Survey: May i ask which colour of lighting you used to colour up your Aquarium?

[nigelteo2000]

Hi All,

May i ask what type of lighting you all used to colour up your tank?
Blue? Pink? Other?

Which is the Best?

I also discovered there are fluorescent tude for freshwater (Cheaper) and Marine (Expensive).

[blu]

I use regular white florecents(sorry sp?) and 50/50 lights(they are half blue and half white)
I have never heard of using pink lights though.

[cocoa_pleco]

with plants you should use daylights and on reefs 50/50's

[blu]

is there a specific reason 50/50s are used on reefs..is it harmful to use on freshwater?
I have one on my ten gal because(2yrs)ago a guy at the fish store said it would bring out the blues in the fish(this si when I had my female bettes in it)
it just never went out so I kept using it.....Also it does really well on keeping the tank bright but not high amount of algea.

[cocoa_pleco]

Blue actinics are reef only because they give the specific spectrum that corals need to feed off of, otherwise blue actinics are useless

[OscarFan]

regular white.

[Lady Hobbs]

I use white and pinks on planted tanks. Regular whites on others.

[nanaglen2001]

HQL bulbs especially for plants.

[~Erik3.8.07~]

regular white fluorescent

[MeganL3985]

White Fluorescents

[lasm]

fluorescent white.

You need special lights only when you have special requirements in the tank. i.e., plants, reef, etc. Otherwise, the only purpose of the light is to enhance the view of the tank.

[Algenco]

The "pink" FW bulb is a GE 9325K which is considered by most to be the best plant bulb.
In 2 bulb fixtures I use the GE 9325K and 10,000k

[BritishGuy]

I've been switching between a 10,000k 96w Compact Flourescent bulb and a 50/50 10,000k/Actinic 460nm 96w Compact Flourescent.

The Actinic does seem to remove any 'yellow' light from the tank but with only one bulb, losing the extra light makes things seem kind of dark; which is why i'm jumping between the two to see which one i prefer.

Anybody ever tried a 20,000k light? Would it be too bright for most fish because that's a lot of light!

[A340]

Nobody mentioned incandescents yet? :ezpi_wink1:

My one 10g has 50/50 (10000K daylight and blue actinic) mini compact flourescents from Coralife. The gravel is of a very natural sort with some whites and darker colours in it. I also have some red lava rock and a stone slate in it, I find the 50/50 lights help give it a darker appearence, mind you, it doesn't bring the fish colours out that well given that they are only Zebra Danios.

My other 10g had the colourmax mini compact flourescents in them, but I found that even though they really brought the fish colours, there was too much pink light for such a small tank so I switched them out with the Glo mini compact flourescents from Hagen which give off a much more yellow and natural light.

My 29g planted has the Freshwater Aqualight T5 from Coralife and it really helps the fish's colours. However, it's still a bit too pink for me. So when this tank will be retired and replaced by a new tank, I'll be going with the basic Freshwater Aqualight from Coralife.

My Oceanic Biocube 29 has a set of 10000K daylights and blue actinic compact flourescents. But, as I am still waiting for my stand and hopefully some gift certificates from the LFS for Christmas (so I can get some live rock), it hasn't been set up yet.

Also, all my tanks have blue LEDs for lunar lighting, the Biocube has them built in and I use the LED kit from Marina for the other tanks.