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Lighting question...


Jason_F

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Hi, I have an Aqua One AR 620T (Tall) tank. The two lights that came with this set-up in the built in hood are a bit of a mystery to me - hopefully you can help me figure out what I've got over my tank.

They look like compact fluoros (or power compacts) - and have 18W and 14,000k printed on them. The lights have two tubes side by side and are plugged in on one end.

My questions are;

1. Can compact fluoros emit 14,000k? I thought that only metal halide bulbs had this kelvin level. Also this kelvin rating is sometimes referred to as "blue", and my tank is brightly 'white'.

2. Can freshwater plants survive under these lights? The AR620T is quite deep (72cm), so I am concerned that I might need powerful lighting to allow plants (other than algae :oops: ) to survive.

Petplanet - who sold it to me (and I am very happy with it thanks Petplanet) has said in a previous post: "There is new lighting in the AR620. Twin 14000K PL tubes (like a long life light bulb). The distributor can't tell me what wave lenght they put out but they are brighter than the fluros." { http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... 6440#36440 }

Thanks for your help!

Jason

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Yes, compact flouros can produce 14,000 kelvin color temp light, is there any doubt, I mean it's labeled on the bulb.:) I don't think they have any trouble going up to 20K, it's just a matter of what they coat the bulb with. That kelvin should give a very white with a slight blue tinge light. But it may be hard to tell unless you have a lower kelvin light nearby.

You can't really call a bulb a certain wavelength, they're usually the whole mix of wavelenghts of visible light. That's why kelvin is used.

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when they say blue i think they mean blue spectrum light as i am sure actinic blues actually have a relatively low waver length. yes the high wave length can grow plants. Plants will photosynthesise under red and blue wavelength spectrums of white light algea will grow stronger under the green spectrum as there is alot of light that can't be used by the plants that the algea can grow under. If you do a search in this forum only a couple of weeks ago someone made a post explaining light, good spectrums for plants and what it really means in laymens terms

Good Luck

Daniel

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