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Do I need special t5 HO bulbs for an aquarium?

R

RickB

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Joined
4 Apr 2016
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384
Location
UK
Hi everyone.

Thinking it is time to change the 2 24w t5 o bulbs on my lighting unit and wanted to check if I need a special type of bulb for use with an aquarium or if any 6500k bulbs will do as long as they are the same size and wattage.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Richard.
 
richard brown said:
Thinking it is time to change the 2 24w t5 o bulbs on my lighting unit ...
Click to expand...
Why ?

The lumen maintenance of most T5 (and T5 HO) tubes is in excess of 5 years ?

Here is a graph of T5 HO light output. So at 20,000 hours only down to 90% of initial lumen value. 20,000 hours is 2 1/4 years if on 24hours a day!!!!. Also driven by electronic ballast to get this output.
tubelife_zpse7de1419-png.png

Tube on right is 30 months old and one on left is 6 months old. Possible slight differences in brightness, but hardly significant.
8367d9a9-4112-4f97-b3a2-517711f45df6_zpsp97dhl3l-png.png
 
Thinking of the spectrum more than anything.
 
Plants don't care what spectrum you use, they will use any light you provide. Choose a colour temperature that makes your plants look good to your eyes.
 
Thats why I want to change want a more cleaner light.
 
6500K is a good start.

Personally I have a 8000K Juwel Hi-light (white) and a 6400K Juwel colour. I found the Juwel colour by itself too red/pink.
 
ian_m said:
Plants don't care what spectrum you use, they will use any light you provide. Choose a colour temperature that makes your plants look good to your eyes.
Click to expand...
Thought clorophyll A absorbs mostly 440nm (red) and 660nm (deep blue), clorophyll B is marginally different and of lesser importance. Definitely no green radiation is absorbed, it is all reflected so that is why plants appear green, so green spectrum may make the plans look lush but for the plants it is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. That is why on plant growth lights you see only red and blue LEDs.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
 
Think plants will use what ever they can, when they can from different parts off the spectrum, there not fussy as long as they can absorbing the photons via the relative clorophyll needed for that wavelength of photon, The rerlative clorophyll for the relative wavelength traps the energy that drives photosynthesis, end result is the same O2 plus carbs. Evlovtion as weened out the ones that cant compete with the ones that can long ago.Just like us humans will use sugar as an energy source if its eaten, If there is non in the diet the body makes its own from breaking down proteins.
 
changing the bulbs to different types will change the look of the tank. different bulbs will give a different hues some look more red and other more green or yellow to the human eye, but have no major different grow success. Check out the following link for a great guide

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/lighting.htm

I use 4 £3 Bell brand tubes from my local electrical supply shop with no impact on growth. BIG difference compared to the £20 per tube from the LFS's
 
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