# Plant lights?



## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Will 50/50 florescent lights do well for plants?


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

I assume you mean actinic/white bulbs.

actinic bulbs peak at around 420nm, the ideal wavelength for chlorophyll B. so plants will be able to use this light, however, plants also use chlorophyll A, which peaks at 680nm, which these bulbs are no good for.

I suggest you look for a white bulb with peaks in the red/blue spectrum, for cheap bulbs look at something like 865 or 965 coded bulbs. these will be white with peaks generally in the right area, and usually a lot cheaper than aquarium bulbs


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

I found a cheap "natural sunlight" bulb today. http://www.amazon.com/Philips-NATURAL-S ... B002CZ58D0 Only I found it in Home Depot for 5 dollars. Will this be better for my plants?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

*ladybugzcrunch* yes. The daylight bulbs are very frequently high in the red, green and blue so it helps plants and algae grow grow and grow! :thumb:

Now your trick is to let the plants out compete the algae and you are all set!


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Thanks again!


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Well, I have decided that I do not like the look of the daylight bulb  would it be good if I put one 50/50 and one floramax bulb? Would this be an adequate spectrum?


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## varya (Dec 28, 2009)

I use led and very happy with it actually.


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## 748johnd (Jun 30, 2007)

I use 6700K lights for my planted tank. They give off a yellowish tint, but with all the green I like the look. The plants are doing great under this light. In addition, I do use Seachem Flourish, Flourish Excel and plant tabs. The substrate is a small grained gravel.

Years ago (back in the 50s) I used regular incandescent bulbs and had good luck with them. I had several olants flower while using them.


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## D-007 (Jan 3, 2008)

Head over to Lowes and look for 6700K Daylight bulbs - get T8's if possible. You can get a two pack for less than $10 and these work very well on planted tanks - like *748johnd* mentioned. Don't know why but for me they don't give that much of a yellowish tint unless it's because I paint my tank's backglass black 8)


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Awoid green spectrum light, you wanna have the blue spectrum between 430 and 490 nm

6700-14000 K should do well and I would aim for a "cold white" with alot of blue spectrum, thats what you wan't for the plants.










As you can see on the pic above, they have a small peak in the red spectrum between 630 and 770 nm. This spectrum is all right but not as effective for plant growth, it's used to flower/fruit plants after there vegetative stage. There is no fruits and rarely any flowers on aquatic plants, some of them flower like anubias but they will also flower under a blue spectrum light.

Hope it helps


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## Maccgyver (Jun 6, 2010)

I am new to aquatic plants but very knowledgeable about above water variety as I have been growing all kinds of things for the past decade. I would say that they would do well with a full spectrum as it will cover all your bases and emulate the sun more closely than going for a specific range.


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