A Very Quick Question

[chimera_786]

How do u know what light bulb do you have? like is it a T5 or a T8 or some other T. My light came with my tank which is a TopFin 20. Its 18' long, 17watts. I have a very lightly planted tank for now. I have a mayaca and a java fern and i wanted to add more light. I bought a 24inch reflector and cut it down to size..kind of messing up the shape. but i did make it fit and its looks okay. I mean it not a 100% reflection than at least 80% with my "modified" version LOL!!. I also have ordered some pellia for covering up the ornaments (rocks) with.

 

[Corleone]

Usually it'll be stamped on the tube near one end or the other. If it doesn't say specifically, you can find whatever it does say and search on google, there's a few sites with indexes of what the codes on bulbs translate to.

 

[waterdrop]

The "T" values simply refer to eighth's of an inch. So you can take the tube out and use a ruler to measure the diameter of the circle formed at one end of the tube where the pins are. A T5 then is 5/8 inch, a T8 is 1 inch, a T12 is a one and a half inch tube. These values stay the same regardless of the overall tube shape, which could be straight, U-shaped or coiled up.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Nick16]

i think a t6 is 6/8 or 3/4 of an inch. atm im adding a t6 into my tank as it puts out 40% more light than a t8. its 11000K - whatever that means.

 

[Corleone]

11000K refers to the color temperature of the light produced. Higher tends to be blueish light, lower tends to be reddish. Taking from a chart I turned up quickly with google:

1500 K Candlelight
2680 K 40 W incandescent lamp
3000 K 200 W incandescent lamp
3200 K Sunrise/sunset
3400 K Tungsten lamp
3400 K 1 hour from dusk/dawn
5000-4500 K Xenon lamp/light arc
5500 K Sunny daylight around noon
5500-5600 K Electronic photo flash
6500-7500 K Overcast sky
9000-12000 K Blue sky

 

[Nick16]

so basically mine is a daylight tube!!! it will be bright then, simulating the mid day sun kinda thing. thanks m8.

 

[Corleone]

Brightness and color temperature are different things. They're related in some way, but I don't know all the specifics. A 2670K will produce the same color of light as a 40 watt clear incandescent bulb, but could be brighter.

It's probably a pretty bright bulb, though. I've got an unused hood with 11000K tubes, and it's the brightest one I have. Shame it doesn't fit any of my tanks.

 

[Nick16]

yeah, i had a 900mm t8 and it only was 30 watts so 1wpg so i got a 900mm t6 tube as well and im going to glue it to the hood tonight!! so i have more light!!

 

[waterdrop]

"Brightness and color temperature are different things."

This is correct and its important to beginners because they often think the choice of color temperature will be important with respect to growing plants. Its not. Brightness plays a crucial role but color temperature basically doesn't matter.

Color temperature, in the final analysis, doesn't work out like you would think it would. The descriptive phrases that Corleone recites are fun and often used and they do help to give a rough idea. But in the end there are many very different types of "looks" a tank can have. The overall interaction of the substrate and background colors and textures, the same things with the plants and overall aquascape will vary a lot in final visual effect wth different K colors of lights. The look of different species of fish is also quite different under different lights and not always what you expect. You are left with trial and error for your own tank, fish and aquascape and even that changes over time. Don't be afraid to try different things.

~~waterdrop~~