Bulbs for a twin tube hood

"Andy Pastuszak" wrote in message
news:2010042613312311272-amp68nospam@verizonnet...
I have a planted 30 gallon extra high tank with a 24" twin tube strip light
I bough a few years ago. It cam with 2 T5 22" bulbs that have since burned
out. I manage to find online, 22" 5500K "daylight" T5 bulbs which came in
the mail today. Are 5500K bulbs good to use in a planted tank, or should I
be using a different wavelength?


When I was still using regular fluorescents I preferred "aquaglo" bulbs
which are 18000K. My fish room receives a lot of ambient light during the
day though. If it was a darker room, I would have probably gone with one
aquaglo and one that is more white/yellow like the sunglo which is about
5500K I think. In any case, the color temperature doesn't matter as much as
the actual spectrum it produces. For optimal plant growth, you want a bulb
with peaks in the blue and red range (not far red).

Hope that helps.
-N