In rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants Reel McKoi wrote:
:
: Where I live the 6500K's are $10 and that's at Wal*Mart.

I try to stay away from WalMart since they don't always treat their
workforce very well.

There is a place called Menards in the upper midwest. They sell
32 watt T8 Phillips Octron tubes for dirt cheap.

: I've had no luck with plant tubes. The tanks looked dark and the plants
: stretched.

I never use just plant tubes. I mix a plant bulb with a bulb that
provides light for a human eye.

: I have had really good luck with Seachem Flourish Excel. It helps keep
: my tank that tends to have a moderate algae problems to barely noticable
: algae here and there. Please note that it does kill certain kinds of
: plants (Vallisneria, Elodia (Anacharis), and Saggiteria. The product
: is way too expensive unless you buy it in bulk by the gallon jug.
:
: It is indeed expensive and we saw zero difference in either plant growth or
: algae.

This stuff completely cleared up a big mess in a very high light tank.
It also helps in some containers and tanks that don't have CO2 added
to them. But, this was used with an Estimative Index fertilizer
schedule. I haven't tried it with other growing methods.

: Actually my plants do very well under the cool and warm bulbs, unless
: there's a serious algae bloom as I have now.

That mix will work. It's been used for decades by people growing indoor
plants. However, many warm white bulbs don't have all that great of a
spectrum. You want red and blues for plants. In some 4100K tubes, the
red spikes were the same that were in the 3500K tube (The 3500K tube
was pretty much a 4100K tube, minus the blues...) So, sometimes two
good 4100K tubes will do better than a 4100K and a not-so-good 3500K.

From a personal aesthics point of view, a 6500K tube looks better to my
eye and is better at balancing up an ugly growLux tube. Of course,
others will prefer the look of another tube!