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Best light tubes for Juwel Rio 125?

Sacha

Sacha

Member
Joined
3 Jan 2014
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992
Location
London
For the last 2.5 years I have been using two Arcadia Plant Pro J5 tubes on my Rio 125. They have served me very well. I am impressed that they have maintained their brightness for nearly three years, and plant growth is good. For anyone who is wondering, the Kelvin of the tubes is 5600K, and they are 28W each, just like the Juwel ones.

Now, I know that Arcadia have been having a rough time in the last couple of years, and it looks to me like these plant pro J5 tubes aren't available any more. Anywhere that sells them just lists them as "out of stock". So it looks like I have to look at other options.

I could go back to using the standard Juwel tubes (a combination of day + nature). The day tube is 9000K and the nature tube is is 4100K, so an average of 6550K. So about 1000K more than the Arcadia plant pros.

If I used a day tube and a colour tube (6800K), I would have a higher average K of 7900. Or I could use two colour tubes to have 6800K!

If I have understood correctly, plants don't care about Kelvin. It only makes a difference to us humans, in terms of how the tank/ plants look. So, I'm just wondering what the optimum colour temperature would be for "viewing pleasure"? And what are people's thoughts on the best combination of tubes?

Thanks.
 
Indeed, there is no "best". And viewing pleasure is higly personal........
I guess you are limited in choice through the size of the tubes, but anywhere near daylight 5000-6000 should be good to look at , some people like other, more reddish (grolux) colours
 
Do they need changing ?

Edvet said:
anywhere near daylight 5000-6000 should be good to look at , some people like other, more reddish (grolux) colours
Click to expand...

Im my Rio180 i like 1 6500k & 1 'warmer' tube.Think it's 3500k off the top of my head.
 
Sacha said:
plant pro J5 tubes aren't available any more
Click to expand...
No problem, available all over the place T5 28W 590mm Plant Pro and the equivalent Juwel HiLite Nature. My local Maidenhead Aquatics and other nearby fish shops have them. Most shops don't have them online, posting them would be an issue, but definitely available in the shops.

Follow the store locator to find local shops and pay them a visit.

http://www.arcadia-aquatic.com/store-locator/

Just noticed available on Ebay as well.
 
Hmm I'm not sure whether to get two more plant pro, or two Juwel tubes. What do you guys think? You think the Arcadia ones are built better, will probably last longer?

Mine are nearly three years old and still going strong. I'm buying these new tubes so that I can replace the current ones as soon as they go.
 
Why not to use tubes from hardware store for £3 each instead of "aquatics" ones for £25 ?
 
Jsxx said:
I used tubes from hardware store £3 each in juwel vision 450
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Very lucky then as Vision 450 uses Juwel length 1200mm @54W tubes, not industry standard T5 length of 1150mm for 54W. Though on saying that I years ago I managed to get a 25W T8 Juwel length tube from an electrical wholesaler for £4 odd, but was far too yellow (and dim) for my taste, so stuck with Arcadia.
 
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