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Lighting for my aquarium

1K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  CinBos 
#1 ·
I have been through 3 different types of lighting, and I still cannot find the perfect lighting.

Let me first say that I am not going the LED route, just not in my budget at the moment.

I have have used Full Spectrum by Aqueon, Colormax by Aqueon, and Actinic by Coralife. I cannot find the one that I am happy with.

The Colormax, I did like, but I find myself getting bored with it. I kind of want that Blue tint look in my tank.

How would 10000k by Coralife look?

I just dont want to have to keep buying these lights and retuning them the next day, it gets tedious.
Is there a good site for comparisons? So I can see what these tanks look like with the actual lights on.
 
#2 ·
Any help, would be greatly appreciated.
 
#3 ·
The 10,000 K would give the blue hue you seek, but would do very little for plant's .(can't remember if you have plant's ).
some of the plant guru's on other sites claim plant's will do well under any lighting so long as it's not too much for particular application,(low tech,high tech CO2 injection) but
I have the best result's with full
spectrum after much expierimenting.;-)
 
#6 ·
Trial is sometimes the only way; even tubes by different manufacturers having the same K rating [which is the colour temperature, or how we perceive the tube's colour] will be slightly different. Some stores will let you return tubes; if you have a good local fish store that knows you and you regularly use them they might.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I'm not gonna lie. Just went out on lunch and bought the 10,000k by Coralife, I think I found it! Feel like I'm looking at my aquarium in HD. Everything is much clearer, and I kept one side of the tank lit by the Colormax, I feel like I can barely see anything on the colormax side. Its just so dark, and shadow like. Very happy with the 10,000K. I will be running to the store to get another 24" 10,000K. I think I still may try to find some blue christmas lights to line the interior of the balast with so I can get more of a blue tint. But I will just keep the blue lights on constantatly for night time viewing.

Does anyone think that the blue christmas lights will light up the tank enough for night time viewing? Cause when I bought the actinic lights by Coralife, I felt like thos would be perfect for night time viewing, but that would then mean I would have to by a completely different light fixture and also spend more money on the light bulbs themselves.
 
#8 ·
Just remember that fish need total darkness for several hours each night. As do plants for that matter.
 
#9 ·
Yeah I dont plan to do it now. It was just a thought but thanks for the heads up. Just put in the other 10,000K coralife bulb, I'm definitly more happy with it.
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