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New here and new to the planted scene, Just a little light help please?

Danny Walton

Member
Joined
31 Dec 2013
Messages
36
Hi everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this question, I guess this question has probably come up alot how ever i struggle understanding as im completely new to the planted tank scene.

Basically i have a 150L tank and im wanting to setup a low tech planted tank for now to see how things work out for me.
The tank came with a double T8 fixture and i don't know what tubes ill need to use :(
Can anyone link me to the tubes i should be using? The tubes currently in it are 'Aqua glo' :/

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
You can use any tubes you want to, there's no such thing as tubes you have to use, just measure the length of your tubes and get some replacements, different bulbs come in different colour temperature my personal preference is 6500 k

hth
mark
 
Hi Mark,
Thanks for answering me, I was under the impression there were specific tubes id need :/
The tubes are 24" mate i don't suppose you have a link to a suitable tube do you?
Many thanks,
Danny.
 
They will work just fine, I was going to link you to them as there the cheapest I've found ,

A lot of people get caught in the tube trap the truth is that the plants don't care about the tube at all, all the tubes with names like plant gro etc etc are to catch the aquarist and make them spend big, for a rough example there was a well known company selling a special plant grow tube nearly £22 a tube but when you compare them they matched up with a £3 tube from the linked supplier the only 2 things that were different were price and no posh name :)
 
Hi mark,
Thank you very much for your help, you've certainly helped me understand a little more in regards to lighting.
Yes its safe to say i stuck in the 'tube trap' and NEARLY fell for the expensive tubes that were labelled 'plant gro' etc....
Thanks again mate!
 
Sorry mark just one more question,
Should i get 2 of the above bulbs or would it be best getting 1 of those and then another different bulb giving me different colors/Spectrums?
I just wanna do this low tech setup the best i can before hopefully diving into a high tech at some point!
In all the years of keeping fish and running my fish room one thing i never bothered with was lighting haha.
 
I was the same before i joined here :) whether to get one or two really is up to you, some people have spent a long time mixing and matching tube colours to get a look that suits them, I've not experimented to the same amount as 6500k to me just looks right, so I'd say yes buy 2 of the 6500k and you could always mix and match in the future if you feel like experimenting a bit more :)

There's a post on here showing some of the tube combinations I will see if I can find it and link you to it ;)
 
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