T8 Lighting For Planted Aquarium

Zoo med makes some good bulbs for planted tanks.

T8 lighting for planted aquarium.

Upgrading from t8 bulbs to the stronger t5 bulbs make this fixture perfect for the planted freshwater aquarium. It is a good plant light but pricey. Consider what you and your tank need from an led light source before deciding on a fixture. Understanding the basics of planted aquarium lights.

If you avoid the more demanding plants you can have a nicely planted tank with a single t8 or t12 6500k bulb. You can see the mix of red blue and warm white leds mixed with neutral white leds being used. Each tank has unique needs so make sure you re picking the right light for your tank i e. The bulb has lasted more than a year.

The triton bulb is made by interpet and i believe it is a t10 bulb. 3 86 based on 3 hrs day 11c kwh. If your tank is taller and a little narrower than use a t8. I wanted the fixture to give a long height clearance above the tank which.

Attached is a pic of a tank i put together with just a single t8 6500k 32 watt bulb i got from the local hardware store for about 10 00. In the video below. Advanced guide to lighting a planted tank the youtuber goes over some common misconceptions about the spectrums of light plants actually use. Planted tank lighting 101.

Home depot carries philips 6500k daylite bulbs in a t8 as well as t12. Perhaps ruki will chime in on the zoo med and post a spectral output graph for it. Philips plant and aquarium light bulb helps cast the right light spectrum that is needed for growing plants indoors and keeping fish happy. If you re growing a lot of high light plants don t pick one of the more dim fixtures on this list.

July 23 2019 8 min read. If the tank is shorter and a bit wider then go with the t12. In the tank below i run a custom build bml led bar on this tank. Cost depend on rates and use.

It provides 1300 lumens of light and lasts for at least 24 000 hours. It has a built in reflector to increase light reflection and intensity. For example there s a chart floating around that says plants barely absorb any light in the 540 to 580 spectral range the green light range. The picture series shows the same aquarium 54 litre starter set with a standard t8 tube of 15 watts b t5 tube of 24 watts and c 2 x t5 tubes with 24 watts per tube in order to visualize how much more light is given off by using a t5 tube rather than a t8 tube the same amount as you get from switching from one tube to two tubes.