# Pink Light



## Questin (Sep 30, 2007)

I have been trying to locate information on the pink bulb that I sometimes see people have. What is the purpose of this type of light?

I am looking at T5s, and I would like a combination of lights, that may or may not include the pink.


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## Supercoley1 (May 28, 2007)

Most lamps that tend to be a plant specific (or so their manufacturers claim) are pink/purple lights or pinkish.

Not sure if they actually are better for the plants or not but thats what their makers say.

I have used just daylight and got tremendous growth (although more algae) and have used pink lights and not got as much growth (but less algae)

Although previous to my current lights (which I have only had for 3 weeks so can't really comment on growth yet) the only pink I had was a T8 Arcadia Original Tropical which is a sh**e lamp anyway so the daylights were all bound to beat it.

Andy


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## elaphe (Aug 24, 2006)

The only "pinkish" plant bulb that is in a T5 HO that I know of is the Aqua Medic Planta bulb. I've been tempted to get one of these and run it along with my Giesemann Midday (1 of each), but I've been really happy with the Midday bulbs.

Giesemann does make a plant bulb too, but you can't find it in the US - I've tried!


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## jARDINI (Sep 2, 2007)

my coralife 24'' fixture came with a 2700k and a pink colormax bulb


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I use a Colormax bulb mixed with various white bulbs on all my tanks.
I don't think it helps with plant growth, it simply enhances display colors.
pink bulbs only deliver about 50% of usable spectrum for plant growth,
so use that figure when calculating the amount of WPG your tank needs.

for example; I have 130w of lighting with 1 in 4 bulbs are pink,
so in my case, I may have to reduce my WPG light to 114w.
if you can afford a multiple bulb fixture that delivers more light
than your tank needs, then get a pink bulb. if your fixture does
not have watts or tube endcaps to spare, then stick with white.

remember to over-spec your lighting by at least 25% to allow
for the dimming of bulbs over their normal 1-2 year life span.
so if I started with 114w, I may only enjoy 86w a year later.
so it's always good to buy more light than you think you need.
you can always remove a tube if it's too much light to start.


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## tropism (Jul 21, 2006)

I use the Coralife Colormax bulb as well, and it's sort of a pinkish/purplish. I just like the way it brings out reds and blues in my plants/fish. If you look on drsfostersmith.com, you can find a spectral chart (which can actually be misleading... to our eyes it certainly looks more pink than the blue and green spikes would suggest). As far as I know, they only make these in regular T-5, not T-5 HO. On another aquarium I have a T-5 HO fixture, but I've never tried the ones that elaphe was talking about. Does anyone know if the colormax bulbs can be used in an HO fixture, or would that shorten their life span (or worse, actually be dangerous?) 

Spypet, are you *sure* that these bulbs only have 50% of the usable spectrum for plants? In terrestrial plants at least, chlorophyll is most sensitive to certain areas of red and blue (which is why the special 'plant grow' bulbs are usually purplish). I know there's been some debate over whether this is the same for aquatic plants though. If the plants are red (usually the ones that need the most light) they may be reflecting more of the red than they would the green, so maybe it is less usable spectrum for them. To further complicate things, those bulbs look a lot dimmer to us because we're much more sensitive to green light than red or blue.


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## Supercoley1 (May 28, 2007)

My pink T5 HO is a Realux Plant Gro (sometimes known as Spectrum Gro)

I am in europe though so it may not be for sale in US

Very bold statement about only 50% of the spectrum being used by the plants!!! Do you have some proof for this?

I think there are many conflicting statements on the subject of spectrum usage and some lights offer 4 'peaks' to the spectrum which I would've thought would give a different result to one that just has red blue etc.

Does the 50% mean one of these lamps?

Different makes and types of lamp will each give a different spectrum to another maker and their model so I think this 50% statement is a little generalised really.

This is from a respected US seller's site:

*Color-Enhancing Bulbs - Less than 5,000K *
These fluorescent bulbs are typically used for fish-only aquariums. The colors in the lower-end of the lighting spectrum (red) will exhibit your fishes' colors more brilliantly.

*Natural Daylight Bulbs - 5,000K - 7,500K*
These fluorescent bulbs are designed to mimic natural sunlight, and considered "full spectrum," which means they contain all the different colors of light in the light spectrum. Plants need the red, orange and yellow colors found in the lower end of the light spectrum in order for photosynthesis to occur. Although these bulbs are well suited for many different aquarium applications, they are especially recommended for planted freshwater aquariums. They are also good lamps to be used in conjunction with actinic bulbs in the reef aquarium.

*White Bulbs - 8,000°K - 14,000°K*
These bulbs have a higher temperature rating, which means they produce light waves in the higher end of the spectrum, towards the blue end. While these bulbs can be used in a variety of applications, they are most often used in marine reef aquariums. Depending on the type of coral contained in your aquarium, these bulbs may not contain enough of the blue light waves to maintain proper health of your marine invertebrates. Therefore, supplementing these bulbs with an actinic bulb is recommended.

Of course going above this is marine only lamps so I only put these descritions into this post.

My assumption is that from these statements that there is no bulb that will give more than 50% to the plants as there isn't one with only Red, Orange and yellow with no blue or green!!

Therefore would this not say that these are the best for plants? i.e. pinkish lamps that are in the 
5k-7.5k range?

Andy


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

tropism said:


> Spypet, are you *sure* that these bulbs only have 50% of the usable spectrum for plants?


I just use that figure as a personal rule of thumb after reading a lot of discussion on the topic.
I'm sure Seachem will say it's more usable light, while in practical application it's less usable light.
The good news is that most WPG calculations are based on older T12 bulbs, so the fact that we
are discussing brighter T5HO and PCF means we are working with extra light regardless of color.

If you do a forum search on *Colormax* you are bound to find lots of debate on the subject.


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## Daud (Jul 2, 2007)

More choices:

Nova extreme FW



elaphe said:


> The only "pinkish" plant bulb that is in a T5 HO that I know of is the Aqua Medic Planta bulb. I've been tempted to get one of these and run it along with my Giesemann Midday (1 of each), but I've been really happy with the Midday bulbs.
> 
> Giesemann does make a plant bulb too, but you can't find it in the US - I've tried!


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

This topic has been discussed to death for two deacades. In the end the reuslt it alway the same: consensus is light color doesn't matter, light intensity does.

I've used everything and use... warm white. 

Different colored bulbs don't cause (or hinder) algae BTW.


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