# Colormax bulbs or Daylight?



## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

I was advised when I bought my T5HO fixture that a combination of 6700K Daylight bulb and a 10000K Coralife Colormax bulb would be optimal for my tank. Is it really? Should I just run two daylight bulbs? Now that I think about it, aside from providing different wavelength light, I don't see what other benefit there is running a Colormax bulb.

Tank specs:

29 gallons
Ferted according to instructions on NPK, Trace, Iron bottles from Seachem
T5HO Dual Bulb fixture, 48 watts (24 per bulb)
1.5 BPS CO2 injection


I have not been getting great advice from my LFS on planted tank care, so I feel I should probably ask about this too.


----------



## freph (Apr 4, 2011)

I personally use a Giesemann Midday (6000K) and a Geisemann Aquaflora (high peaks in red, green colors for the plants) on my 30" AquaticLife T5HO. It's honestly like looking outside on a sunny day. Really cool and the plants love the stuff. I think the 6000K and 10000K would look too...white. Colormax is just Coralife's plant and color enhancing bulb. It peaks high in the color spectrum that plants use for photosynthesis. 10000K isn't a colormax bulb, though. I think you may have misunderstood where it was posted to use a 10000K/Colormax combination. I'd personally recommend 6700K or 6000K and a Colormax/Aquaflora bulb. Giesemann is top of the line when it comes to T5HO bulbs, btw.


----------



## cprash (Apr 1, 2012)

Yikes. I might be mistaking it's color temp with another fixture then. I do know that it is a Coralife Colormax 24 watt bulb. 


Thanks for telling me about Giesemann bulbs. I wanted a more natural look and that sounds about right.


----------



## Cboss (Aug 23, 2010)

I use a colormax and a 10,000k. I like how they each produce and reflect different colors in the tank. But, as long as you're not using bulbs really far to either end of the spectrum, it just comes down to personal preference for the most part.


----------



## mcaquatic (Apr 26, 2010)

freph said:


> I personally use a Giesemann Midday (6000K) and a Geisemann Aquaflora (high peaks in red, green colors for the plants) on my 30" AquaticLife T5HO. It's honestly like looking outside on a sunny day. Really cool and the plants love the stuff. I think the 6000K and 10000K would look too...white. Colormax is just Coralife's plant and color enhancing bulb. It peaks high in the color spectrum that plants use for photosynthesis. 10000K isn't a colormax bulb, though. I think you may have misunderstood where it was posted to use a 10000K/Colormax combination. I'd personally recommend 6700K or 6000K and a Colormax/Aquaflora bulb. Giesemann is top of the line when it comes to T5HO bulbs, btw.


does a combination like this also work well for optimizing the fish colors too?


----------



## freph (Apr 4, 2011)

mcaquatic said:


> does a combination like this also work well for optimizing the fish colors too?


Very much so.


----------



## mcaquatic (Apr 26, 2010)

thanks freph. just to make sure I got it right you use a Geisemann 6,000 and aquaflora and this would be a good combo for a high tech tank for plants and fish colors? thanks If so i think I am going to try it. I am not happy with my lights. should I be running a third bulb for the plants if I use the aquaflora?


----------

