# Blue and Red light bulbs



## avillax (Jan 16, 2005)

Hi, I've been using cheap light bulbs not sold in pet stores, to light my aquarium, this has given OK result, plants are healthy and I see growth slowly but there is. I also have a DIY co2 addition which works just fine.

My aquarium is planted with many species of plants, and I intend to have a heavy planted effect, also in the front of the tank I have plants that need lots of light like liliaopsis brasiliensis and helianthoides cuba, and want to form a lawn effect with these 2 ones but they grow slowly.

The thing is, I've been told that if you use special light bulbs for aquarium, the results are gonna be much better. In the store they told me that the best combination to use was to get 1 red spectrum light and a blue spectrum one.

I don't have a double aquarium hood lamp, but rather 2 independent 1 bulb lamps. Both lamps seem to point the light a bit more to the front. Also there are more separation within the 2 bulbs since these are 2 independent lamps.

So will it still be combinient to get one red and one blue light bulbs?.
Also will it be combinient to place the front lamp facing to the back of the aquarium and the one on the back facing front as normal, so to create a Crossing of light?.

or what would you suggest?


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

What kind of lights do you have? The light bulbs sold at the hardware store or Walmart are much cheaper and will give you the same results. Anything labeled Daylight will work fine.


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## avillax (Jan 16, 2005)

They don't sell those bulbs at the wallmart here, I bought these cheap bulbs at an electric refactory store, they don't even have a brand, they just fit on the lamp.




Urkevitz said:


> What kind of lights do you have? The light bulbs sold at the hardware store or Walmart are much cheaper and will give you the same results. Anything labeled Daylight will work fine.


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## avillax (Jan 16, 2005)

Can somebody please answer, your feedback will be apreciated


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## ksand (Oct 19, 2004)

Are these incandescent bulbs? I guess you want to know if you can increase growth rate by using a better bulb?


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## avillax (Jan 16, 2005)

Yes but also I was told that blue and red was the best combination of bulbs, but I have the problem that I dont have a double lamp but rather 2 lamps so the red and blue bulbs wouldnt be that close together and I don't know if that would be something bad.


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## BlueRam (Sep 21, 2004)

Can you replace the incandescent bulbs with 'daylight' screw-in sprial compacts? Most the energy of an incandescent bulb goes to heat so they are not so good for growing plants. Could you please post tank size etc?


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## avillax (Jan 16, 2005)

I guess, it is a tipical aquarium lamp for 20 watts tubes.


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## all4funwfish (Jan 18, 2004)

i would recommend getting a screw in flourescent above 5000k. I dont know how beneficial that red lamp is either...red is low on the color spectrum, and i would think that would aide the algae more than your plants.(anyone else?)
Also another option in this situation is to make a diy 18-26w flourescent fixture by taking apart this light strip, and replacing the incandescent assemblies with two 9 or 13 watt flourescent lamps...those are cheap lamps also.you just need a few endcaps, and your good to go.
i can email you a picture of it if your interested.


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## silicagel (Nov 7, 2004)

Supposedly the red and blue ends of the spectrum, in particular the red and blues the human eye can't detect, are ideal for plants.

However, the only real blue bulbs on the market are the actinic you can buy for reef aquariums, and red ones are very scarce. I'm not sure exactly how much of the red and blue ends of the spectrum these bulbs cover, so even if you did setup a planted tank with red and blue there's a possibility it wouldn't grow plants well.

A buddy of mine thought it would be cool to use a solitary actinic bulb with appropriate wpg just because he liked the blue fluorescent look. His amazon sword grew some of the strangest looking(in a bad way) leaves I've ever seen during the few weeks he left his tank this way.

I would go for something in the day light color temp range(5500-6700K) from an aquarium or nursery bulb maker just to be sure you're covered.


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## BlueRam (Sep 21, 2004)

silicagel said:


> Supposedly the red and blue ends of the spectrum, in particular the red and blues the human eye can't detect, are ideal for plants.


I believe the situation is an incandecent bulb with a red or blue coating. This is taking the white light from the filiment and _cutting out_ a fair bit of intensity. Adding the coating does not add back any light/color that was not already there in a clear bulb...


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## silicagel (Nov 7, 2004)

Blueram, I think you missed this part;



> The thing is, I've been told that if you use *special light bulbs* for aquarium, the results are gonna be much better.


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## all4funwfish (Jan 18, 2004)

on the contrary to the weird amazon from actinics..i run an actinic over my tank with no problems, in fact it looks healthier than prior to....i also run daylight spectrums of 6500k and 10000k, not just actinic...maybe thats the difference?


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## silicagel (Nov 7, 2004)

I'm pretty sure it is the difference. Since there was any growth at all under an actinic bulb, I'm assuming it covers at least part of the range, so it can't hurt. And in some freshwater tanks, it does look very cool. i.e. a rift valley setup

I've got a 9w CF actinic lying around somewhere that I planned to use for a nano-reef, but maybe some day I'll get a similar red bulb(which they do in fact sell at some places), and setup a planted freshwater tank to see how it does.. unless one of you does it first. We just have to know, don't we? :tongue:


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## all4funwfish (Jan 18, 2004)

that would be an interesting setup for sure!!...i wonder if it would look a little purple?


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