# T8 bulbs?



## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

I've heard standard T8 bulbs don't grow plants well but what if you get a 6500K T8?


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

F3-RapalaAngler said:


> I've heard standard T8 bulbs don't grow plants well but what if you get a 6500K T8?


There is nothing wrong w/ t8 bulbs regardless of color temp.



> To get 25,000 lux requires 2400 lumens or 25 watts of T8, T5, or T5-HO fluorescent lighting per square foot


International Carnivorous Plant Society - Indoor Plant Lighting

*Spectral Power of a 6500 K T5-HO fluorescent bulb **with a high color rendering index*










> This is the spectrum from some of the best quality and most efficient T5-HO fluorescent bulbs for human use. Under these lights object appear the correct color and the lights are very bright. Most of the light is outside the preferred spectrum for plants.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

T8 will grow low light plants in a low tech tank, if it's not too deep. I grew a bunch of stuff ok in a 20L- that was only 10" from the substrate.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

Standard T8 is 15watt. I've tried bacopa, water Sprite and anubias. Only anubias has grown and the water sprite never fully became green with new growth. More of a mint color


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

I have one t8 bulb 18" on my 10 and it grows L. repens, Bacopa caroliniana, Vesuvius Sword, Alternanthera reineckii ''roseafolia'' which has maintained a nice red color, java and peacock moss, Staurogyne repens, and another plant that I dont remember the name of. I dont have outlandish growth but this tank has never had a problem with algae since I set it up.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

Do you use ferts or co2?


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

No ferts no co2. My light are on a timer from 7am to 11am then from 6pm to 10pm. On my 10g I run one 18" t8 and on my 75g I run a 48" shop light with two t8 bulbs. I do dose excel on my 75. I also placed diy o+ root tabs next to my heavy root feeders.

Edit: I will add that my 75 requires regular trimming of the Bacopa, the 10g not so much.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

What could cause the issues I was having with the water sprite not coloring up?


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Can you post your current tanks specs? Size, current light, substrate used, any ferts etc etc.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

10 gallon with a 18in t8 15 watt.

78F. Zero ammonia and nitrite, ph of 7.2. Nitrates around 20ppm. I do a water change around every couple days.

Natural river stone substrate. 

7 habrosus Corydoras, 2 otocinclus, 6 assorted nerite snails

No ferts as I'm unsure what to get or use anyways


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Can you post a pic?


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

That's with fake plants until I can figure out how to get back to reat. The driftwood had anubias nana on it and their are Moss balls too


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

How long did you leave the plants in there? It took a good month for mine to settle in and perk up. Here is what I would do. Put your plants back in. Put your t8 on a timer. Run it 8 hours a day and see what happens. You may experience a lull period at first but gives things a chance to settle in. Unless the plants are in there you wont figure out what they need.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

I had them in a good 4-6weeks. Each day they seemed to get worse despite me stocking heavy to give them enough "food"

When I had them in a 2.5 gallon they seemed to grow quickly, the water sprite at least then in the. 10 they lost color and didn't. New growth wasnt a normal full green. Could it be helped with a stronger K T8 or would that not matter?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

You might need ferts. When I first set up my 20L, I thought for sure I was stocked enough for fish poo to feed the plants- I had 7 cherry barbs, 5 kuhli loaches and tons of snails- but I struggled a lot with peaky, dying plants until I started dosing ferts- 1/3 of the recommended EI regimen (or, dosing once a week instead of several times). Plants took off and I was astonished at the difference. 

Now on my other tanks it's the same thing. I keep thinking- surely I have enough fish mulm built up to quit dosing ferts? But I keep feeding the plants because when I slack off they look terrible.


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

If he is using stone substrate that is most likely the case. On my 10 I used dirt with a sand cap. That may be the difference.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Yes- my first tank setup had gravel (I didn't know much then). I used root tabs and started doing EI dry ferts, what a difference. My current tanks have safe-t-sorb with gravel cap, I still need to do ferts consistently. If I ever start another tank I'll probably go with a nutrient-rich substrate this time!


