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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