# ah supply's 3-6-10 bulb



## daverock1337

has anyone used this? its about time for me to replace my bulbs, and i was thinking of going for a 5500k and a 3-6-10. either that or a 5500k and a 9235k. i have a straight pin cfl fixture, two bulbs, seperate timers, on a 29 gallon tank (30"x12"x18")

any advice/suggestions?


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## daverock1337

** Bulbs with a Color Temperature of 5500K-6700K or a 2-6-10 or 3-6-10 designation are appropriate for freshwater planted aquariums. There is no practical difference regarding plant growth, but there is an appearance difference. Bulbs around 5500K have a warmer daylight appearance similar to early morning light. Bulbs around 6700K have an appearance more like daylight in the middle of the afternoon under a clear blue sky. The 2-6-10 and 3-6-10 are daylight bulbs that accentuate the blues and the reds in your tank.

that is from their website. i think i am going to try a 3-6-10 to see if i like it. i am going to use it with my dual daylight 10,000k/6,700k bulb.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi daverock1337,

I just received up one of the 3-6-10 bulbs on Friday but I have to build the fixture for it so I will be about a week before I can let you know what I think.

If you would like I might be able to post a couple of pics of a 6700K and a 3-6-10 on the same tank with the camera on the same settings for both pics.


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## daverock1337

that would be awesome, i would really appreciate it if you would. im waiting for my brother to pay me for a car i sold him, so it will be a few weeks before i can change my bulbs.


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## Newt

What does the 3-6-10 refer to ????


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## daverock1337

i have no idea. i have tried to search the net. maybe ill send ah supply an email and ask em, ill let ya know when i hear from them.


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## Newt

I searched the net too w/o luck 

I've ordered a few 55w CFs from AHSupply. One thing I dont like is that they wont tell you who makes and they dont/cant supply a spectral output. The two I tried didnt have much punch in them.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi daverock 1337,

I believe that the 3-6-10 designation is similar to the color ratings like 6700K; from the AH Supply website:


> ** Bulbs with a *Color Temperature* of 5500K-6700K or a 2-6-10 or 3-6-10 designation are appropriate for freshwater planted aquariums. There is no practical difference regarding plant growth, but there is an appearance difference. Bulbs around 5500K have a warmer daylight appearance similar to early morning light. Bulbs around 6700K have an appearance more like daylight in the middle of the afternoon under a clear blue sky. The 2-6-10 and 3-6-10 are daylight bulbs that accentuate the blues and the reds in your tank.


BTW, I got my AH Supply kit and finished building my fixture yesterday and I will have pictures posted in this thread of the 6700K verses the 3-6-10 bulb as soon as possible.

In the meantime here is a picture of my new DIY 24" (24.25" X 5.0" X 3.25" high); 1X55/65 watt; air-cooled (no fans); MIRO reflector that cost me $72 (including 6700K bulb) to build.










Here it is on the 20 gallon high tank I will be setting up.









I picked up these stones locally, I like the textures colors.


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## Newt

Nice rocks, Roy. You could sell those online easily.:rofl:

The 2-6-10 and 3-6-10 should be referring to something.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Newt,

I agree that the nomenclature should mean something....but what??!! I too have looked online and found very little....the next time I talk to Kim at AHS I will ask where information for that nomenclature can be found.


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## Newt

Thanks Roy.
I think I'm going to say good-bye to CFs. I used to use Philips PLL-950s but they changed the bulb they send to the US and they arent that good anymore. I had picked up some GE9325K and think the build quality is quite poor and I only got 6 months use before the cathode end began to turn black. I still have lots of T8s and a couple of T5HO. I think I'll be looking at the T5HOs and see what is good. I had tried the Middays but really didnt like the color and the looks of the tank with them.

I really like the looks of those rocks.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Newt,

A lot of people don't know that AH Supply now sells T5HO kits (and bulbs including *2*(not 3)-6-10) however just in the 48" length.

The stones in the pic don't really have that bluish green ting.....I don't know where that come from. This is what so others of the same type look like in my tank.










-Roy

That might be an alternative


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## HeyPK

the AH site does not explain what the numbers are in 2-6-10 or 3-6-10. This is just a guess, but the numbers may refer to the relative intensities of blue-green-red.


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi HeyPK!

That makes very good sense and may indeed be what the numbers represent. I did take a PAR meter reading of the DIY reflector with the AHS 6700K 55 watt bulb. The tank is empty but at 16" depth at the center directly under the light the PAR meter reading was 101 PAR (μmol m-2 s-1).


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi daverock1337,

Here are the pictures comparing the AHS 6700K bulb to the AHS 3-6-10 bulb. Camera was in "manual" mode on a tripod, camera settings were not changed between taking the two photos. No alterations were made other than to resize down to 200K image size and adding signature.

AHS 6700K









AHS 3-6-10 Bulb









Both bulbs had a PAR rating of about 72-74 at a depth of 13" with a glass canopy in place.

My opinion is that the 3-6-10 bulb seems to bring out the reds and blues a little more, the greens seem a little yellowish. The look reminds me a lot of the old GE Gro-Lux bulbs from years back; in fact the bulbs have that same pinkish/purple tint that the Gro-Lux bulbs have. Overall the look is not unappealing; however I think the 6700K gives a more accurate rendition of the colors.

What are your thoughts?