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## James M (Jun 21, 2012)

The importance of substrate is oddly missed sometimes.
What do plants grow in outside?

A dirted tank goes a long ways toward mitigating lower output lights. Other things can work, especially after years of detritus build up, but that substrate above is a bit coarse.
Or you can add ferts and do a 50% water change as mentioned above (EI) which removes half of what you added...and keep doing that over and over again.
EI is basically "I have no idea what my plants need, so I'll bomb it with fertilizer, they'll take what they need, and reset it each week with a 50% water change and repeat"
It's not the way I do things, but it works for a lot of people. Even then, a dirted tank will help since you're not as dependent on the ferts in the water column.

CFL's work great on small tanks like that too.


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## Lonestarbandit (Feb 7, 2013)

I could not grow plants worth a hoot with single T8s.
Mind you that was on 20 Tall and 55 gallon tanks.
It was too deep for single T8 fixtures.
I can't see why a 10 couldn't manage however?


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

Lonestarbandit said:


> I could not grow plants worth a hoot with single T8s.
> Mind you that was on 20 Tall and 55 gallon tanks.
> It was too deep for single T8 fixtures.
> I can't see why a 10 couldn't manage however?


I have a single 18" 15w t8 on my tank and it does fine. I have a 20 tall I will use 2 of them. His issue I think is nutrient orients with gravel only no root tabs no ferts.


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## cininohio (Jan 13, 2016)

This 20 gallon only has t8 bulb for reference. Tank is 2 months old. Black diamond sand substrate. Root tabs were put in when planted. I dose leaf zone weekly. Plants seem happy enough. I have low light plants.


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

Man, I'm learning a lot. So what is El?


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## James M (Jun 21, 2012)

Do a search, plenty of threads so you won't get anyone to go into detail on it here.
In short - don't worry about it right now. Read about it, but leave it alone would be my recommendation.
Medium light, figure out my observation how much to dose, 20% weekly water changes (or less) is the sweet spot.

EI comes more into play for higher light, Co2 dosed tanks, unless you just like to throw money away and love water changes.


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## thedood (May 30, 2015)

What @James M said.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

I have a 20g high tank with one 15w 6500k T8 bulb with Black Diamond Blasting Sand and dosing with the occasional liquid fertilizers. Haven't quite figured out if I want to do full doses as recommended, or dial it down a little, since it is a shrimp tank. Have red/green crypts, java fern, java moss, flame moss, moss balls, hornwort, one plant I'm not sure what it is and some anacharis. The only plant that is not doing well is the anacharis, which I don't particularly care about anyway. Not using CO2 atm, but the light is on for 8 hours of the day. The plants that appear to be doing the best are the crypts and java and flame mosses. In fact, all the crypts are growing back after having melted after being taken out of tanks that were torn down, transferred to a store and into two separate tanks, then to my tank, which, for a little while, prior to getting the sand, was just 'floating' in the tank with the other plants and driftwood.


The tank has been set up for less than 3 weeks and it's my "first" tank.



If I could get fertilizers and CO2 set up correctly, without killing shrimp, I'm sure I'd probably get faster growth! But I'm happy as is with the amount that I've been getting!


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## F3-RapalaAngler (Mar 17, 2016)

I believe my bulb is a 5000k it's the full spectrum aqueon bulb


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## osmel1992 (Jun 6, 2014)

I have a single t8 over a 75 about 6 inches off top have anubius java fern and crypts they grow well could probably grow better with co2 because when I added excel to combat BBA the plants really took off other than that no dosing

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## Monrankim (May 28, 2016)

I'm in the middle of setting up a 75 soil substrate tank and I got a shop light from home depot that has 4 t8s, 32w each. After that I started to research the par value and realized I could not use all of that light running low tech. T8s can be more powerful than you think. But for a smaller tank, I also recommend getting CFLs with a couple reflectors, you will get all the light you can handle until you may want to upgrade.

What I got but I think is ultimately Overkill :
http://m.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-L...nt-Heavy-Duty-Shop-Light-1284GRD-RE/202968125



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