# Planted tank lightning?



## Leonard

I'm going to start a 144 liter planted tank in some weeks.
I'll use a mixed HQI: 150W + T5: 2 x 24W lightning for the tank. I know that's much, but I want to try it and I belive it'll be great! =)
I wondered about the colour of the light.... I've read some thread about this now, but I want you to help me a little more.
I want a pretty warm light, not yellow or green. Niether blue och cold-white. What parameters should I look at when I buy my bulbs? Kelvin 5500-8000 is probobly good. What else should I look at? It could differ much between a 8000 K and an other 8000 K. I thought I'd maybe use 6500K HQi and 8000K T5's.
What's best for my plants? Could you recommend me some special bulbs?
Please help me to decide what T5 bulbs and HQI bulb I should use!


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## goalcreas

ADA's HQI's are awesome but pricey.
For T5, I would like to have an Aquamedic Planta bulb (pink) and one daylight bulb 6500 to 10,000k range. If you get the ADA which is 8800k I think then one pink bulb and one 10,000k bulb would be a good mix IMO and the pink bulb really softens everything and actually makes it very pleasing to the viewer, also IMO


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## Leonard

Great to have something to look at =) But I found some 150W HQI ADA 8000 K bulbs for $85 USD. I think that's a good price for them :S Not cheap 
How about these? No one of them is 6 500K as I want...
5 600K:
http://www.aquaristic.net/shop.php/.../Giesemann Megachrome tropic bulb 150 W - TS/
5 400 K:
http://www.aquaristic.net/shop.php/.../170010/pgNr/1/Osram HQI TS-bulb Typ D 150 W/
10 000K:
http://www.aquaristic.net/shop.php/...171021/pgNr/1/HQI Brenner 150 W 10.000 K -TS/


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## goalcreas

Hard to say, what is the price in USD?
You might try e-bay, there are a number of sellers that sell lamps in the $10 range, that way they are cheap enough if you don't like it you can just get another.


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## Leonard

Well I think I want around 6500K if not anyone tells me to do something else =)
Please can someone give me exapmles of nice HQI bulbs that have a fresh colour. Not too yellow, green or blue... 
I've looked at ADA's 8000K but I don't really like them and they are much more expensive than the others. I might try them later, but as first time I ever use HQI I don't want them 
I've also seen a lot of saltwater bulbs... I don't find the freshwater HQI bulbs.
I found this at Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Coralife-6700K-...ZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem
What about these brands:
Coralife
ab Aqua Medic
Giesemann
ADA

Can someone please tell me some sites where I can buy HQI freshwater bulbs? I live in Sweden, but it's ok to pay the shipping all over the world since we don't have anything here


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## Leonard

I think this picture shows pretty nice how the ADA FreshBulbs look like:
http://www.roslinyakwariowe.pl/sklep/images/ADA/main_8000K_green.jpg


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## goalcreas

That coralife bulb should work great for what you are wanting to do.

And it is just around the corner from me, maybe 10 miles tops.

And they have two, maybe I need one?

NO, actually I don't but I would get it if I needed it.


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## Leonard

goalcreas said:


> ADA's HQI's are awesome but pricey.
> For T5, I would like to have an Aquamedic Planta bulb (pink) and one daylight bulb 6500 to 10,000k range. If you get the ADA which is 8800k I think then one pink bulb and one 10,000k bulb would be a good mix IMO and the pink bulb really softens everything and actually makes it very pleasing to the viewer, also IMO


Hello again! 
I haven't yet bought any bulbs and I'm still looking... However I've changed my mind a little and now I want a 8000K HQI bulb and some pinkish T5 bulbs. Could you give me an example of a pink T5 bulb? Is Philips Aquarelle pink (I don't think so...?) ?
It seems to be hard to find a 8000K HQI bulb (except ADA's, which is too expensive for me right now). I've emailed some guys but it don't seems like they are going to answer. It was pretty long time ago I emailed them 

http://www.prozic.com/dmx/infoen_47...ml?PHPSESSID=2c8e2620a9b39f7765923d0503cac265
http://www.viclite.com/astraaq.htm

If I can get some contact with the guy in the first url-link I will use that HQI bulb!


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## Leonard

I did some googling and found some more 8000K bulbs  Not as hard to find as I thought before I actually looked some more 

http://www.mediazero-shop.de/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/3943/language/en
http://www.deejayshop24.de/product_...p798_OMNILUX-HQI-TS-150W-R7s-6000h-8000K.html
http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11432605/WGNLITE_Halide_Lamps_150W_14000K_HQI_.html
http://aquariumwholesaledirect.com/aquadesignamanona150whqilamp8000k.aspx (expensive)
http://www.lighttech-shop.de/Light-....html?XTCsid=45a7cebe8ed85558d7cbcb16ce39f556
http://www.highlite.nl/index.php/hi...ghtbulbs/discharge_bulbs/hqi_ts_rx7s_24_osram

Some of these that you have tried and liked?
Omnilux or WGNLITE probobly is good. I think I'll try some of them.

This Coralife 10 000K bulb might be nice too: http://cgi.ebay.com/Coralife-10K-HQ...photoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
I've read that some people think the 6700K Coralife is pretty yellow, but the 10 000K might be better?


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## stuckintexas

so what colors come out of these lights. i mean what will they look like in the tank. i too am trying to decide on somewhere from 6700K to 10000K. im going MH and if someone can explain what the visual differences between this spectrum it would be helpful.


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## hoppycalif

One bulb manufacturers 8000K bulb might not give the same spectrum as another manufacturers bulb. The color temperature is an artificial number, which some have said is mostly a marketing gimmick. If the manufacturers provided a little spectrum plot for each of their bulbs you could make a much easier decision. The GE9325K bulb, in my opinion, couldn't possibly have a 9325K color temperature, which would be much bluer and less pink than the bulb actually is. It is still my favorite of the bulb "color temperatures" I have tried. That, however, may be because I haven't tried that many.


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## Leonard

This is what my 6500K HQI lamp (used for only 2 weeks): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_u1fGoxLr_9s/SKHp_UaVSWI/AAAAAAAABYk/BL5B1vpgszU/s1600-h/växtkaret.JPG
Not very good pic, but I will take some better soon! 
I guess the lamp will change colour a little when I have used it for a while.
The lamp is a WGNlite HQI, bought from here: http://www.watergrass.net/en/index.php
I really like this lamp! But I would be interested in trying 8000K or GE9325K (is this a HQI and where do I find it?) as well.


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## Leonard

Ofcourse I wrote wrong, the lamp in the picture that I use is 8000K, not 6500K! Sry


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