Bulb Help

[chibi]

I need a 24'' T8 bulb for my aquarium, and I have two questions:

Do you have any suggestions as to what brand I should buy? What do you use and would you reccomend it?

and

Where can I get more information on the spectrums?

The Kelvin thing is very confusing to me. I have a freshwater tank with plants and would just like to make my tank look brighter, but nothing that will make the algae grow too much. The one I have now is an Eclipse Natural Daylight bulb, and it's almost a year old. It's dull and I'd like something brighter. Any suggestions? Thaaank you <3

 

[Waterloo Kid]

If you are keeping plants then you should really be going for a full spectrum light such as the Arcadia Freshwater Lamp. You could go for a more specialised lamp such as the Floragro bulb by Arcadia which has been made to emmit the spectrum of light used by plants for photosynthesis. These tend to be more expensive and have a distinctive purple/pink hue to them. They also do not look as bright to humans (although the plants love them!).

So far as the kelvin rating goes, don't worry too much about it. Just make sure that the lamp you choose is somewhere between 4000K and 8000K. The higher the kelvin rating the 'whiter' the light looks. Plent specific lamps are generally around the 4500K mark and, as I said, look pinkish. Lamps for marine tanks are generally around 10,000K and look very crisp. These bulbs are no good for freshwater tanks as the spectrum is not optimised for freshwater plant growth, and algae might become a problem.

Talking of algae, be careful when you increase the intensity of light in your tank. You might get an algae outbreak.

Hope that helps,

WK