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Re: Light Quality
Karen Randall wrote:
> There is absolutely no question that you _can_ have a beautiful palnted
> tank with very high light levels... The question is, is there anything you
> are growing at this level that could not be grown very well at lower light
> levels? And if not, does it make sense to throw our limited resources
> away in this fashion? Obviously, even running a tank uses energy, and
> everything we do every day has some impact on our environment. Everyone
> has to decide for themselves whether the benefits outweigh the costs. I
> think we need to think about it, though, and make a rational decision
> rahter than just buying into the "more is better" mentality. (I'm not
> accusing you of that... you may have gone through this thought process
> already. I'm just asking each aquarist to do it for themselves)
And these are just the questions which are going through my mind
as a result of this light intensity thread. I'm not a "more is better"
kind of person in general, but I had come to believe that in the case
of lighting, more was indeed better. Now I have reason to rethink
that position. Certainly I'd rather not pay for the bulbs, ballast,
endcaps, and electricity if it is not necessary!
>
> >and one 40 high @ 3 watts/gal. No
> >reflectors, just white paint. In the latter tank I recently replaced 2
> >coralife 50/50's (there for color balance with the trichromatics)
>
> The idea of "balancing" color with mixtures of tubes is a tricky one. If
> your goal is to balance the color in terms of eye-appeal, that's fine. If
> the goal is to somehow "balance" the color for the plants, you are fooling
> yourself. The plants that are under the blue tubes will get the blue
> light, and those under the pink tubes (or whatever) will get the pink
> light.
I was balancing it for my eyes. The trichromatics look yellowish to
me, the 50/50's combined to create a more natural color. I'd use
cool whites instead if I could stand the color they create in a tank -
I'm sure the plants wouldn't care.
>
> >with Ultra Tri Lux (a fine bulb!) and the difference in light level is
> marked.
> >The plants notice it too. It's still 3 watts/gal, but it means
> >something entirely different than it did before.
>
> If your plants improved in growth with the change in bulbs, that is a good
> indication that it was a good choice. Don't, however, be fooled because
> the tank "looks" brighter. The part of the spectrum that we see best,
> (green light) is exactly the part of the spectrum that plants use least.
> So just because a bulb "looks" brighter, has no direct bearing on its
> ability to grow plants. Some of the "dimmest" looking, purplish bulbs
> grow plants very, very well, if you don;t care how the tank looks ;-)
Yes, I am aware of this. The tank does look brighter (which makes
me happy) but the plants are also growing better (which also
makes me happy!). I think the actinic element in the 50/50's was
not contributing much to the needs of the plants. Tritons might
have been a better choice for that "color blending". The nice thing
about the Ultra Tri Lux bulbs is that not only do they provide a
strong green component for our eyes, but they do a good job of
providing the red and blue peaks for the plants as well.
Thank you for your input. I'll be keeping it all in mind.
Cathy Hartland