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12000k T8's

island lad

island lad

Member
Joined
2 Apr 2013
Messages
73
Location
Portsmouth
I've been looking at the oceanic 12000k T8's on Lampspecs website. Will the 18w tubes run OK in my lighting hood. (Its the standard 20w T8 hood for the fluval Roma 125L).
If it will run OK, will I see a significant improvement in brightness/plant growth.
I've been advised to look at the dennerle tubes but there a bit pricey. And before anyone mentions flow/co2 being important, I've got that one covered ;)
 
Just had another look at the product description and its say's they are suitable for replacing the powerglo tubes. But if anyone has opinions on the topic the feel free to contribute.

Steve
 
Hi what's the rationale for running 12000k tubes over your tank? And who advised you that it'd perhaps be a good idea?

For our purposes colour temp isn't really that important for plant growth. 12000k bulbs will give off a blue light that will more likely than not make the inhabitants of your tank - both plants and critters - appear weird and strange.

I'd stick to bulbs around 6500k which approximates to sunlight. It's often the best way to view freshwater organisms that have evolved under it's nurturing glow.
 
Hi troi. Nobody advised me mate. I'm just wanting to change the color temp and brightness for appearance purposes. But I now realize that my bulbs are a higher kelvin than the dennerles.
 
One 20 and one 18. I've just taken the black background off and all though I don't like seeing the pipe's, the overall look of the tank is better.
 
Apparently you can buy converters now to adapt from 8's to 5's. I've ran 12000k against the advice on here (when I knew very little about lighting )they look awful imo. I now run two t5 24w jbl tubes. The colour is perfect . One is solar tropic ultra 4000k the other is solar ultra colour.(red and blue inhancer/stimulates chlorophyll synthesis .:) jbl do t8's in these spectrums too.;)
 
Just found the cataloge.....this is t8 info.......
gaqa7yba.jpg
. Hope you can read it. By the way I do not work for jbl I just rate/use there tubes.
 
Not entirely convinced on the T5 converter idea but food for thought. Do you have any pics of your tank with the lights you mentioned above ?

Thanks, Steve
 
Ouch, those jbl's are pricey aren't they. I could get a T5ho twin starter for the cost of two of those.:eek:
 
Indeed they are pricey,but not if you can get them trade price.... but they claim they are good for 2 years. They plowed throught our 2 ft deep cube no problem. Here's the current tank. Sorry I'm just doing a water change and playing with the diffuser as we speak.
a3avu4uj.jpg
. The old cube tank.
eqapaged.jpg
 
Your light setup looks nice and natural. Maybe converting to T5's would be the way to go. I'd have to convert the hood on my Roma but there's some YouTube stuff to show me how to do it.
 
Yes indeed I do very expensive ones....................everyday tin foil .:) if you realy feel like splashing out you can double it up.:)
 
To get both brightness and good colour I would combine two bulbs. The Gro-lux bulbs pick out reds beautifully but on their own can look too pink and a bit dull but combined with a bright white bulb at 6500k-8000k can look stunning.
 
kirk said:
Yes indeed I do very expensive ones....................everyday tin foil .:) if you realy feel like splashing out you can double it up.:)
Click to expand...
I can remember reading somewhere that foil is a very bad reflector!
At first I thought this cant be right but, the test suggested aiming a red pen laser at a mirror & then at the foil....try it & see what happens.
 
White reflectors are the best ime. This is what most company's use in their luminaries.

As for the kelvin ratings, it really doesn't matter IMO/ime. Although 12,000 k would look a little odd over a planted tank, if that what you eyes like them go ahead. I personally wouldn't take too much notice of the graphs printed on the side of tubes. There's a pretty good article on aquatic plants and the way they use their auxiliary pigments that use all the spectrum produced by light rather than just the graphical spectrum used on the side of a box. I'll try and find it...if I don't I'm sure Clive will find it for me.
 
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