Light Bulbs To Chew On

[Mikaila31]

Lighting is a very complex thing. Although it doesn't have to be. I mean most "daylight" bulbs will generally work just fine for plant growth. I understand most of the stuff about lighting, at least Kelivns, CRI, Lumens, PAR, and PUR. You can get really in depth with bulbs and plants. Everyone tends to have their own take on a it. Like what are the important values. I personally never look at things like lumens or CRI. If I am paying quite a bit for a bulb, like a power compact or similar, then it needs to have a wavelength spectrum I can look at. I perfer a kelvin rating a little higher than normal of show tanks, anything 6500K or more is fine on nonshow tanks. PAR if I can find it, there are a few sites with "calculated PAR values" and some experiments run Tom Barrs forum and APC that are both bulb and fixture related. What matters really depends what you want in terms of looks and efficiency.

Even as we are now with PAR and PUR you cannot be exact. Obviously a red plant cannot use much of that red spike green plants use, but may draw more from green light and the yellow, blue spectrums. Although PUR can be helpful, it is rarely used and just over complicates a already complicated topic. If you start worrying about stuff this in depth you might as well run a UV-VIS of every plant species you keep.

Personally I have issues with T8's. Yes 2 T8's the lenght of the tank should grow most stuff, it just doesn't work for me . I don't run any T8's anymore. My show tanks have power compacts, which I'm picky about. I prefer GE Aquaray, which are adervtised as 9,325K(though according to APC they are more like 8,000K). Someday I should run some T8 Aquarays and see if I have issues or it is just my other T8 bulbs. My other tank have all offically switched over to cheap spiral compacts. I'm having more luck with these than T8's. I love them actually! Cheap. No ballasts. No starters. A pack of 4 13 watt bulbs costs $10. You are also not limited to bulbs of only a certain wattage.

As far as arron's tank goes I like the last pic much better. Very good color switch. Here is my switch on a 20 high. It had a old 6700K ultra-daylight bulb from Custom Sea Life inc, which is no longer in business. My best guess is this bulb has a few years on it.

To do the switch I made the first universal square/straight socket (or lack of socket?) Pic . Then I got the aquaray running. Advertised to be 9,325K, but much more likely to be 8,000K.

 

[waterdrop]

Quite interesting how you can get almost a gray-blue tint on those red leaves, bringing out a very interesting set of brown/red colors and yet still get such a deep green in the predominant underlying plant there Mikaila!

WD
ps. what the heck is "PUR"

 

[Dave Spencer]

Lighting is a very complex thing. Although it doesn't have to be. I mean most "daylight" bulbs will generally work just fine for plant growth.

Spot on Mikaila. I read your post on another forum where several people were discussing the importance of lumens to plant growth where you hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, I dared to question Byron on one or two things, and entice him in to a discussion. He got me banned for it.

Dave.

 

[lljdma06]

Lighting is a very complex thing. Although it doesn't have to be. I mean most "daylight" bulbs will generally work just fine for plant growth.

Spot on Mikaila. I read your post on another forum where several people were discussing the importance of lumens to plant growth where you hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately, I dared to question Byron on one or two things, and entice him in to a discussion. He got me banned for it.

Dave.

What, you can't have your own opinion? That stinks, sorry Dave. I tell ya, only here can you have you, me, Nmonks, and others discus different methodology and nobody gets banned. As long as people follow the rules, it is fine.

 

[waterdrop]

I usually feel a strong desire to have people with different methodologies try to come together and find common ground and differences in what they've experienced and observed. Often in the overall aquarium hobby, not just plants, I find it extremely interesting when the details of long-used habits or observations that seemed common for years can be brought together with current discussions and people are possibly able to draw some conclusions.

In practice, though, many attempted comparisons seem pretty helpless as usually only a subset of parameters get included in a discussion. The number of variables are just so large when two tanks separated by the internet are discussed.

Ah well, maybe we should swing back to something more restricted again just to shut up those vague thoughts! How about the 4-hour thing? Could somebody review that for us? Is there something about the plant metabolic system that doesn't get revved up and funtional until 4 hours has passed?

WD