dlauber

Was just wondering if there were any good standard 18" tube lights for a stock hood.

I don't have a planted tank, so I don't require anything extreme.
But I would like something that would light up my tank well (my 55 gallon tank) and not give the water the yellowish tinge that it has now. Right now I am using GE 18" plant and aquarium bulbs that I got from walmart for 6 bucks

harpua2002

Since you don't have live plants, the choice is yours.

I think you might like bulbs in the 10000K range. They are going to look more white than the yellow bulbs you have now. Hagen even makes some bulbs that are 18000K if the 10000K bulbs are too yellow for you. The higher the number, the more blue the light looks.

Nutter

My experience with tubes has 18,000k as being way too blue to use as a stand alone tube but it will show up blue colours really well. Go for the 10,000k that Harpua mentioned or 6,700k is nice & white to.

dlauber

What is the 'T' for a stock lighting? I am at this site http://www.buylighting.com/Fluorescent-Tubes-s/98.htm
and I see all these 'T' ratings, and they are all different sizes, so I don't know what will fit in a standard fixture.

And is there anything that I should absolutely avoid?

last but not least, is 'color temperature' the same thing as the K rating?

mathas

The T indicates the diameter of the bulb in 1/8" increments... T5 is 5/8", T8 is 8/8" (or 1"), T12 is 12/8" (or 1.5"), etc.

Measure your current bulb, and buy a similarly-sized replacement.