Do i have to much light?

coryjac0b

When i turned my 210g into an african tank i recycled my lights, which is an Icecap 660 with 3 - 6ft vhos. Which comes to like 480 watts, as the bulbs are 160 watts a piece. I am curious as to what lighting i could use that would bring the colors of the fish out more. The fish almost seem to washed out. Right now i have 2 actinic and 1 50/5.

TIA.


-cory

Byron

With all that very bright light, they will be washed out. Most of our fish, including the rift lake cichlids, come from waters with minimal light penetration. They will take on their best colouration under less light. Even just one of the tubes you have would be more than sufficient light for the fish, and unless you can remove the other tubes and still have one light, you may have to go for another fixture.

As for what type of tube, a full spectrum with a kelvin rating around 6500K will be closest to sunlight so a true rendition of colours. If you want to accent the blues and reds, you could try one of the plant tubes which are high in blue and red; it creates a purplish hue in the aquarium which I don't personally like, and ironically it is not intense enough for good plant growth, but it does highlight blues and reds.