What is the Correct Spectrum of light for Cp's

[CN]

Hello ,
I have some old salt water HQI/Compact lights an two 250 w Metal Halides 10,00k an 20,000k light bulbs for my old reef tank an was wondering What is the Correct Spectrum of light for Cp's?

6400k very yellow tint mainly used for fresh water plants.

8000°K

12000°K

1400k

10,000k very bright whit light for reef tanks an i have used it for fresh water live plants with great success.

or 20,000k
very blueish to purple tint

An would you recommend halides , T-5, or compact Flourescent

I hope that i made sense here sorry if i didnt

daren

 

[ILoveMyPlants]

Hey cn alot of people here use t-5 and t-8 but i use a e40 fitting for a cfl which i find works great its 300w and dual spectrum bulb and it has on one side a Blue which is on a cfl bulb (Bright White) and i also have a red red is for flowering if you can put Mh bulbs in your bulb socket then you should be able to use a Hps bulb.

i would advise you to get either a dual spectrum hps bulb (they normally have the same socket as a Metal halide) i would say go for a 250w dual spectrum bulb or even a 150w

Metal halide bulbs and hps get warm so u only want a 250w or 150w

i hope this helps

i made a e40 hanging kinda light which is awesome and not hard to make with this info the hps bulb is a must have though i hope this helped


Richard

 

[Nepenthes101]

I use agrosun and Vitalite tubes. They work great for me.

 

[MrFlyTrap2]

I have great results with T5 high output bulbs at 5000K. Sundews and nepenthes love them

-Nathan

 

[CN]

So lower light levels as well as a lower spectrum but a higher output ?
or does that even make any sense lol

 

[MrFlyTrap2]

Not sure if I understand that CN, but my 5000K bulbs are the 'whitest' light I've seen coming out of a bulb so far. I think those higher K bulbs start to turn blue. What might be fun for marine setups, may get lost in vegetative setups. I've seen posts over the years of people buying expensive marine bulbs only to have poor results with plants. (Your plants don't grow x feet under water...) It's really a different ball game of light.

And always remember color temperature doesn't mean bright light, it's the spectrum.

When I started out I grew all my nepenthes with $8 shop lights and designer 5000K T12 bulbs. Those bulbs were $8 for 2. In fact I still do on some shelves. If you're on a budget start there, pump as much lumens out of a T12 as you can though. Once your nepenthes seem happy/okay, and all your sundews are dead. (flame bait sorry...) Start thinking about doing an upgrade to this guy...

http://www.yourcablehookup.com/fluorescent-highbay-lamp-t5homt-ychfhb65homt-p-28393.html

For $150 you're paying for a high polished, nicely made reflector. The $8 shop light basically ate... I'm guessing somewhere around 80% of your bulbs efficency. Look how much those bulbs cost, $2.14 each. Next to nothing, compare that with a marine bulb! My T5 bulb output about 4500 lumens of light, at a color temp of 5000K. The fixture drops out a total of 27,000 lumens of light. But that goes back to the plants! Not up into the white paint, not off to the side or back into the bulb. It goes back around and down. -Key difference-

Once I put a sundew / nepenthes under that fixture they just explode.

I'm sorry for the rambling post, but really the moral of the story... don't beat yourself up over the bulb, just get it white, get it bright, then reflect it.

Do it in stages if you want, start cheap, go expensive. See what works and what doesn't if you'd like to learn from it.

 

[CN]

No your not rambling at all i was just tring to get more useage out of these lights . rather than set up anther salt waterreef tank lol .
but yes i get that the shop lights will sufice so i will just keep useing the Hydrofarm T-5's

thank you Nate

daren

 

[MrFlyTrap2]

When you have the chance, just try to spend time researching reflectors. It's really interesting and that's when you get to use all that geometry stuff in HS that you thought you'd never use except in pool games.

But if you use any type of tube based light bulb, reflectors are almost more important than the light. Some people get away with help from the sun and a window, but I grow all my stuff under 12" of cement, and zero zero zero chance of natural sunlight. If you're in that situation, your reflector is your growing power.

 

[Av8tor1]

Av