im usingthis bulb is it okay ?

[kenneth_kpe]

well i have a pic of the bulb that i got for my tank, i think it shows the light spectrum, im not really good with reading the chart and would like to learn how to read it..

 

[konrad05]

I'm not too sure if that spectrum will give you the best growth. The chlorophyll in plants absorbs best at 450 nm and 700nm, the green region, that your bulb peaks at, does not get absorbed. So by the looks of it, the bulb you have does not peak at either 450 or 700 It's still worth a try though

 

[Silly me]

I dont think that bulb is right for plants, but you could try.
is more like 7,500K due the the lack od red..
It looks a lot like a tri-phoshor find in clothing stores..


one good thing about "Tri-phosphor" is :
"Tri-phosphor lamps retain almost full output over their lifespan, this means they only need replacing when they fail, rather than every 6-12 months as recommended for other tubes to retain high output (however, the characteristics of the spectrum may change).
"

 

[kenneth_kpe]

oic, i have 3 of em inside my tank maybe i could replace one or two of em with better lights, so i should look for bulbs with high 450 and 700nm readings ? im using it right now and my plants do grow ok but not really that fast, and i notice that with high light demanding plants err.. forgot the name ( walachichi !?!?!? haha ) the top leaves are starting to turn green and not red so it means my bulb arent really that nice.

So basically thats all that i should look at when i look for plant bulbs ? high 450 and 700 and also light thats around 6500Kelvin ?? or am i still missing out on other info ??? this is confusing.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

so is this a better bulb compared to the first one ? its a osram(sylvanna) fluora bulb, took the picture off a catalog (my sister works for osram)

the white blurrs are 400 500 600 and 700 nm respectively, sorry for the crappy photo, i just used a camphone and the picture was the size of a postage stamp

 

[kenneth_kpe]

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/basics/basics_lighting.html

i read here that aquarium plant lights are not really good and i should go for lights with full spectrum, what are these bulbs ? im really really getting confused now

 

[Lateral Line]

Full spectrum lamps are those with a colour temperature between 5500K and 6500K. The second spectrum you showed was a better choice then the first.

 

[konrad05]

Correct, the bulbs that are labelled plant or aquarium bulbs are not good for your plants at all, and don't look nice either. Full spectrum are usually, as lateral line said, from 5500 -6500, even 7500K. That's the color temperature, the higher the blue, the lower the more red. In my tank I have 2 6500K, 1 10000K and one 15000K(for depth). Be aware though, that just because it says 6500K doesn't mean at all the it produces the right amount of wavelengths that your plants need. I would fully recommend getting trichromatic bulbs instead

 

[jordan barnhart]

Okay. Konrad brought a new question. I have 4 daylight bulbs running in my fixtures. 6500k each.. Do I need any better bulbs or what kind of bulbs do you recommend.

 

[jordan barnhart]

Sorry for double post but should konrad. Could I be okay with buying a powerglo and lifeglo and using the other 2 daylight bulbs... Or should I get 2 power glos and 2 life glos.. since i guess you would recommend trichromatics... I have access to these bulbs for around a bit less than 20$ but im sure i could get them offline cheap..

 

[Silly me]

Correct, the bulbs that are labelled plant or aquarium bulbs are not good for your plants at all,

I wouldnt say that at all..?? since Kelvin does not refer to a certain wavelength but the color resulting from the mix of wavelengths

What I would say is that I cant see a better growth in any of my plant between any special bulb compared to a full spectrum bulb of the same watts.

There is a hudge difference between full spectrum lights and sunlight

Full spectrull bulbs makes your fish look much better aswell as giving enough right light to grow most plants.
Also, since a big part of the red spectrum is absorbs by plant a normal incandescent could grow plants aswell, some sword plant use more red light than blue..

but It all adds up to enough of any light will grow plants..
The Krib

My experience has
been that provided your give them ENOUGH light, it doesn't really matter
that you use a specific spectrum bulb. Perhaps if you were trying to get
African violets to bloom, the spectrum might make a big difference, but in
an aquarium we are looking (generally) for vegetative growth and if there is
a high enough level of _any_ kind of light, the plants will grow.

 

[Lateral Line]

I have a comparison between the activation absorbtion of A and B Chlorophyll and the visible spectrum here.

>>> provided your give them ENOUGH light, it doesn't really matter that you use a specific spectrum bulb.

What he is assuming there is that the lamp is emitting at some useful frequencies, and so yes, by pumping enough Watts at the wrong frequency in, some of the right frequencies will also appear.

An extreme example would be to use a Sodium lamp. The yellow ones used as street lights. If you look at the absorption spectrum, neither Chlorophyll absorbs the yellow well, but the Sodium lamp only give out yellow light at 2 specific frequencies. Sure if you put enough Sodium light over the tank you might get some growth, but it is a long way from optimal.

What you want is something that hits the absorption peaks. That way you get more growth per Watt, less electricity consumption, less equipment expense and the space above the tank to accomodate the lamps.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

this is gonna be a long debate anyways i read your post lateral line and upon reading did i understand it correct.
i read around and saw that CRI rating stands for the closeness of the lamp compared to mid day sunlight. ? so i should be looking for a high CRI rating.

Would this be a good combination for my aquarium ? i would keep my 2 bulbs the first one and go get a full spectrum bulb to replace one of the 3. Since getting 3 full spectrum bulbs might be a little expensive... or maube i could replace two of the old bulbs with 1 fluora and 1 full spectrum ? or what the heck ?? im getting confused again ?!?!?! should i just replace em all with full spectrum bulbs or i shouldnt bother at all with the bulbs spectrums ?!?!?!?!!?!?

 

[konrad05]

OH yea, I forgot about the CRI, try to get it as close to 100. I think you should just have at least more than 50% full spectrum bulbs though, but it's really up to you to do trial and error. I'm only speaking from experience, so maybe different bulbs will work well for you. But I wouldn't recommend fluro glo, the intensity isn't as intense, if you want to use the -glo, I would recommend powerglo.

 

[Lateral Line]

CRI stands for "Colour Rendition Index". A CRI of 100 is natural light, the lower the CRI the more "coloured" it is. A CRI of over 90 is pretty good.

I tend to use Triton lamps mostly. They are tri-phosphor and have a good spectrum. Also the end electrodes have a good build quality which means they don't fade as much as some other lamps. When the do get old, they simply stop working rather then fade to grey.

I've been playing with some Dennerle Trocal lamps which seem quite good, but they are very expensive compared to Tritons etc.