Doh!!!! I should have known!!!!

[Adrian]

So, I wanted to up the light in my 37 gallon show tank. It is planted with real plants, and I figured going to 130watts would definately perk things up. So I order me this beautiful light set up. Here is what it came with. 12k daylight bulb, and a true actinic bulb. Can anyone guess what happened???

That's absolutely correct! I got algae everywhere now. I never had problems with algae, so I did a refresher course from Dave66, and it confirmed that the best bulbs for my planted tank is 6700k bulbs. So now I am on the look out for 6700k bulbs that are straight pin, and 65watts a piece. Anyone have a good place to order Power compact bulbs?

[Dave66]

Coralife carries 6700K straight pins. Here's a link: http://www.petstore.com/ps_ViewItem-...ct-PC5659.html

If you hunt around and perhaps troll eBay you can do better than that price, outlander.

Dave

[gm72]

I use Big Al's almost exclusively:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...mpactlampstpin

[mac]

Hi,
Are you meaning the 130 watts as the out put of the bulb or the actual wattage of the bulb it-self?

Because I run a 120 watts out put on a 30 gallon planted tank, and 160 watt out put on a 48 gallon tank. And I never have algae problems.

macquatic

[Sharkman]

The blue actinic is what is causing his algae macaquatic. That is his concern.

[mac]

The blue actinic is what is causing his algae macaquatic. That is his concern.

Yep that is true.

"Edit"
Blue actinic is normally used for marine tanks not tropical planted tanks.


But I am wanting to know how he is reading his wattage. Because if he is not meaning the out put wattage, then he has a well over kill in lighting.

macquatic

[gm72]

Because if he is not meaning the out put wattage, then he has a well over kill in lighting.

Not overkill, 3.5 wpg. The member would likely require CO2 though to avoid algae.

Also, how else is a bulb measured? He has a dual 65 watt bulb fixture=130 watts.