Are My New Lamps Faulty?

[aibo210]

Hi

I just brought 2 new compact floresents are they normal if they are very dim (hardly glow) at first then flicker up to full bright over 3 mins? they are also a pink color!

 

[bogusmove]

You don't say what sort of lamp it is. They sound like typical plant growing tubes though. Plants like red ish light generally, or blue ish. They will tend to seem dim to you as whilst plants are typically sensitive to red and blue parts of the spectrum, your eyes are sensitive to the green parts which are largely useless to most plants. Thus what seems bright to you may not to the plant and vice versa.

 

[DarkSoul]

alot of these new bulbs contain ALOT of phosphors, and it takes a while to energize all of these phosphors.

i know my lamps take 15 mins to achieve full brightness.

 

[aibo210]

Ok

so could I mix one of the pinkish lamp with a normal 865 6500K Daylight tube so I get a natural looking bright colour mix with the added benifit of the special aquarium tube or is this asking for trouble? e.g algae.

just the fish seem off colour lovely reds and blues but greens are missing the tank has a pink warm cast! bare in mind I only have room for 2 pl-s lamps!