Which Light Tube??

[Feral Boy]

Hi, could someone please tell me which will be the best Hagen light tube
will be best for showing the colours of my fish?

thank you
Feral Boy

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
Feral Boy > wrote:
>Hi, could someone please tell me which will be the best Hagen light tube
>will be best for showing the colours of my fish?

What color are your fish? The pinkish nes are best for red/blue fish -
they enhance those colors.

There are chaper alternatievs to Hagen tubes though. Yu don't
think hagen actually makes tubes do you?

GE, Osram/Sylvania and Philips make tubes.

Having said that I have a Life-Glow II that isa neat color I haven't
seen from any other tube. It nothing special for growing plants
(warm white woiuld work as well) but it's neat.

I wouldmn't buy another though, too damn expensive for what it is.


--
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[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Feral Boy wrote:

> Hi, could someone please tell me which will be the best Hagen light tube
> will be best for showing the colours of my fish?

For showing colours a natural white bulb (5000 to 6000 Kelvin) would be
best. However there are other things to consider.

Do you have a fresh- or seawater tank? If seawater, your reef critters
need a lot of blue and ultraviolet light to stay healthy, and some of
them show a very pretty fluorescence. There are special "actinic" bulbs
for that, with light colour of 10,000 Kelvin and more.

If freshwater do you have plants? Plants require red and blue light for
photosynthesis, but standard tubes give little red. Thus your plants
would do better with a "tropical" broad-spectrum tube. There are also
"grow"-lights, which have only blue and red, no green. For a plant only
tank that might be acceptable, as plants use little green light anyway.
However, under that sort of light the colours of fishes would look very
unnatural.

If you don't have plants, a cheap standard white tube from the
supermarket would serve you just as well as the more expensive ones from
your LFS.

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
Dr Engelbert Buxbaum > wrote:
>Feral Boy wrote:
>
>> Hi, could someone please tell me which will be the best Hagen light tube
>> will be best for showing the colours of my fish?
>
>For showing colours a natural white bulb (5000 to 6000 Kelvin) would be
>best. However there are other things to consider.
>
>Do you have a fresh- or seawater tank? If seawater, your reef critters
>need a lot of blue and ultraviolet light to stay healthy, and some of
>them show a very pretty fluorescence. There are special "actinic" bulbs
>for that, with light colour of 10,000 Kelvin and more.
>
>If freshwater do you have plants? Plants require red and blue light for
>photosynthesis, but standard tubes give little red. Thus your plants
>would do better with a "tropical" broad-spectrum tube. There are also
>"grow"-lights, which have only blue and red, no green. For a plant only
>tank that might be acceptable, as plants use little green light anyway.
>However, under that sort of light the colours of fishes would look very
>unnatural.
>
>If you don't have plants, a cheap standard white tube from the
>supermarket would serve you just as well as the more expensive ones from
>your LFS.

No offense intende but this article above represents state of the art
1980's thinking. I've proved to myself that warm white work evry bit
as good. You can easily do the same if you try.

If you want to go crasy you could add a cool white or daylight
as well, which is, by golly, what people used to use before all those
short lived designer pink petshop tubes came out.

--
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Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
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[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Richard Sexton wrote:

> I've proved to myself that warm white work evry bit
> as good.

May well work, because the "light colour" of fluorescent tubes has
little to do with spectral composition, as I explained in a different
thread.

> If you want to go crasy you could add a cool white or daylight
> as well, which is, by golly, what people used to use before all those
> short lived designer pink petshop tubes came out.

Designer pink is plain ugly, I'd never use them. What I was recomending
is not those so-called "grow lights", but "tropicals" which have a
higher red contend than many standard tubes. Their light appears white
around 6000 K, IIRC.

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
Dr Engelbert Buxbaum > wrote:
>Richard Sexton wrote:
>
>> I've proved to myself that warm white work evry bit
>> as good.
>
>May well work, because the "light colour" of fluorescent tubes has
>little to do with spectral composition, as I explained in a different
>thread.

Understood, but plants don't care what you use as long as it's
intense enough. I've heard people voice the ida a 15W super fancy
designer tubeis better than a 40W warm white. We call these people
"ones that have not actually tried this".

>> If you want to go crasy you could add a cool white or daylight
>> as well, which is, by golly, what people used to use before all those
>> short lived designer pink petshop tubes came out.
>
>Designer pink is plain ugly, I'd never use them. What I was recomending
>is not those so-called "grow lights", but "tropicals" which have a
>higher red contend than many standard tubes. Their light appears white
>around 6000 K, IIRC.

5000K is white, the "color of noonday tropical sunlight".

6700 is "nortlight" the color of Swedish daylight at noon.

6000K wold be, uh, Pensicola Florida at 2 pm or something :-)

I don't mind the pink tubes. Works good for some combinations
of fish and plants.

--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home page: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net