Can Plants Grow In 10000k Lighting

[Krib Crazy]

My parents ordered me a 10000k light off the internet. I was wondering if plants can grow in it and do well?

 

[jmuccillo]

I have often wondered how important the colour temperature is in promoting plant growth. A lot of people suggest using lamps with colour temps similar to day light (around 5000 K - 6000 K ) is best for plant growth. However, my current set up has nothing but Power Glo tubes which are advertised as 18000K and seem to produce really good plant growth. I think it probably depends more on the amount and quality of lighting you provide than on colour temperature alone. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Aqua Essentials]

My parents ordered me a 10000k light off the internet. I was wondering if plants can grow in it and do well?

Yes they can and very successfully as well.

 

[George Farmer]

Colour temp. is secondary to intensity. Plants aren't very fussy about colour temps. if there's enough physical light there.

However if you run a lower light, lower growth rate set-up then colour temp becomes more important as algae is more likely. 10000K generally has a large blue light content that is favourable for algae growth. If, however you have sufficient plant growth then the plants can utilise this blue light more effectively and keep algae away.

In short 10000K is fine if you have enough physical light and nutrients to support good plant growth.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[jimbooo]

so let me get this straight on say a 40G one or two 10,000K tubes will most likely lead to algae. however if you have 4/5 of them then it should be fine.

is that correct?

i must say that when i swapped out one of my 7500's for a 10K i didn't notice much difference in plant or algae growth but the general colour of the tank looked washed out.

 

[Dubby]

To put it another way the Lumens (intensity) are more important and colour temperature is secondary.

But this is a tricky one as Intensity is always measured wrt what the human eye sees (i.e. the green part of the spectrum). So a lamp with more light in other parts of the spectrum may have lower lumen rating.

So I always tend to choose a lamp with high CRI and high lumens/watt (some manufacturers mention lux) to give you the best of colour rendition and high intensity.

 

[Krib Crazy]

Thanx for all the advice now ill go and hook it up