lighting?

[dandaman352]

whats the difference between vho bulbs that are half actinic half day light and regular ones and whats the best high watt bulb to get that I can also use for live plants later on?

[ILLUSN]

actinic are useless for plants the spectrum is too far into the blue, what you want are bulbs with the spectrum skewed more to the red.

Watch out for VHO's (over clocked T12's and T8's) they have a tendancy to burn out quick.

any tube with good peaks in the spectrum around 450nm and 650-700nm would be good.

heres the grolux spectrum, its bout as close TO ideal as you can get, THESE TUBES DONT LOOK AS BRIGHT AS OTHER TUBES but remember the wavelength our eyes are attuned to (and hence "see" as brighter) are NOT the same as plants.

[dandaman352]

thank you perfect reply. Do they make any lights with high watts (for plants) with a spectrum between 650-700 or 450? I think I found 2 on the site I like to purchase things from but I'm not sure if these fit the bill..

http://www.petsolutions.com/Coralife-Trichromatic-Bulbs+I96300963+C34.aspx

http://www.petsolutions.com/Actinic-Powercompact-Square-Pin-Bulbs+I42902030+C34.aspx

(48 inch one)

thanks again.

[dandaman352]

Hm. I read it wrong in the begining so basically 450-700 which the top one is which is perfect. So in retrospecst I would ask if theres ones out there that are high in watts as well. Thanks again for helping the needy.

[vanessa messig]

Hi, I was wondering what brand of light would be best for a discus tank to bring out the colours?

[vyberman]

Kinda depends on the colour discus you have imo.

Personally i use natural daylight bulbs in my tanks, partly because my fish are lots of different colours. But mainly because i want everything in there to look as natural as possible.

During the summer the sunlight hits my tank at about 6pm every day. the fish all look stunning when it hits them.

[Tommo]

hi

actinic tubes are very white in colour antinic tubes are very blue in colour the colour in tubes are called hue "no sure on the spelling"

cheers tommo

[vanessa messig]

Thanks, I will check them out!

Cheers,

[MFG]

Hi,

good information here. i guess i will be changing my tube soon.

cheers
Scott