Too Much Light?

Mr.Tan

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I have a dual bulb T5 fixture sitting around from a reef tank i took down that I would like to re-use on my freshwater planted tank, however I am not sure (i think they will be) if the bulbs in it will be too bright for the plants.. It is an aquaticlife T5 fixture with 1- 10,000k bulb and 1- actinic... are these a no-no for a FW planted? i know the actinic probably is but what about the 10,000k? can i reuse this and just buy a 650nm daylight bulb to replace the actinic? or do i need to replace the 10,000k with a 6,000k ?


I'm heading to my LFS tonight after work and would like a quick answer if possible...


Thanks a bunch!
 
maybe a little late, but the actinic bulb would not look as good a something with a little lower K rating. Although it has been shown that the Kelvin rating of a bulb is just for aesthetic purposes. Plants adapt to any light and grow. I personally like anything from 7000k-9000k, and the plants grow well. Others like a lower K rated bulb. It'spurley up to you.
 
Blue bulbs are great in FW for showing off a fish's colour.

Personal prefferance at the end of the day.

Bulbs can be expensive mate, so alot to spend on something that you may not like.

A member not so long ago went through every colour under the sun in flourescent lighting to find one that she liked and took ages to find one. I believe it was around 5-6k in the end? But as said all depends what you want.
 
Blue bulbs are great in FW for showing off a fish's colour.

Personal prefferance at the end of the day.

Bulbs can be expensive mate, so alot to spend on something that you may not like.

A member not so long ago went through every colour under the sun in flourescent lighting to find one that she liked and took ages to find one. I believe it was around 5-6k in the end? But as said all depends what you want.

thankfully bulb pricing isn't TO bad over here in the states (atleast i dont think its bad), probably helps I only need a 24" bulb lol ... i scooped up a 650nm bulb for $15 to replace the actinic i had, and kept the 10k.. so far so good, just set the tank back up (finished 20 minutes ago). and have the substrate and piece of driftwood in and tank is filled with water. now the cycle process begins!

I read that the 650nm bulb is supposed to be good with a FW planted tank as the plants like it, and it said a 6k daylight bulb should be paired with it, is this something that will affect plant growth by using a 10k?

maybe a little late, but the actinic bulb would not look as good a something with a little lower K rating. Although it has been shown that the Kelvin rating of a bulb is just for aesthetic purposes. Plants adapt to any light and grow. I personally like anything from 7000k-9000k, and the plants grow well. Others like a lower K rated bulb. It'spurley up to you.

cool! thanks for that information, no worries on being a bit late.. i jumped on a 650nm bulb to replace the actinic.
 
Plants adjust to what ever you give them. The colour is a personal prefferance really.
 
Plants adjust to what ever you give them. The colour is a personal prefferance really.
i dont believe they adjust 100% if you had a bulb with 100% green light it wouldn't do anything for the plants. (becasue the reflect green and absorb all other lights) so wouldn't you need to have bulbs in the blue/red ends of the spectrum for best plant growth?
 

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