# Light CF bulb for plants?



## myselfdotcom (Sep 19, 2006)

Any good cheap CF bulb i can use for floating plants, mostly water sprites, hortworts, pennyworts and some moss?

Can i use like Full spectrum CF?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

the cheapest are the daylight or superdaylight spirals.


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## myselfdotcom (Sep 19, 2006)

Anyone store /local store that I can pick it up? Any brand? model?


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

Go to Wal-Mart.

Thats where I get mine from. I still have yet to actually be able to tell if they do good for plants but they should.


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## myselfdotcom (Sep 19, 2006)

JWerner2 said:


> Go to Wal-Mart.
> 
> Thats where I get mine from. I still have yet to actually be able to tell if they do good for plants but they should.


which one?


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

6700k light temp


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

myselfdotcom said:


> which one?


The cheapest PC's :wink: .

Its the spiral screw in ones like mentioned. I recently got the 6700k. Before hand all they carried was the 5 something k's and I used those for a bit but the 6700k is so much nicer.


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## myselfdotcom (Sep 19, 2006)

i thought K is not as important as wavelength?


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

lumens is not as important as wavelength. K is just a suffix for times 1000. so 6700k is shorthand for 6,700,000. I can't remember the unit of measure, but 6700k is the wavelength.


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## JWerner2 (Jul 7, 2008)

k is kelvins/color temp. Kelvins are somewhat important since plants _benefit more_ from the lower scale or warmer side of the scale.

Watts are very important. You need specific watts per gallon for the appropriate amounts of light to penetrate to the plants. For plants I think they say its 2-4 watts?? I forget. I use 2 watts per gallon since my plant tank is low tech and it is a 20l. The lower the tank the lower watts you would need and of course the higher the tank the more watts would be necessary.

These power savers are pretty cool bulbs I'll tel you that. One 26 watt is equivalent to 100 watts.

Check here:http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=561674&fromPageCatId=133113&catNavId=133113

I retrofitted mine into my canopy and there are lots of DIY's to do it to a fluorescent tube fixture. I took a old incandescent bulb fixture apart and used the dual sockets for my retro. You could go to wal-mart and get everything you need if you have a old tube fixture laying around or a wooden canopy like mine.

If you need help with the retro let me know via PM I would help ya out no prob! :thumb:


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