Swordtail compatability

[Byron]

oooohhhhh, Ok, that makes sense O_O Will 2x20 watt t8, 2 foot aquarium lights be considered "too bright" for the fish? I want to grow plants in my tank and if I dim the lights, I'm afraid it will let the plants die (So far I just Have hornwort though I'm letting them sit on the ground for now, java fern and amazonian swords... and some cobra grass)

At the Most I can decrease my total wattage by 4 watts for my lights

This happens to be the same lighting I have over the 30g in the photos, at least the latest photo. The old original ballast gave out, so I pulled all the bits out and used the housing for a dual T8 24-inch shop light. So that is not too much, but you will need decent tubes.

Can you get either the ZooMed brand or Hagen brand? Online if not locally perhaps. In the Hagen "Glo" series the Life Glo (or Life Glo 2) is the best lighting for a planted tank. It is 6700K with true colour rendition, and is high in red, blue and green. In the ZooMed series, the UltraSun is basically identical, at 6500K.

Since you have two tubes, like I now do, you can mix them. I find that either one of the above combined with a slightly warmer white works very well. This is best in the ZooMed series, using their TropicSun at 5500K. The Hagen series doesn't really have a comparable tube; their SunGlo at 4200K is just a bit too "warm," I actually have this with the Life-Glo in the first photo above. It doesn't look bad in that photo, but in life it is just a bit too yellow. The Tropic Sun is better, combined with either the UltraSun or Life-Glo.

You can use two Life-Glo, or two UltraSun, or one of each, but it will lack that little extra warmth. Warm light means higher red and less blue, cool is the opposite. And as red is the prime driver of photosynthesis, it is worth having a bit more of it. But you won't see a big difference among any of these tubes. But they are far superior to anything else I have tried or seen.

 

[Umbra]

This happens to be the same lighting I have over the 30g in the photos, at least the latest photo. The old original ballast gave out, so I pulled all the bits out and used the housing for a dual T8 24-inch shop light. So that is not too much, but you will need decent tubes.

Can you get either the ZooMed brand or Hagen brand? Online if not locally perhaps. In the Hagen "Glo" series the Life Glo (or Life Glo 2) is the best lighting for a planted tank. It is 6700K with true colour rendition, and is high in red, blue and green. In the ZooMed series, the UltraSun is basically identical, at 6500K.

Since you have two tubes, like I now do, you can mix them. I find that either one of the above combined with a slightly warmer white works very well. This is best in the ZooMed series, using their TropicSun at 5500K. The Hagen series doesn't really have a comparable tube; their SunGlo at 4200K is just a bit too "warm," I actually have this with the Life-Glo in the first photo above. It doesn't look bad in that photo, but in life it is just a bit too yellow. The Tropic Sun is better, combined with either the UltraSun or Life-Glo.

You can use two Life-Glo, or two UltraSun, or one of each, but it will lack that little extra warmth. Warm light means higher red and less blue, cool is the opposite. And as red is the prime driver of photosynthesis, it is worth having a bit more of it. But you won't see a big difference among any of these tubes. But they are far superior to anything else I have tried or seen.

I'll keep an eye out for them! And I find this part of the conversation the most interesting as I grow carnivorous in a seperate terrarium just above the fish tank under a custom-made LED light driving 6500k, 4500k, and a few other LEDs. When I added the 4500k and the 6500 (or was it 6700k?) Lights, the plant growth exploded (When I remember to water them) and I basically removed and replaced (almost) all the other LEDs with 4500 and 6500-6700 now...

the lights I have in now... The package strangely enough didn't have any indication of what kelvin they were but they were so cheap I just bought them cos I needed the lights. I will go to town tomorrow and see if I can find the ones you mentioned or similar as I really need to buy better tubes than the.... cheap... Junk tubes I have now

 

[Byron]

I'll keep an eye out for them! And I find this part of the conversation the most interesting as I grow carnivorous in a seperate terrarium just above the fish tank under a custom-made LED light driving 6500k, 4500k, and a few other LEDs. When I added the 4500k and the 6500 (or was it 6700k?) Lights, the plant growth exploded (When I remember to water them) and I basically removed and replaced (almost) all the other LEDs with 4500 and 6500-6700 now...

the lights I have in now... The package strangely enough didn't have any indication of what kelvin they were but they were so cheap I just bought them cos I needed the lights. I will go to town tomorrow and see if I can find the ones you mentioned or similar as I really need to buy better tubes than the.... cheap... Junk tubes I have now

Remember you need T8. Those tubes also come in T5 which won't fit, and would be far too bright anyway.

I thought the light looked rather purplish in the photo, and I would expect this to be due to being "Aquarium" or "plant" tubes. Many of these are high in red and blue but no green, so there is the purplish hue. But they are also much less intense light, and this can backfire because water weakens the light penetration further. The Aqua-Glo for instance is rubbish; the intensity is exactly half the Life-Glo. One has to know what one is getting, and I tried all of these over the past few years. Some were purchased and installed, turned on, then turned off and went into the recycling bin.

Another thing, these need replacing regularly. I find the Life-Glo will be good for 12-14 months, but I replace all my tubes at 12 months regardless. They lose intensity as they burn.

 

[Umbra]

Remember you need T8. Those tubes also come in T5 which won't fit, and would be far too bright anyway.

I thought the light looked rather purplish in the photo, and I would expect this to be due to being "Aquarium" or "plant" tubes. Many of these are high in red and blue but no green, so there is the purplish hue. But they are also much less intense light, and this can backfire because water weakens the light penetration further. The Aqua-Glo for instance is rubbish; the intensity is exactly half the Life-Glo. One has to know what one is getting, and I tried all of these over the past few years. Some were purchased and installed, turned on, then turned off and went into the recycling bin.

Another thing, these need replacing regularly. I find the Life-Glo will be good for 12-14 months, but I replace all my tubes at 12 months regardless. They lose intensity as they burn.

Thanks for reminding me

Will just standard household 4700k 20w and 6500k 20w tubes work if I use one of each? Those are the only ones I can find online... Not sure what the shops are carrying as it's 2:50 am here, but in general thats the light rig I want to try to go for...

 

[Byron]

Thanks for reminding me

Will just standard household 4700k 20w and 6500k 20w tubes work if I use one of each? Those are the only ones I can find online... Not sure what the shops are carrying as it's 2:50 am here, but in general thats the light rig I want to try to go for...

I've tried these too, and in the 4-foot tubes it works, but not in the smaller. It has to do with how they're made, and the phosphors that determine the spectrum and intensity.

I used a 20w GE Daylight 6500K over my single-tube 29g, and the plants that had been fine began slowly dying. I left this for several months, as it can take plants some time to adjust to lighting differences, but no go, they almost all died. Only the Java Ferns were left, and not in that good a shape at that. I put a 20w Life Glo over the tank, no other changes, and the ferns rebounded, along with the floating plants. Only a couple of the chain swords had not completely died and they rebounded after a few weeks. So there is quite a difference in intensity.

The 4-foot tubes are much better, and onver the larger tanks that have two 4-foot T8's I use one Daylight 6500K and one 5000K. I have used GE (for the 6500K), Phillips (for both 6500K and 5000K) and Sylavnia (for both). Replaced every 12 months, they are fine. But I only use Hagen Life-Glo or ZooMed over smaller tanks.