Light tubes

What lighting tube do you recomend for a planted tank?
Tri plus, daylight or other.

I run t-5's on my planted tank. I have putsome clippings in another tank with the daylight bulbs and they are growing slowly(not enough watts) but nevertheless they are growing.

I run one Daylight and one Triplus, this seems to work fine for my tank, I have Medium to low light plants and use liquid fertilizer

Personally i think it comes down to personal viewing preferences when looking at your tank, a lot of emphasis is placed on the colour temprature of various tubes (the colour of the tubes output measured in degrees kelvin or k) but this is only one factor that should be considered for example, it is widely regarded that tubes between 5500k and 6700k are in the best range for photosynthesis to take place, but this is really only a generalisation as different manufacturer's 6500k tubes will have very different spectral outputs, in other words one manufacturer's tube will vary widely from a different manufacturer although both will claim their tubes are 6500k, and if you compare the spectrum graphs and you will find that this is the case.

Its generally regarded nowadays that light intensity is more important than colour temprature, basically as long as there is enough light produced, plants will grow.

Any tube between 3000k to 14000k will grow plants as long as most of its output is in the red end of the spectrum and only a little in the blue end, tubes that have their main output in the blue end of the spectrum are not recommended, these are mainly for marine setups, tubes with there main spectral output in the blue end of the spectrum will cause algae growth in a freshwater setup.

Heres just a basic rundown on some tubes i have used and the different colour hues they give for viewing purposes.

Interpet Daylight Plus-6500k-cool white (very good light for viewing purposes IMO)

Interpet Triton/Triplus-8300k-White purple

Arcadia Freshwater-7500k-White green

Arcadia Origional Tropical-?k-Pink (avoid, light intensity is also low)

Hagen Life-Glo-6700k-Bright cool white

Zoo Med-Tropic sun-5500k-Warm white

Zoo Med-Ultra Sun-Bright cool white

ASL Daylight-7100k White with tint of green (using these ATM)

ASL Freshwater Tropical (powercompact) 7100+8000k White and pink mixed.

I have used all the above with prettty good results, normally these days i will choose tubes based on the colour output for viewing purposes and i always use good reflectors, if you choose tubes between 5500 and 7000k you cant go far wrong IMO.

HTH

Thanks all.
Yet again zig you teach me something new.

hi zig,
what do you think are the best tubes....
Interpet Daylight Plus-6500k-cool white?
at the moment ive just got the two that came with the rio 180
one daylight and one warm daylight ...i have them for a year so time for a change, and also would like 2 the same!

hi zig,
what do you think are the best tubes....
Interpet Daylight Plus-6500k-cool white?
at the moment ive just got the two that came with the rio 180
one daylight and one warm daylight ...i have them for a year so time for a change, and also would like 2 the same!

Sorry Panda i just have not been on here in the last couple of weeks

I would go for the Interpet Daylight Plus tubes they give a good light for viewing purposes and will grow plants really well, just bear in mind you will only have a little over 1 WPG so stick to low light plants such as Ferns, mosses, Anubias and some Crypt species would do well at that light level.

no worries zig,
cant get a hold of them so im gonna try to get Hagen Life-Glo-6700k-Bright cool white instead.....
thanks for your help....would vallis do ok with these lights?

no worries zig,
cant get a hold of them so im gonna try to get Hagen Life-Glo-6700k-Bright cool white instead.....
thanks for your help....would vallis do ok with these lights?

Funny thing is Panda i have always had a hard time growing Vallis even though it would generally be considered an easy plant, but yes it will grow fine at low light levels, generally it likes hard water but will grow in softer water as well just maybe at a slower pace, if your water has a decent KH value you will grow vallis no problem.

It will propagate by runners which sometimes need to be pushed back into the gravel as the bulbs have a tendency to grow outwards, if you need to prune it dont cut the leaves, remove the entire leaf at the base of the plant and then discard it.

HTH

thanks zig ...whats HTH?

thanks zig ...whats HTH?

haha.........HTH = hope that helps

HTH

Thats good info zip, appreciate the lighting advice for my planted tank.

I run a moonlight bulb for night time viewing, and there was me trying to figure out why the algae keeps growing when the plants are healthy.

Added phosphate absorber yesterday, along with carbon & zeolite. Should really do a water change though :?

Cheers zig for this valuable info.