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[APD] help with finding inexpensive metal halides?
I have a 120 gallon planted tank lit with two 250W metal halide
pendants. One bulb died this weekend and the other is looking dim so I
started looking into replacements, as my LFS doesn't carry the bulbs I
need. When I saw that bulbs sold specifically for aquariums on the
pet-supply websites go for about $100 each I tried to look around for
alternative sources. After doing some research on the Krib I have found
that I should probably find at minimum bulbs with a CRI >90 and a temp
of 5000K (at minimum, higher is probably better.) It seems as though
bulbs with a lesser CRI and temperature could be used (and would be just
fine for the plants) but apparently would cause the tank and light in
the room to be an unpleasant color. The tank acts as a room divider
between my dining and living rooms, so it's important to me that the
light quality be pleasant. The tank has very few animal residents (a
few shrimp, one incredibly large SAE, one angel, a few otos, one pleco
and finally about a dozen tetras) and plants are primarily swords,
crypts, aponogentons, and anubias. No fast growing plants because I'm
lazy and don't want to spend the time on the maintenance. :)
If anyone out there thinks that I'm incorrect (ie, a CRI of 60-70 on a
3500k bulb would be just fine - these bulbs were much less expensive)
and/or can point me to a source I would be very grateful. Thank you!
Jen
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