Light bulb help

[Xaria]

I am so sure I read on this forum that there was a certain light bulb you could just buy from the electrician that was the same as what you buy from the pet shop - without the price tag. Three hours later, I cant find it. Does anyone have the details handy. Thanks

[Warren]

Try going to Mastertrade or any other Electrical Wholesaler. They will charge you retail unless you can prove to them you are in the electrical / electronics industry. If you have a mate who's a sparky, you're in!

There are a range of bulbs available:

TLD84: Slightly Pink in colour (4800K I think)

TLD86: White daylight - like the sun (6500K)

TLD96: White daylight - high colour rendering (6500K)

If you can get a good trade price with a discount you should pay about $7-8 for the TLD84 and TLD86 and 9-10 for the TLD96 (for a 5' (1500mm) 58W tube). Full retail is about $20 and $23 respectively.

Other fancy tubes are available but not usually stocked.

I use TLD96, - they're brilliant for growing plants and don't wash out the fish colours.

[Xaria]

Thank you very much. :lol:

[Lucid]

Osram do a tube as well that is concentrated towardss the red and blue spectrum, these you can get from some hardware stores and most can order it, but the catch is that you will have to order a minimum of 20 tubes ( at least that is what I was told)

hope this helps

B

[Warren]

The same tube will be available at the wholesaler and they should be able to order one in specially if they have stock somewhere in the country. The old growlux is pretty much a blue/red tube too and still readily available. It is more pink than the TLD84. Tubes that concentrate on the red and blue appear pink in colour. Growlux is really good at bringing out the red's and blue's in the fish too. It is a less intense light but makes the plants grow quite well. It was designed for terestrial plants, not aquatic plants, but it still works very well though. It can sometimes cause a lot of algae.

[Alan]

and if ya buy too many of them Mr Plod will knock on ya door.

Alan 104

[Lucid]

Well put Warren,

to further add to it, I have found that by putting a two foot pink tube ( red and blue spectrum) as well as two three foot white tubes( std bulb and fitting straight outta an office block) I have managed to avoid excess algae, I was gtting overrun with it and was loathe to use an chemical algae remover unless absolutely nescacery(sp).

I originally had just the two foot pink tube on my 3 foot tank, I had always intended on putting in extra lighting and did so. When I added the white lights the algae was growing quite strongly, but after adding the 2 extra three foot whites it seemed to slow down and then the algae started to die off.

Don't know if the extra light or dilution of the red and blue had any effect. but there are only a few spots of algae i the tank and I haven't put a drop of any chemicals into it other than the iron and c02. The plants are still growing strongly and regular priunings are now required.

Hope this helps

B