Justice Bucket

I have a small 10 gallon tank with plants that are currently being lit with a Honeywell bulb like this pic
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

Is there a better bulb that would fit into the same lamp that would help my plants grow better?

alicem

Maybe it's just me, but I can't get the link to show your bulb.
It just goes to google.
alicem

Ahh, good, the link works now.

griffin

looks like a spiral cf bulb

tom28

yep, id agree. for something that size id put another lamp over it since no floresent tube will fit in the socket. not to much you can do with it as far as i know sorry to say. but try the 2 lamps on it, i put one on the side of my tank to get a bit more light to my sword and so far..and as much as i can tell its worked out

prairielilly

What is the wattage on the bulb? I bought CFL's made for aquarium use (kind of like yours but not spiral and of course says Marineland on it) that are 10W each. I use one on a 5g and most of my plants are doing well (I haven't had plants in there very long). I got the bulb at Petsmart.

Justice Bucket

Yes, I picked up one of those 10 W for my 10G but it doesn't seem bright enough even though the Kelvin is above 5000K. My original bulb is 2700K which is not (I've heard) very good for plants.

mathas

To the best of my knowledge, color temperature rating has nothing to do with brightness.

Human eyes are most sensitive to light in the 550nm range, which we perceive as green. If you have two bulbs of the same type and intensity next to one another, with one having a stronger green output, people will tend to perceive that bulb as the brighter of the two. Plants, on the other hand, need the majority of their light to be in the 430-450nm (low blue) and 640-660nm (low/middle red) ranges.

Without seeing a spectral distribution graph for the bulb, brightness alone is a very ineffective (and subjective) metric for judgment.

A poster at plantedtank.net did some tests a while back, and found that a 3200K bulb like you're using actually produced more photosynthetically active radiation than did an equivalent bulb with a 5500K rating. You can see his results here.

I also wrote a really long-winded post about this topic a week or two ago, which might be worth a read: Color Temperature: Does it matter for a planted tank?

Justice Bucket

I meant brightness for me to enjoy the tank, not for the plants. I'll read your post and thanks for the help!

Justice Bucket

Check these out.

http://www.elightbulbs.com/catalog_p...ch_type=&ansi=

What's mogul crew vs. medium screw?

mathas

Mogul or medium refers to the diameter of the socket the bulb screws into, with mogul being 39mm and medium being 26mm. A mogul screw bulb is designed for a mogul base, and a medium screw bulb is designed for a medium base.

Medium is the standard, and likely to be what you have.

Justice Bucket

Nice