SparkyJones
- #1
Hi all, have a question on lighting. I don't keep plants. I am thinking of doing it.
What I have for a light is a Hagen aqua-glow A1587. It's 18000K, 40 watts about 1280ish lumens. 48" flourescent.
I have a spectrum chart for it
I like the light, I like the color rendering and the output of it and the way the fish look with it.. its not all that "bright" and as the chart suggests, it's a yellow/orange color to the light. when on, the bulb kind of looks purple and not hard to look at directly and my eyes have problems with bright lights usually, u get the black spots. Lol. I like that it's not all that bright yet fills the tank with light still quite well.
My tank is 22" depth. 4ft length.
I "think" from all that I read on the subject this light is acceptable for growing plants,.... or corals... it won't look exactly "bright" to most people because the color we see is in that green 550 nm range and this light kind of ignores that part of the spectrum. I've always used these lights, I've never "really" tried to keep plants, just half hearted attempts and give up the moment it turns bad every time, and I'm realizing that could be the difference of how the plant was cultivated and it needing to adjust to being submerged...
Anyways. I also have come to understand that the old method of "so many watts per gallon" was for basic regular lights you buy for a house and that that rule really doesn't apply to modern lights designed for aquarium use in LED, flourescent tube and CFL.
I believe it's bright, just in wavelengths of light eyes don't really recognize but are useful to either plants or corals, I'm not sure which though. I think it carries deep enough into the water at 18000K for those wavelengths to reach the depth I have on the tank.
It doesn't need to be a fast grower light, slow is fine.
I just don't know and I'm not big on experimenting and killing living things in the process, which is what I though was happening in my long time ago attempts at growing plants, now after reading and seeing stuff, I'm thinking it's a common occurrence called "melting" and the plant adjusting to being constantly submerged getting rid of old leaves for new leaves for the new conditions.
So, you experienced plant keepers, is this light acceptable to grow some sort of plants? I'd like amazon swords I think.
What I have for a light is a Hagen aqua-glow A1587. It's 18000K, 40 watts about 1280ish lumens. 48" flourescent.
I have a spectrum chart for it
I like the light, I like the color rendering and the output of it and the way the fish look with it.. its not all that "bright" and as the chart suggests, it's a yellow/orange color to the light. when on, the bulb kind of looks purple and not hard to look at directly and my eyes have problems with bright lights usually, u get the black spots. Lol. I like that it's not all that bright yet fills the tank with light still quite well.
My tank is 22" depth. 4ft length.
I "think" from all that I read on the subject this light is acceptable for growing plants,.... or corals... it won't look exactly "bright" to most people because the color we see is in that green 550 nm range and this light kind of ignores that part of the spectrum. I've always used these lights, I've never "really" tried to keep plants, just half hearted attempts and give up the moment it turns bad every time, and I'm realizing that could be the difference of how the plant was cultivated and it needing to adjust to being submerged...
Anyways. I also have come to understand that the old method of "so many watts per gallon" was for basic regular lights you buy for a house and that that rule really doesn't apply to modern lights designed for aquarium use in LED, flourescent tube and CFL.
I believe it's bright, just in wavelengths of light eyes don't really recognize but are useful to either plants or corals, I'm not sure which though. I think it carries deep enough into the water at 18000K for those wavelengths to reach the depth I have on the tank.
It doesn't need to be a fast grower light, slow is fine.
I just don't know and I'm not big on experimenting and killing living things in the process, which is what I though was happening in my long time ago attempts at growing plants, now after reading and seeing stuff, I'm thinking it's a common occurrence called "melting" and the plant adjusting to being constantly submerged getting rid of old leaves for new leaves for the new conditions.
So, you experienced plant keepers, is this light acceptable to grow some sort of plants? I'd like amazon swords I think.