What Is The Brightest Bulb I Can Get ?

[lee_essex]

the length is 2ft or 24inchs or 600mm.

Any downfall to havin it really bright? i was going to have 2 bulbs you see. i like light.

And what is the diference between: Daylight, Cool White, Warm White ?



thanks

 

[rabbut]

I think 18W will be the largest you willeasily find at that length, but 20W is about the upper limit for florescents of that length as far as I am aware, in T8. Unsure of what output you will get with T5

The different names for tubes refur to different sectrums of light (colours) and will affect how your fish look under the lamp, and also how well your plants and potential algea grow

Hope this gives some insight
You may which to post over in the harware section for better replies

Rabbut

 

[OldMan47]

You could stuff about 110W of compact fluorescents into a space that small and get yourself a real algae problem. Sorry, you could get lots of light for plants. Daylight, warm white and cool white are all very low temperature spectrum bulbs, somewhere around 2600K to 3000K. To simulate noon sun, you would get about a 6500K temperature bulb. (The idea of color temperature is how hot you would need to get a wire to radiate light in that color) It would give you no more light but it would imitate sunlight colors better. People who are into plants in a big way will use 6500K to 10000K light spectrum to get a white to even slightly bluish light color. For plants, whatever color you prefer is fine for the plants, the color has more subjective effects than plant growth effects. A 2 ft tank is probably around 20 gallons so the possible 110W is way too much for all but a very high tech, CO2 enhanced heavily planted tank. Anything less than a high tech approach with that much light is an invitation to disastrous algae levels. Your best bet for plants is about 1 1/2 to 2 watts per gallon or a little less unless you are ready to go off the deep end. If you are not growing plants, keep the lighting somewhat subdued and the time the light is on short. It will make the tank much easier to care for.

 

[Colin_T]

daylight globes are about 6,500Kelvin (K)
warm globes are about 3,000K
cool globes are about 5,000K
natural sunlight is about 5,700K

as oldman suggested get a couple of globes bwith a Kelvin rating between 6,500 & 10,000K. This will give you good light for the plants and produce a nice clear white light to show things up well.

as rabbut said 18-20w is about the most you can get with 2ft globes. I think the high output T5s go up to 24w in 2ft globes.

You could run a 3ft light unit on the tank and that would give you about 30-40w per globe. You could also get a 75w metal halide and hang it a couple of feet above the tank. That would be heaps of light for the plants and you could probably suntan under it as well.
If you do have lots of light you will want to add a good quality plant food and some CO2 to get the most benefit from the light.

 

[OldMan47]

I was not kidding or exaggerating when I said 110W. AHSupply makes what they call a 55W light kit that is only 22 inches long and can be mounted in a reflector that they make as a side-by-side installation. The reflectors they sell are intended to be used in an existing plastic hood that you might have gotten with the typical tank kit. They also sell almost any bulb color you might want. It also does not change my previous advice to avoid these extreme lighting levels.

 

[Colin_T]

I thought you were mucking around there OldMan That's pretty cool tho that a company does bright lights in such a small package. It would be great for nano marine tanks. Do they have a website that you know of?

For lee_essex
Sorry to hijack your thread.
I'm not recommending the use of that much light for a freshwater planted tank, I'm just curious about the lights for my own use

 

[OldMan47]

Try a google using their name Colin. It is also their web site. I knew it sounded like I was mucking about but not this time. Don't count on it next time though.

 

[Colin_T]

I knew it sounded like I was mucking about but not this time. Don't count on it next time though.

lol, cheeky