Which tube light to use?

[Neil_Orr83]

I have recently bought a used Juwel Rekord 96 aquarium. I was going to use it as a saltwater tank, but I have decided to go with freshwater until I have more experience and a bigger budget! I'm not very happy with the light, it seems a bit dim and purple. The bulb in at the moment is an Arcadia 24" and I think it says 22w (its difficult to see as the text has started to fade!).

Can anyone recommend a nice bright bulb to replace this with? I live in the UK and I can't seem to find much info using search engines. It will be a planted tank with freshwater tropical fish.

 

[mrV]

22W sounds odd.. Could it still be 18 or 25?

You can check the lenght of the tube and look my homapages:
http/kotisivu.mtv3.fi/water_world/akvkas...Kuinka%20paljon? (if it's not workin, then click the phrase "Kuinka paljon?" and you see a table where is usual lenght and watts of fluorescent tubes)

18 or 25 W it's a little bit low for plants - you could think about uppgrading it with one fluor-tube (e.g. Arcadia, controller: Water proof, IP67) if it's possible.

But you still could keep some plants like Javafern, -moss, some anubias (nana).

You could try to find some normal lightning tubes that are suitable for aquariums too: Philips TLD 8 or 9 series (e.g. 865 or 965), it's daylight not blending/bending colours like usually aquariums tubes do. If you don't find any normal tubes (not household tubes still!) then try to find aquarium tubes that are marked as daylight.

 

[fatguppy]

I have a juwel tank and recently replaced the lights after advice on a topic from ths forum. The new lights are MUCH better than the ones that came with the tank. However, we have 3 silver hatchetfish which always look pretty in the lfs because they are so shiny. They are greyish in our tank and not shiny at all. The lights we have are one for the fish (brings out the red colours) and one for the plants.

Any comments/suggestions?



I posted this to the Tropical Chit chat forum earlier but so far have had no replies. BUt I think you have sort of answered my question. I assume then that we need a daylight tube rather than the specialised ones we have??

 

[Neil_Orr83]

My tank is a Juwel Rekord 96 which only has one bulb, but its does sound like the same colour as your bulbs.

I have just ordered a Interpet Triplus 24" 18w, description below:

Produces a very bright clean lighting appearance which lasts on average over 7,500 hours, it maintains a more constant light output than other fluorescent lights. SUITABILITY - For freshwater tropical aquariums with a broad range of live plants, also for marine fish and invert aquariums.

Thanks for the help mrV