so will then have a few spare).
Anyway my pH is 6 and KH is 1 which according to the co2 calculator makes my co2 levels already at 30ppm without even adding anything , so do I really have to add a co2 unit to this tank??

ksam said:

Ok so it's time for another question........................now that the lights are nearly sorted I'm looking at different CO2 methods, I use basic nutrafin units on other tanks but the prices have really gone up reacently on them and I just refuse to pay it (especially since I'm gona upgrade my others in a few months so will then have a few spare).
Anyway my pH is 6 and KH is 1 which according to the co2 calculator makes my co2 levels already at 30ppm without even adding anything , so do I really have to add a co2 unit to this tank??

Click to expand...

If you dont add CO2 then this reading is CO2 reading is fake. The thing with the KH/CO2/pH relationshiop is that if you change the CO2 or the KH then is the pH that changes. You cant just lower the KH and hope that'll add CO2 to the water it doesn't work like that. If you've not already read it this article explains it better than I ever could.

Hope this helps

Sam

I never thought I would see people actively using Grolux tubes again! They are my least favourite tube in terms of colour and output. The only tube I would personally use out of the ones you mentioned are the daylight and triplus tubes. But that is just my opinion at the end of the day you have to be happy with what you are going for.

yeah the growlux tubes do seem to rather dated, lol. I have the daylight + T5 tube in another tank and it defiently brings out the greens. I'll see how this one goes if it turns out to be a load of rubish then I'll have to change it

OK the co2, right reread that article (read it a while back but forgot the part about false readings) so thats the question answered......yes I do need to add a co2 system
Now this leads me to another problem, adding co2 will in effect lower my ph right?? which with it naturally being at 6 I don't want it going too much lower (test kit only reads down to 6 lol) and crashing.
If I add the co2 (porably a pressurised system) then how will I stop it from lowering my ph too far?? Would it be a case of adding bicarb to my water changes to keep the KH levels steady??
Also if the readings are false now how will I now when they're true, ie that I'm adding the right amount of CO2??

Thanks for the help

So you're lucky enough to have soft water hey?

If it were me, I would probably add bicarb to get the kh to around 2/3 then if you add 30ppm CO2 you'll get a pH of around 6.4/6.2. In the longer term, you may find that you dont need to add the bicarb at every water change, and will get a balance with the tap water you have. A KH of 1 wont in itself cause a crash you'll just need to keep it at 1 through regular water changes. I've never been one for adding stuff to water if you needn't.

A pressurised system will help loads too as you'll be able to control how much CO2 you're adding.

Other people might have different thoughts though

Sam

Purple lights.

Each to their own and all that. If it looks good to you then all is well.

Personally I prefer Daylight spectrums as these look more natural. One's that have a high CRI level will look even better IMHO as these replicate "reality" all the more. The tubes I have now are 6500K CRI 98 and only cost £4.89 each. They're so close to the sun in terms of colour/spectrum that they're used to treat Seasonal Affected Disorder (SAD or the "winter blues")!

Providing there's enough quantity of light then spectrums are irrelevant in my (and many other's) experience.

yeah I'm not excatly liking the purple tint, it's not as clean a look as the arcadia tropical tubes.........think this tube might be getting changed rather quickly
I had wanted the tubes you'd mentioned, especially at those prices, but they don't seem to do them in 30" lengths....................unless I missed them somewhere on their site

So how do I know when the co2 readings are true?? Obviously a diy yeast bottle and a pressurised bottle would be adding different quality/quantity of co2 into the tank, how will I know how many bubbles to have per minute??