Which T5 Tubes?

[rchambers]

I have a 4 tube Arcadia T5 light unit with 2 marine white 14000K and 2 Actnic Blue. I have a tropical tank with some plants so wanted to change the lights for something that will be better for the plants and will show the fish colours off better. Tank is 4 feet wide.

At the moment I use the two marine whites for 8 hours a day and the actnic blues for approx 2 hours (use it as a moonlight really). I don't use ferts or CO2 and the plants are growing pretty good and there isn't much algae really.

I was thinking of replacing the marine whites with either
[URL="http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tubes/Skywhite"]http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tubes/Skywhite[/URL]
or
[URL="http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tub...865-Daylight_14"]http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tub...865-Daylight_14[/URL]

What would be my best choice?

And is the blue lamps ok to use as a moonlight?

 

[aaronnorth]

The 2nd link doesn't work

The skywhite will be ok, tubes with a kelvin of 5500k - 11 000k suit plants best but as long as there is enough light then i wouldn't worry to much about the K

 

[rchambers]

other link should have been http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tub...865-Daylight_14

They are cheaper but the other ones seem to be more like daylight bulbs with a little bit of uv for the winter blues lol

 

[Themuleous]

Unless you really want to get into the colouration of tubes, then the important thing to remember when buying 'non-standard' aquarium lighting is to get triphosphor tubes. They have the best spectrum range. You can even get quad-phosphor now, but they aren't very common.

This might help too.

http/www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=555

Sam

 

[fozziebear]

the best t5 tubes for plant growth on lampspecs i would say is the phillips 965, also id get 3 of the phillips and 1 sylvania grolux. for a good colour balance. the 880 skywhite is also a good bulb but the phillips is cheaper i think.