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Aquarium Lighting.
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Posted by emissary1985 (My Page) on Sun, Apr 5, 09 at 11:34
| I have a few lights left over from my aquarium days. I was wondering if anyone has tried growing under 50/50 lighting. 6500k/blue actinic. Can one have too much blue? What is the right balance between blues and reds? and not to barrage with questions but inquiring minds want to know, how about 10,000k lamps. Any and all input is welcome, experiences perfered.
Thanks a bunch,
James |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Aquarium Lighting.
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I have used (saltwater/reef) aquarium bulbs... 50/50 works
good, but you'll want to mix with something that gives more
red light like grolux widespectrum. Be careful with 100% blue actinic bulbs as you can
'sunburn' (or is that 'lightburn'?) plants if you just
change out an existing bulb ...
But that being said, since those bulbs put out a good
amount of deep blue/uv light, a single actinic in a
4-bulb light seems to help harden off starting seeds
that will be moved outside (this is my experience only -
not an official thing but for this reason sorts i
recommend an actinic or 50/50 or even blacklight ) I've never tried 10,000k ... but there's no reason it
shouldn't work |
RE: Aquarium Lighting.
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| I think you'd be better off with daylight bulbs. Bluer bulbs are less efficient in terms of PAR per watt. Even corals grow faster under daylight bulbs. The blue is primarily for aesthetics since it brings out fluorescing pigments and simulates the blue color of deep ocean water. I've never tried growing plants under blue/actinic bulbs, but I do use a 6500K Iwasaki MH for this reason. Tests have shown over and over again that the higher the kelvin rating of a given bulb, the lower the output one can expect from it. Both MH and fluorescent bulbs show this same trend (in the 5000K and up range anyways). |
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