T5 Lighting?

[aqua monster]

Hi People i have a Juwel 450 vision with 4 t5 lights.
I have a African Cichlid set up with lots of blue/yellow/black/white fish what would be the best bulbs to go for to bring out there colours, I have no plants in the tank, Is it best to go with 4 lights the same or 2 and 2 or 3 and 1???

 

[baker360360]

2 and 2 maybe. Like 2 high lite day tubes and 2 high lite colour tubes

 

[aqua monster]

Hi People i have a Juwel 450 vision with 4 t5 lights.
I have a African Cichlid set up with lots of blue/yellow/black/white fish what would be the best bulbs to go for to bring out there colours, I have no plants in the tank, Is it best to go with 4 lights the same or 2 and 2 or 3 and 1???
 
 

 

[aqua monster]

hi Baker.. What about a blue or marine high lite tube? I had a look on the juwel site or what esle is a good tube to go for?

 

[baker360360]

I think what ever you get they have to be juwel as other tubes don't fit, so ive read.

Donno about the marine tube in freshwater tank I think the colour would be better. Do you know how many colours are available?

Maybe 2x day 1x colour 1x marine ??
I have only 2 juwel high lite tubes in my trigon 190 so I'm restricted. You have four to play with so it will look really nice if you get the right combo going.. Why not plant the tank?

 

[aqua monster]

The cichlids will eat all the plants. Its a heavey rocked out tank at the moment. I dont know much about lighting or how it works but i guess the blue tube would bring out blue fish and give the water a nice blue tint...I guess the marine would give it a clear white light not sure how it will work with the blue tube tho??   In a ideal world i would like the water to be a nice tint of blue with all the colours on the fish nice and bright so they look there best  but not sure which 4 tube would do this for me?? 
 
What tubes have you got?

 

[baker360360]

Nice tank mate.
I think blue would work in that, but donno if it will make the white sand/ gravel look blue as t5 penetrate deep, if you look up the info of the different wattage of the tubes they should tell you how deep in inches or centimetres they will go. But these lights ( colour ones ) are designed for what you want so should really make yor aquarium even better than it already is.

Also on juwel website I think they say that the marine mimics the lifht conditions in their natural habitat or something like that.
I just got my juwel last Tuesday and it came with 2x high lite day tubes but as I have about 10 plants in there I want to change 1 for a high lite nature tube..
Pic

 

[HHH]

Woah that ALOT of light for just keeping fish. Just for displaying fish most bulbs would do t5s are just overkill and you might end up with alot of algae. I personally would use a simple t8 or even a t12 if you're not planning for any plants soon

 

[baker360360]

Btw aqua monster. How long are the bulbs? Length of tank?

 

[aqua monster]

Baker  the tubes are 1200mm  Its on a Juwel 450 Vision  and the lights come on in pairs . 

Would it go if I put 1 blue tube, 1 marine tube, 1 day light tube and use one of the old tubes that are already (Natural)  in there or would it not look right
 
Or just run 2 lights and go for a Blue and a Marine

Juwel High-Lite® Blue tube creates actinic blue light with a colour temperature of 20000 Kelvin.​

 It enhances coral growth. ​

Juwel High-Lite® Marine tube creates intense white light with a colour temperature of 15000 Kelvin ​

What about going for 2 of these but just using 1 set at a time   so have a blue and marine in the front set and the same in the back set but only have them on a different times

 

[fm1978]

Don't know much about the Juwel specifics of getting replacements for your tubes, but, I do think Juwel tubes are good.
 
There's a site here that seems to sell either Juwel or at least compatibles... http/www.iquaticsonline.co.uk/juwel-compatible-t5-fluorescents/54w-t5-1200mm-48.html
 
As for what you need it's very much down to personal preference. If you have no plants at all you don't need to worry about wattage / litre and all that stuff. All your light needs to do is show off the contents of your tank. In my opinion, there's nothing better than a good powerful, full spectrum white light. 
 
There might be a couple of ways to achieve your blueness...
 
Getting 1 or 2 blue tubes with 2 whites is one way if you want a strong blue hue in there. The other way and perhaps a little more subtle is to get a really high K colour of tube, I'm sure there's one on that site rated at 10,000K. Without getting too technical, a high K value is in the blue/cold end of the spectrum of light, low K values are warmer, redder tones. About 4000K - 5000K is about in the middle and as close to white as is humanly perceivable.
 
If you stuck to high K rated tubes you'd get a nice cold/blue tone in your tank. I'd say definitely get 2 proper white tubes though...the actual set up and configuration of them would be hard to recommend without seeing the effect 1st hand so it'll be a trial and error thing to get it how you like it!

 

[aqua monster]

Has anyone used tubes from iquatics and are they any good??

 

[baker360360]

Maybe 2 day lights for day time and the 2 blues for the evening as another option. It's hard as the best for you is different than say me and I think it will take a bit of experimenting, how ever it's not cheap to buy these bulbs just to try.

Do they do other colours? Maybe 1 blue and 1 yellow?
Nature light is for plants so you might want to shelve it for the future in case you decide to plant

 

[aqua monster]

I have gone for 2 50/50 blue and 2 marine white and I will put photos on tomorrow when they get here..

 

[baker360360]

Cool hope it looks brilliant