Planted PC lighting

[rolloffhill]

Ok, so I bought a 2x65 Coralife PC fixture on ebay a month ago, and bought 2 6700k bulbs for it. Today I picked up a 4x65w Coralife PC fixture from Flamenco-t. For a planted tank what would be ideal to go along with the 6700k bulbs? This fixture is on a separate switch so I can run them independently if needed.

I know Grey runs 5x00k in his planted but was wondering if I should go with the 5200k bulbs?

I need some input so I can order the bulbs

There are a couple options on ebay besides the 6700k coralife bulbs that will work on this fixture.

1. 5200k
2. plant grow + 10,000k
3. 450nm blue + plant grow
4. 6500k full spectrum white
5. I use 2 of the 3 50/50 bulbs I already have.

[poel_19]

well 6700K are in the green spectrum so go 100K for the full daylight effect IMO

[rolloffhill]

wow 100k? Haven't found those yet...:tease:

[biggin]

I would use what you have + the 6500Ks....

When your 50/50s go get 2 more 6500Ks....

or get 4 6500ks and use the 50/50s as backups.

[fishman76092]

I used to have the 2 50/50 (actinic/10000K) bulbs up front and 6 plant bulbs in the back (I like the blueish look). The problem is that the 560nM portion of the bulb is completely worthless except for the aesthetics that the blue creates (for a planted tank), so its wasted wattage. Some say that actinic bulbs promote algae growth sas well. I cannot confirm or deny this-I have had a little algae with both bulb setups. My planted tank has done noticeably better since going to all plant bulbs.

So....option 1 or 4 are what I would do. You wont see a difference between the 5200K and the 6700K, especially when they are all running. Just make sure you put some of each on each side of the tank. I change my bulbs every 6 months or so, so I cant remember if Im running 5X00K or 6X00K bulbs.

[AndrewH]

I completely agree!!!

The new T5HO fixture I bought came with a 10,000 K and I already have a 6,000 K, so I'm gonna try this combo out to see how it does compared to the 5,000 K and 6,500 K combo I have on the other tank (90 gallon).

My guess is that the 10,000 K really won't do much, but I'm not 100% sure.

I know for a fact that when I put 4,100 K or lower on my 90 gallon the next day I have algae everywhere and if I take the 4,100 Ks out the algae goes away within 24 hours, so my personal experience tells me 5,000 K should be the lower limit and more than likely the 6,500 K - 6,700 K would be ideal (and probably a 5,000 K and 6,500 K mix would be even better) with the 10,000 K being the upper limit (but I have yet to confirm the effects of the 10,000 K - it might be an algae maginet like fishman said).