# Need Lighting Opinions please



## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I need some advice on lighting. Need the LEAST expensive bulbs possible! My fish are not as bright as in the lfs and my bulbs are really old. I do have anubias in all tanks. There is natural lighting in the tank rooms, no direct sunlight. Also using a plain old flourescent shoplight over one tank... what would you recommend to enhance these:

55gal containing cherry red zebras, blue socolofi, dragonblood peacocks, neolamp trets (the have irridescent blue on fins I'd like to enhance) , yellow labs-lions cove, copadichromis azureus, bright red jewel cichlids.

Another with Victorian Hap. cichlids (dayglow)

Another with various blue/yellow/red peacocks.

And do fry tanks need lighting? no, right?

I have access to Petsmart, LFS, walmart, Pet Supplies Plus


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## natalie559 (Dec 6, 2007)

For least expensive try a home improvement store or Walmart and check where the light bulbs are for the fluorescent bulb in the length and temperature you need. I like cool, white lights but they also have warm and one for plants.

Similar to these here http://genet.gelighting.com/LightProduc ... luorescent^FT0007aylight/

If you want to spend a little more and want the actinic look you can go to petsmart and get the coralife 50/50 bulbs http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2753938


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

For a four foot tank like your 55G I would use one double strip 4' shop light with two 32W tubes of 6500K. That's plenty bright enough to make the fish look good, and allows you to grow plants like Java fern, Java moss, Anubias, Amazon Swords, Valisneria sp., and so on. There are plenty of other good lighting solutions out there, but probably none that are as cheap. I've used these shop lights for years over a 240G, a 125G and since recently over a 75G, and they work great for me.

This is the 75G with the lighting solution I suggested:










Frank


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I have a double bulb above my 55 gal, could i put a cheap basic flourescent light and then a better aquarium light that will bring out my orange fish a bit better? If I get a light with more red, will it fade out the blues?


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## 54zamboni (Mar 16, 2005)

i'm certainly no lighting expert, but even after reading everything i could find on aquarium lighting, the only way i found what i liked was to buy bulbs in different K ratings and trying them out. i personally wouldn't use any bulb other than the 6500K and 10000K, but that's just my taste -- yours may be different. locally for me, lowes has the best selection of different rated bulbs in 48". other than the specialty bulbs, like powerglos and actinics, the box stores are usually considerably cheaper, if they have them.

i've ended up putting regular T8 6500K bulbs from Lowes in both my shop lights and single "aquarium" strip lights and they work fine and give me the look i like, but its my understanding that some shoplights will not work with T8 bulbs. T12 6500K bulbs would be great on a 55g, too. if you didn't like that look, you could add a 50/50 or powerglo type bulb, too . . .


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

I want my fish (see above list) to be neon bright - right now the red zebras are goldfish-orange while in the lfs they were bright neon orange...would that have to do with the k rating? and I also want the blue on my neolamp trets to be enhanced...


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## 54zamboni (Mar 16, 2005)

like i said, i'm no expert -- the color/shade of the light changes with the different K ratings, and i suppose that certain colors would look "best" under different shades of light. i keep mostly tropheus, and i think their colors are best enhanced by the 6500K. this is all subjective -- i didn't care for the look provided by the lower K rating bulbs, and i don't care for the bluish look of the actinic lighting. however, many people think it looks best. why don't you ask the lfs what bulbs they use?


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## malawimix (Oct 8, 2008)

beachtan,
I got some of those same reds from the same shop. mine seem to be goldfish orange now too. I didn't notice them not being as bright right away...it was some days or weeks later when I noticed it. May be lighting or may be those fish were fed differently than we are feeding them. Or maybe they were hormoned??? what ever that is...I've seen it talked about on here.
Let me know if you find a light that makes them look like they did in the shop. I'll ask them next time I'm in there what kind of lights they are using and PM you, why don't you do the same if you get back in b4 me. :thumb:


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## need125g (Jul 30, 2007)

try the "Allglass" ,it is pretty cheap relatively.After tried many brands,I already changed all of mine to Allglass.
Have a try,you will know.


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## Evilpenguinj (Mar 22, 2008)

Hi everybody

Instead in starting a new thread I thought I would ask here. I have a Coralife Freshwater Aqualight T5 double strip. It comes with two lights a Colormax Full Spectrum and one 6700K T-5. What I want to know is what light bulb I can replace with a new light that will really bring out the fish colours. So if someone could suggest a new light and which one of the two I should replace.

Thanks

Jason :fish: :drooling:


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## beachtan (Sep 25, 2008)

Hi MalawiMix! I actually was there Saturday and asked - ColorMax. That's what I'm getting on order next week. And mine didnt fade at all, I can tell it's the bulbs. And the ones he has left in the tanks at the store are still bright so I'll let you know how that works!

Hi Jason! I really want my fish to be "flourescent" bright too! I'm not so concerned with the 'natural' lighting. So I'll let you know how my ColorMax bulb makes a diff. And I dont know if colormax is the brand, so when I get it, I'll post the K number etc. - might be same as yours.

Hi Need125! AllGlass - where do you get those? havent seen them anywhere. How do they make your tank appear compared to like a plain old shop-light bulb?


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## rancherlee (Sep 15, 2008)

GE Daylight 6500k bulbs work great. I've seen them at Lowes and Walmart along with local hardware stores. I think I payed less than 10$ for a 2 pack. Cheap enough to try out and see if you like them or not. Mostly I've only seen them in T-12 but I think Lowes had them in T-8 also.


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## need125g (Jul 30, 2007)

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA/ctl ... escentbulb

This bring up the color a lot, the Coralife actinic 50/50 works great too,but much more expensive.


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## B5150 (Dec 2, 2008)

So as not to create a new thread I'll bump this one.

I have a 125g tank and one All-Glass Compact Fluorescent Oak Strip Lights. I bought the tank and equipment from my brother-in-law who ran a salt water set-up. I assume the bulbs in it are for a salt tank. There are tow, twin tube bulbs, and one of each of the twins is blue.

I'll be using the light for purely aesthetics and evening viewing and relaxation time as I have no live plants and no desire for overgrowth algae.

I enjoy bright, crisp and vibrant color for viewing cichlids in a tank with sand substrate in a dark quite room. What is the type of bulb best suited for my application.

This is the strip I have http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=13628 and i was going to get another to match the 36" I already have.

Here are the bulbs http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=8070 and if you click on the "more information" icon it further details the light ranges.

A new strip comes with two 55w 8000Â°K Full Spectrum bulbs for a total of 110w.

Thanks in advance for the insight


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