# enhancing fish colour with light



## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Okay - so the other day I bought a 48" T5 dual light strip for my tank. I had 2 choices, but really only 1 if I wanted to get a light that day... Apparently there is a 'planted' tank strip that comes with a 10,000k bulb & a 6,700k bulb and is great for growing plants... The 2nd option is more for reef tanks and has a 10,000k bulb and a blue actinic bulb. They only had the 'Reef' style strip in stock - obviously you can change the bulbs so I bought the one they had in stock so I wouldn't be starig into a dark tank until the next order came in...

Anyhow the guy told me tha the actinic bulb would actually enhance the fishes colours more then any other bulb - after putting the light on my tank I have to say I don't necessarily agree...

Does anybody know for sure what the best temperature bulb is to bring out the colours of freshwater fish?

Cheers,

Daryl


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## 007Rick (Jul 29, 2007)

Living in Thetford Mines our municipal water has a slightly brown tinge to it, with the regular lights emitting sunglow 4200k the water looked brown. I kept one of these lights and replaced the other bulb with Marine glo blue actinic and I love the results. The water looks clearer, the blue, yellow and white fish look great and I haven't seen much wash out in the others. It won't help with plant growth however! It is a matter of opinion and depends on the fish colours, you could buy a sunglo light 4200k (most hardware stores for cheap!) and try it with the actinic or 10000k and see which you like the best


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## Carmesi (May 8, 2008)

I just went through this exact thing for the past month. I too have dual t5 lights (Glo) and i went and bought all kinds of bulbs from a fish store here in AZ because they said i could return the ones that i didnt like. So i went through every combination until i found what i loved the most. I also did not like the atinic blue bulb with any mix i tried. It does make the blues pop, but it makes the entire tank blue (especially if you have a white substrate like i do). All my fish looked blue and I hated it. I eventually found a combo of lights that i loved. I bought Glo lights (found at petsmart even) i use a combo Power_glo (10,000K) HO and the life-Glo (6,700K)

Put the Power _glow on the back fixture and the life-glo on the front

the power glo light is white and blue and does wonders for the fish, but is balanced very well with the more yellow/red color of the 6,700K light to make the whole tank pop with color. 
Neither are too overpowering in their color spectrum and complement very well. I could not find a t5 bulb below 5000K (that is what i would suggest with a 10,000K bulb) but the 6700K is still nice.


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## brycerb (Dec 23, 2007)

The best combo I have found is three bulbs. A 10,000k / an actinic / and a crappy purpleish bulb. Lights up my 90 gallon better than any other system I have found.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Thanks for the replies people! I will try playing around with bulbs first - if I need/want more light later I can always buy a single T5 light strip...

My 'feature' fish are a pair of Nics and they have yellow/red/blue colouration so hopefully I can find a good mix to make all the colours 'Pop'.


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