Plantation?

[blackpantha]

I want to start a planted tank where I want to keep my white butterfly discus.
I have a total of three bulbs that I can run on my tank...


SERA PLANT 4900 Kelvin
SERA BLUE SKY 12000 Kelvin

Giving me a total of 21800 Kelvin.

What plants could I keep?

[Roy]

Actually you should be averaging the kelvin and adding up the Watts.
So your colour spectrum is roughly 8450k pretty good start for plants.
What size are the bulbs and what wattage ?
Also how big is the tank, depth more important and do the light fittings have reflectors ?

Roy

[blackpantha]

Actually you should be averaging the kelvin and adding up the Watts.
So your colour spectrum is roughly 8450k pretty good start for plants.
What size are the bulbs and what wattage ?
Also how big is the tank, depth more important and do the light fittings have reflectors ?

Roy

4ft long bulbs that are 36watts each. The tank is

125cm long
45cm wide
50cm height

Yes they can have reflectors if needed.

[fish_r]

ur tank is approx 74 gallon minus substrate wood etc.
u can also get 40w 4ft tubes IE: lifeglo 2 tubes @ 6700k
as well as others.
u have approx 1.6wpg "watts per gallon"
which is low light.
this should give u a bit more idea what u can grow successfully with the light u have...
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_cat.php?category=1

hth
Rob...

[blackpantha]

I have seen peoples tanks that use these lighting systems.

[mughal]

Hi,
I dont think averaging the K rating is such a good idea to estimate the depth of available spectrum. What if you have, say 40 watts of 3400K and 10 watts of 10000K. Would it make it 50 watts of 6700K? I really dont think so.
The bulb with minimum K rating should be at least 6500K, IMO, for a planted tank!

[blackpantha]

Well then I have enough?

[Davo]

What size tank do you have and what wattage are your tubes?

You need tubes with a kelvin from 5500k to a maximum of 10000k. I have used 6700k and 10000k mixed together and they were fine.

You can get ADA 8000k yubes apparantly that are very good also.

Dave.

[Proteus]

You can get ADA 8000k yubes apparantly that are very good also.

Save your money and get Sylvania, Arcadia or Giesemann, better colour temperature.

All three of these companies only deal with lighting, so it is in their best interest to have a quality product.

The Dupla/Hobby tubes are also very good, and a lot cheaper than ADA. After all 60% of what you are paying is for the name, not the tube.

Easiest thing to do in regards to ADA tubes, ask anyone locally who uses them... oh, you might have trouble doing that. :lol:

The ideal spectrum for planted aquaria is 6500k-6800k

[blackpantha]

I have a 281 liter tank.

125cm long
45cm wide
50cm height

I have 3 bulbs.

2X Sera Plant (36watts 4900Kelvin each)
1X Sera Blue Sky (36watts 12000Kelvin)

The blue sky if for fresh and marine so that is why it is allot higher.

[AQUAMX]

Hi

My friend uses the ADA tubes in one of his combo light sets while i use the Hobby tubes. Between the 2 i dont see the difference and both are excellent. I like the Hobby tubes but that could be my bias toward my mate lol.

With what's generally on the market i always used to be a fan of the sylvania although they seems to have lost popularity of late.

Cheers