Lights

[oopsy]

which lighting tubes are best?in my 48x18x18 i currently have a 42inch 38watt aqua glo tube but it just looks so dull.im thinking of putting a second tube in there just wondered if there was a better tube to buy?

 

[waterdrop]

Believe it or not this is a big topic with many hobbyists. Try posting this over in the planted section, they have had some wonderful posts, even with pictures, of the difference it can make to choose various combinations of frequency bands for your two bulbs.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fatheadminnow]

which lighting tubes are best?in my 48x18x18 i currently have a 42inch 38watt aqua glo tube but it just looks so dull.im thinking of putting a second tube in there just wondered if there was a better tube to buy?

The aqua glo bulb I think is around 4000K?

Yes, you can get different bulbs with a different K ratings.

The Idea with bulbs is to choose ones that are going to be pleasing to you, and best mimic the natural sunlight.

4000K is ideal because that is will be near the red/orange/yellow light on the spectrum, which is what our sun produces.

If you start moving up the spectrum, you are going to start to move into more blue light.

So if you wanted to, you can keep the current bulb you have now, and then get another bulb that has a higher K rating that will be higher up on the light spectrum, which will produce a brighter blue color for your aqaurium.

Best of both worlds.

-FHM

 

[aaronnorth]

aquaglo are 18 000k

to get a white light i would suggest using an 8000- 10 000k tube.
Cheap tubes are available at lampspecs.co.uk

you will notice that on the site it will have a 3 digit number such "880"

this means the tube is 85% accurate at producing a spectrum of 8000k

first digit = accuracy. 7 = 70-80% ---- 5 = 50-60% accurate etc

and the last 2 digits = kelvin. 75 = 7500k ---- 80 = 8000k etc