# best T8 bulb?



## PoohBear

My lighting unit contains twin T8 fluorescent bulbs. It is on a low-tech tank, no CO2. Many years ago when I had a planted tank, I used to use Triton many years ago and was happy with it, but it is not made anymore from what I can tell. Then I used Life-Glo with an internal reflector, but this doesn't seem to be made anymore either. What brand T8 bulb do you recommend for a low-tech, no CO2 tank?


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## Newt

The Triton bulb is made by Interpet and I believe it is a T10 bulb. It is a good plant light but pricey. Zoo Med makes some good bulbs for planted tanks. Perhaps Ruki will chime in on the Zoo Med and post a spectral output graph for it.

Home Depot carries Philips 6500K DayLite bulbs in a T8 as well as T12. They are a bit weak on the red emissions needed by plants.

Triton:









Philips 6500K DayLight:









Hagen LifeGlo:


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## aquaphish

I recommend ZooMed lights. This is what I use in my 40 gal. I use 2 UltraSun and 2 FloraSun.


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## AaronT

I'll 3rd the ZooMed recommendation. I used to use these too and they worked quite well. I also suggest a 50/50 mix of UltraSun and FloraSun.


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## Newt

All of the ZooMed bulbs I've see spectral output graphs for look quite nice for planted tanks. 

Where is a good place and price to get them???

I can get GroLux bulbs (48") for $6.89 each when you buy a box of six. I do balance it with other bulbs to brighten the tank, of course.


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## AaronT

www.bigalsonline.com has pretty good bulb prices on the ZooMeds.


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## JamesC

I have good success with 50:50 Syvania Gro-Lux and GE Aqua-Rays Fresh & Salt Water tubes. The Gro-Lux is a pinkie colour and the GE is a purple colour which blend together very well IMO. The GE tubes are very similar to the Interpet Triplus (formerly Triton) tubes.

James


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## Newt

Are you using a GroLux wide spectrum or the Standard GroLux? My GroLux appears purplish and the GE 9325K I have used appeared pinkie.


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## JamesC

In the UK as far as I know we only get one type of Gro-Lux tube. On the packaging it only states Gro-Lux and nothing else so am not 100% sure which one it is, but I'd guess it's the standard. It's definitely got a pink tinge to it. 

Also the GE tube we get here is the Fresh & Salt water 10,000K tube which has a purple tinge to it and not the 9325K tube which we can't get in the UK. If I could buy the 9325K tube then I'd would buy those. I believe the GE 9325 tube is slightly pink in colour.

James


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## ruki

I'm about ready to swap out old T12 Sylvania GroLux for the T8 Zoomed plant bulbs. Looking at spectrum charts, reading feedback, these should give great results given their low cost.

These are mixed with CHEAP 6500K T8 Octrons.


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## Newt

I get my GroLux tubes for under $7.00 each when I buy a box of six. The ZooMed bulbs at online places like www.thatpetplace.com cost over twice that and you don't get the in to the red range of the visible spectrum with the ZooMeds just the orange and near red.


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## ruki

T8 Gro-Lux tubes?

I got my Zoo Med Flora Sun at Big Al's online. Last I looked, the price was $12.00. I would prefer lower though


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## Newt

The 48" are T12

Another member pointed out a new T5 grolux (in another thread) but the link was in a foreign language.


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## ruki

My fish room is getting too warm, even though I moved the dehumidifier (major heat source!) into another room and found a way to vent the heat away. I noticed that T8's (normal output) are pretty cool, so this time of the year it's nice not to have T12's in a room full of tanks. T5's are even better in this regard.


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## fishstein

Hi PoohBear,

There is a much better combination of T8 bulbs that you can use than the Zoomed (tried), Triton (used to have years ago) or GroLux (have used, but emits weak visible light that is very purple looking and needs to be balanced with much brighter whiter lights), in terms of the balance of high quality photosynthetic light PLUS highly pleasing visible light which highlights reds and greens. 

I did quite a bit of online research and experimented for a while until I found the Phillips Advantage ADV850 5000K (looks bright white) and the Phillips Aquarelle TLD89 10000K (looks a light violet in color). You can read how beneficial these lights are for photosynthesis on Aquabotanic and other sites which compared bulbs. Defdac uses this combination of bulbs to light his tank as well. 

They do an excellent job of promoting vertical and lateral plant growth and highlighting both reds and greens. They throw an amazingly pleasing blend of visible light which highlights greens and reds and other colors on fish and plants and rocks beautifully. 

In fact, these lights are so efficient for plant growth, that I experimented with only 1 ADV850 bulb over my 75 gallon (that's only 32 watts) and was able to not only grow plants well with that one bulb but to even grow some reds (Kleiner Bar red sword, Alternanthera R). With 2 bulbs, the ADV850 plus the TLD89 at the same time, I was able to grow very health plants and get good reds. With parabolic reflectors I made for these bulbs, I could grow almost anything I wanted - and with 4 of these bulbs, 2 ADV850 and 2 TLD89, you could grow anything - and grow fast enough to really have to feed those plants - with just 4 32 watt bulbs. And with 4 of these bulbs + the mirror polished parabolic reflectors, you would be smokin'.

I got my hands on a really good supply of ADV850s and will be selling some extras later this week. I also have some spare of the Aquarelle TLD89 that I carried back from Cambridge, England last year. I couldn't get them from the supplier unless I got a good bunch, and it was quite an adventure to get them back to London and then New York. Please email me and I can send you details. It's not really worth my while to pack and ship just 2-3 bulbs, so you might want to check if some friends in your local fish or aquatic plant club might want to pick some up with you. I think I have 15-20 available.

Ruki, a good way to up your light while keeping your fish room cool is to not only use highly efficient T8 bulbs, but to put highly polished aluminum parabolic reflectors over your T8 bulbs. You can push 250-300% more light into your tank per bulb with a good reflector. I'm selling some extra highly polished mirror aluminum that is hand bendable along with a diagram that shows the shape to make. It's very easy. You can find the info in this lighting forum or in the For Sale forum.

My growth really took off with these bulbs (and before I was using various high quality "full spectrum" T8 bulbs from different manufacturers). And I love the way they light my tanks.


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## Newt

The *best* T8 bulb is the Philips Aquarelle. It is hard to come by in the US as it is a european bulb. I had a company import a case for me. These are expensive but well worth the $$$. They will last 2+ years. It is a very efficient bulb and puts out tremendous energy (microeinsteins) in the blue and red spectrum. It works very well with the Philips ADV850; another very efficient bulb. The AquaSky by Philips is another but must also be imported.


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## wahaneebelly

I ended up going with the 6500k T8 bulb. I am very happy with the amount of light they put out.I like the round ones, about 4' long. OK, I'll behave - I use the 6500K's in the shop. They give off a bit of a blue light, but I want lots of light.


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