Hagen brand Lights

[xXMrBonesXx]

right now i have a Sun-Glo and a Flora-Glo and i added some fertilizers to help cause i moved some plants to my old tank toa new one i set up and now the Flora-Glo is Growing crazy amounts of algae, i was wondering which 2 are the best cause i can hold 2 in my lid

I'm guessing the Power and Life Glo are the best but i need 2nd opinions befor ei go out and buy them cause the Life-Glo is pretty pricey

 

[George Farmer]

Life-glo is the best for plants. It's tri-phosphor which gives a 'fuller' light and the color temp is 6700K which is good for plants. Power-glo is 20000K and I beleive is more suitable for marine.

If you are getting a lot of algae with Flora-glo then it is likely that you will get even more with Life-glo as the intensity will be greater. Improving your lighting and adding fertiliser is unlikely to reduce algae. On the contrary, unless your plants are showing excellent signs of growth then fertiliser is more likely to grow algae.

Hope this helps. PM me if you want more detailed info on algae or lighting (or plants).

 

[abstract]

i have 2 life glo 2's and they are working great...would highly recommend them

 

[smithrc]

we've just swapped out our hagen tubes..

and replaced them with 2 Dennerle plant topical bulbs...

they were quite expensive, but after 1 weeks we have a lot better growth

 

[George Farmer]

Are they Dennerle Special-Plant tubes? I find them excellent too, where did you buy yours?

 

[smithrc]

Are they Dennerle Special-Plant tubes? I find them excellent too, where did you buy yours?

yep thats the ones - quite expensive though (£16 each)

we got ours from a local plant 'specialist' Hobby Fish.

we dont use them for fish though - but their plant knowledge and hardware stock is great.

 

[konrad05]

hey smithrc, glad to hear you're finally getting good plant growth with different bulbs. I know they're expensive as hell, but it's good investment. You should post a thread of before and after pictures to show people what difference it makes

 

[smithrc]

hey smithrc, glad to hear you're finally getting good plant growth with different bulbs. I know they're expensive as hell, but it's good investment. You should post a thread of before and after pictures to show people what difference it makes

I might do that actually... but I'll only post them when the tank looks better it's a state at the moment!

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

will the bulbs your talking about fit in the hagen kit hoods? cause thats what i have

 

[konrad05]

Just get any bulb that is labelled "TRICHROMATIC" with "FULL SPECTRUM". A 6700K or 10 000K Kelvin would be ideal. They will fit for sure

 

[George Farmer]

What I find interesting about the Dennerle Special-Plant tubes is that they're 3000K. This sounds a really low colour temp. but they are really effective and give a really nice warm light. Apparently Dennerle has researched lighting extensively and they've found this to be the most effective light for growing plants and minimising algae growth. I would definitely recommend them.

Here's a link to their site. There's some interesting articles on light and algae to.

http/www.dennerle.de/ENGLISCH/e_frameset.htm

 

[Waterloo Kid]

The hagen Flora-Glo bulbs are rated at 2,700K, not far off the bulbs you are talking about. I find that the Flora-Glo bulb initially made the tank look pink but I've go more used to it now. I still prefer the bluer lights. Looks more crisp to me. The Flora-Glo bulb is showing good initial signs of doing a great job on the plants though (I have added CO2 at the same so it's not just the liights).

WK

 

[George Farmer]

Flora-glo is 2700K but is nowhere near the intensity of the Dennerle and is not a full-spectrum bulb unfortunately. I'm no real expert on lighting but there's a lot more to the bulb than just colour temp. There's a lot of good articles on the net on lighting, I'm still learning all the time.

 

[Dubby]

I use a combination of a 3000K triphosphor and a Grolux bulb and have found it gives the best results (color rendition & plant growth)

 

[Waterloo Kid]

Yup, the Hagen bulbs aren't up to much on the intensity side of things. that's why I've just got two 39W T5's to go with my existing 80W of T8's. Intensity by the job-lot!

WK