Recommended Bulbs?

[djmatthewblack]

One of my bulbs burnt out after probably 2 years. I purchased a Corallife Max Colormax and I am not happy. It is a 54 watt bulb and gives off a pinkish tint, similar to the one before it. I've always been really hapy with a 10k pink and a 6.7k green. The two temps look really good together. But my tank has a greenish glow to it and when I look at the bulbs the 6.7k that is 2 years old looks brighter than the Corallife Colormax. They are T5 bulbs.

Is this a bad brand of bulb or do bulbs loose potency on the shelf of a LFS? The Colormax was rated at 54 watts while their 10k and 6.7k were in the 20 watt range. I was expecting a much brighter bulb, certainly one that wouldn't be dwarfed by a 2 year old bulb.

[eklikewhoa]

The bulb is like that, it puts out a color to highlight the fish and plants. Don't think it was meant to be used by itself though.

[Totenkampf]

you dont mention the length of the bulbs but i assume 48". 54W bulbs of these length are T5HO, 20W bulbs would not be High Output so you may be overdriving these and that can be dangerous. if you are concerned about plants, then the spectrums that are good for them (red / blue peaks) are not in the spectrum of visible light that we register as 'brightness' (green peaks). the red type plant grow bulbs definately look less intense than the daylight spectrum bulbs. i recommend 6000 - 6700k bulbs for plants, i occasionally add in a 'roseate' type red bulb on wide tanks and mix in 10000k daylight bulbs for deeper tanks which are over 20" from the substrate to the fixture.

i have never had a problem with coralife although i do prefer hagen glo or aquaticlife. although a 2 year old bulb may still be lighting up, the spectrum will shift and the phosphors can be exhausted by that time so you may see less growth in plants even though it appears to be intense to your eyes. i recommend changing annually if they are a decent brand and every 3-6 months if they are a cheap odyssea type.

[djmatthewblack]

The burnt old bulb was a AV Point Red Wave 54W, and I was happy with it. I am not a fan of the daylight spectrum bulbs cause of the yellow tint. A 6700k and a 10000k has always been my favorite combination. If I were to buy the CoralLife 6700k and 10000k they are both 20W bulbs. I am not sure if the ballast would overdrive a 20w bulb or not. Is a 54W bulb in 6700k spectrum even made?

[Totenkampf]

are you talking about a 48" T5HO fixture? If so, then yes 54W 6700k bulbs are not hard to find. some plant types i have used are the coralife high output 6700k, wavepoint tropical wave 6500k, hagen life-GLO 6700k, aquaticlife 6000k, geisemann powerchrome midday 6000k. for more reds the aquaticlife roseate 650nm and powerchrome aquaflora 3500k are good if you add a 10000k bulb in there to balance the reds. there is a zoomed 5000k but i have never used it for aquariums. All these are available in 48" long 54W T5HO. the only 20W T5HO i have ever seen are the ones in my 20" fixture.

[davemonkey]

The best light bulb (in my opinion) I've used so far is the Geissman Midday. The light is crisp white, full spectrum, brings out all the natural colors in a natural way without washing out others. It's been claimed that, because the spectrum is closer to nature than other bulbs, you only need half the lighting when using them (1 bulb vs. 2 of another type). I don't know if that is true or not, and certainly the quality of the reflectors will play a major role in how much light is actually getting into your tank (my reflectors are poor, so I use 2 bulbs right now). They are on the high-side as far as price though.