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## Newt

HeyPK said:


> the AH site does not explain what the numbers are in 2-6-10 or 3-6-10. This is just a guess, but the numbers may refer to the relative intensities of blue-green-red.


I was thinking that but that would mean very weak blue emissions


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## HeyPK

I just sent AH an email asking him to er, enlighten us about the numbers.


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## Newt

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> ................My opinion is that the 3-6-10 bulb seems to bring out the reds and blues a little more, the greens seem a little yellowish. The look reminds me a lot of the old GE Gro-Lux bulbs from years back; in fact the bulbs have that same pinkish/purple tint that the Gro-Lux bulbs have.............


LOL
Sylvania still makes the T12 GroLux Standard and the GroLux WS (in Canada). The Std is about the only bulb with true/real red emissions. 650nm vs 625 for most others which is more of an orange/red. Very expensive phosphour. The tube color of the Std is lavendar/purplish - up around 18000K or more. The WS is yellowish and is 3400K.
I think they make smaller tube diameters now but the dont have the nice spectral output as the T12. For a T12 they have some good punch - for a T12.
I still have some and love to use them for dawn/dusk lighting. You can get them for a good price at www.saveonlighting.com in a pack of six.


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## daverock1337

i like the color of the 3-6-10. i actually can;t believe the difference in the color of the substrate between the two. since i have a 2x65 watt coralife fixture, i think i'm going to use a 3-6-10 and a 6700k. either that or a 3-6-10 and a 10,000k/6700k dual daylight. i already have a dual daylight bulb, so ill order the other two and see how the lights look. it might be a month before i can do that, but when i do ill make a new thread and post photos of the bulb combinations. thank you for posting those pics. im still waiting on an email from ah supply about the 3-6-10.

(i think the 6700k by itself is just way too green looking to me)


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi daverock1337,

I was glad to help! You know what they say....'A picture is worth one thousand words!'. LOL!


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## themaryone

Hi Roy,
Great pics! Are you going to keep the towel as your background?
LOL I had to say some thing  I do like the rocks and I am waiting to hear the end of this thread!


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## daverock1337

received this email today:

Hi Dave,

I'm glad that someone sent me a link to the discussion on APC so I know where some of these questions are coming from. I'm also glad for the comparison photos that are posted there. Those photos came out quite well in my opinion and show what the 3-6-10 bulbs do best - keeping the red to brown colors from getting washed out without keeping the water column white/blue (though not as blue as your actinics do) instead of yellowish.

Having more long red wavelengths may help somewhat with your cabomba growth, but I think this is at least as much an intensity issue as a spectral issue. So I think you should select bulbs primarily on the basis of the appearance you prefer. And since you don't mention any issues with the current appearance I wouldn't change things too dramatically. That said, I agree that your setup is very heavily weighted toward the short blue wavelengths. If you like the photo of the 3-6-10, I'm thinking you may want to just replace your 10K/actinic with a 3-6-10 and put the 3-6-10 in the back position (figuring that your cabomba is mostly in the back).

Regards,
Kim Bryant
A H Supply


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## HeyPK

I received this email today:

Hi Paul,

The names (2-6-10, 3-6-10) we've given these lamps don't really represent 
anything, or at least anything more than names like AquaRays or TropicSun, 
etc. That's why we've tried at the website to briefly describe in words what 
there are like. What we were thinking was that they combine the red you get 
from a 2700K/3000K, the daylight you get from a 6000K and the blue you get 
from a 10,000K. But we didn't expect that to be obvious. The fact that 
these names invite this speculation shows that it wasn't a good choice, I 
guess.

The problem is that there is no Correlated Color Temperature for this type 
of light. In other words, no matter how many degrees Kelvin that 
theoretical black box is heated to, it doesn't glow with a light quite like 
this. You can get wildly different readings depending on which instrument 
you use to try to calculate the CCT, and even from the same instrument on 
different attempts. When dealing with a similar type of light, GE probably 
had a better idea when they settled upon an extrapolated Color Temperature 
and indicated that by giving it a peculiar Kelvin designation (9325).

What we were trying to do was provide a solution for some issues many 
customers had mentioned to us over the years. Some people really liked what 
the lower color temperatures did for the look of their red plants, but 
didn't like that it made their water column more yellowish than bluish. And 
people who were using the 10,000K to make their water column more blue, 
didn't like that the 10,000K washed out the red and brown colors so much. I 
really quite pleased with the way these lamps solve these issues. I wish 
they didn't have such a pinkish cast during burn in, but that's pretty much 
gone after about 100 hours of operation.

Regards,
Kim Bryant
A H Supply​
Thanks, Kim!


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## jerrybforl

The 3-6-10 is a lot like the 9325K. I just recently bought 2x55 watt 9325 k combined with 2x65 watt 67/10000k bulbs. Looks amazing!


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## daverock1337

jerry do you have any pics of your tank with those lights? i already have a dual daylight 10,000k/6700k, and am going to get a 3-6-10. i was thinking about replacing the 10,000k/6700k with a 6700k, but have been iffy about it.


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## caymandiver75

So after several years my AH Supply 3-6-10 bulbs died. Trying to replace them now only to find they are out of business and the bulbs can't be found anywhere. Anyone have suggestions on where I can find them or some equivalents? Thanks!


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi caymandiver75,

Yes, regrettably AH Supply has closed. Are you looking for Power Compact (4 pins; either straight or square configuration) or are you looking for T5HO?


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