# Yellow light?



## Honorable24 (Nov 16, 2008)

I was just wondering if plants could use it or they have to use white. I have christmas moss in the tank. Unfotunately I found this old 5 gallon tank that only comes with yellow light bulbs


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

"yellow" doesn't tell us all that much... I'm going to guess it's a bulb with a low kelvin... Can you find the kelvin rating on the bulb? And is it a flourescent bulb or incandescent?

In general, bulbs with kelvins between 5000 - 10000k can support FW plant growth. The difference beyond that is usually "in the eye of the beholder" - what color light you prefer looking at.

It's usually not expensive to replace bulbs. Even if your current fixture takes incandescent bulbs (which really aren't great for plants), it's usually easy to replace them with a screw-in compact fluorescent bulb. You can find those just about anywhere (walmart, i've seen them in the grocery stores, home depot, etc) or online at www.lightbulbsdirect.com.


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## Honorable24 (Nov 16, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> "yellow" doesn't tell us all that much... I'm going to guess it's a bulb with a low kelvin... Can you find the kelvin rating on the bulb? And is it a flourescent bulb or incandescent?
> 
> In general, bulbs with kelvins between 5000 - 10000k can support FW plant growth. The difference beyond that is usually "in the eye of the beholder" - what color light you prefer looking at.
> 
> It's usually not expensive to replace bulbs. Even if your current fixture takes incandescent bulbs (which really aren't great for plants), it's usually easy to replace them with a screw-in compact fluorescent bulb. You can find those just about anywhere (walmart, i've seen them in the grocery stores, home depot, etc) or online at www.lightbulbsdirect.com.


I think it is incandescent because it gives off more heat. Its 15 watts. I don't understand kelvin between watts. It did not say the amount of kelvin on the bulb

Color Temperature	Kelvin
“Warm White” or “Soft White”	< 2700 K
“White”, “Bright White”, or “Medium White”	2900 – 3000 K
“Cool White”	4000 K
“Daylight” (varies w/ manuf.)	> 5000 K

I found this table from wikipedia so I don't down if it is legit. So I'm lookin at this and my light bulb would have really low kelvins. Will my chrustmas moss die if I don't get another bulb?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

wattage is how much power a fixture draws to light up.

kelvin is a rating of what color light looks to the human eye.

It sounds to me like you have a standard incandescent bulb. I'd replace that with one of these U-shaped compact flourescent bulbs and it will give you much better light for the plants: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10448675


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