Tubes to buy?

[merman]

I am about to replace the tubes on my aquarium, I am after info on brands/ outputs for various combinations for three tubes and if at all possible some prices and also what everyone else uses and works for them.

I currently have 1 x 10000k tube and 2 x 14000K trube

[duck]

Are you growing plant's?

[merman]

Yes, moderate to heavy stock at the mo.

[vishy]

Hey,
As you know 10000k/aquastars give a nice bright whit/blue light good for marines and the put out heaps of lumens, also the well known gro-lux pinkish colour but good in the red spectrum and the NEC 5000k plant tubes are pretty wiked nice whit and all the goodies for plants. So a Sylvania Aquastar, a NEC plant tube and a gro-lux would be the best combo and is what i'm using atm and works great!,
good luck,
Matt

[duck]

Yes, moderate to heavy stock at the mo.

Are the plants growing good?
Do you like the look of the colour of the globe's?
If yes then why change.
If it's not broken why fix it.

[merman]

Duck, this is true, but I have been getting a lot of info about various Kelvins and lumans etc. I am wanting to do the best for my plants. What do you use?

Vishy where can I buy Sylvania Aquastar, a NEC plant tube, Hysroponics shop? Price

[duck]

Don't worry about the K and LU,What you want is the intensity of the light.
I use T5's daylight 28 watt nothing special, i just have 6 of them in the hood.

[merman]

Duck any fluros you reccomend. Can you tell me if I can use T8's with T12's do I need a special ballast as I have heard you need electronic ballast. I am confused about the info out there

[jimmilfish]

sylvania aquastars can be bought from electrical wholesalers.If they dont have them it only takes a couple of days to get them in.You have to buy them in lots of 10 .I paid $128.The lfs charges over $40 each
cheers
jim

[Proteus]

The best Kelvin for plants is 6500.

However it is even better when you can mix a few different kelvin rated tubes, i.e. 1 x 6500k, 1 x 10000k etc

[duck]

In my use i found the best globe to use was atleast 1x Glow lux the rest up to you.
If it was me i would have 1x gro lux,one 10000k,the last one something in the 6500k,Keep in mind that this was good for me and i had 4 of them in total mixed.

T12's are 5ft i think and 40Watt's
T8's are 4 ft and 36 watts
So you can't mix them as they don't fit.
You don't need an E ballast to run T8's,I'm thinking you have been reading about Overdriving the globe's then you need an E ballast,Instead of getting 36 watt's, you 54 watt's roughly 1.5 the output,I believe it's not really worth the trouble as the globe's burn out in no time i'm lead to believe.

[merman]

How about Tri Phosphurs? Do they just last longer?

[duck]

I used tri phos but wasn't really happy with them.
I really don't know how long they last.