what the differents between normal and plant lights????

[Newbie]

pls answer=) i would really like 2 know thx alot 4 reading this

[|squee|]

Normal lights are just, well... normal. I assume by normal lights you mean household type of lights?

Plant lights are made most significantly for their colour temperature ( 6000 k to 6500k if I'm not wrong ) which is the colour temperature of daylight. Some plant lights also have more of a colour range in the colour spectrum like pink or blue or red, which are good for some plants I've heard.

[Newbie]

i got a pink 1 but u think plants can grow with a bright spot light=X

[hirowen]

Spot light is not really efficient to planted tank. It produce high level of heat. Not good for plant.

[robin]

Actually I believe most of the brothers here use "normal" lights for the tank and it works well. I assume that PLs, FLs, MH etc are what you meant by Normal lights. These are relatively cheaper (except MH) than your so called "fish" lights from tropica, dennerle etc.

However, "normal" lights will do the job provide the color temp is daylight i.e. around 5600K.

Robin

[Newbie]

thx alot robin=) i will takr your advice into consideration=)

[elmike]

By normal, I take it that people mean lights that are commonly used in home, offices, hotels, etc, But normal is a meaningless term.

It’s helpful to have some basic knowledge on lighting types, which I find lacking in most people, even salespersons in lighting shops and boys at lfs. Without getting too technical, lights that we see everyday can be categorised into 3 broad types in terms of their spectral emissions: 1) daylight; 2) white light; and 3) yellow light.

Daylight can either be D65 (around 6500 K, with UV component) or “C” (minus UV portion, which is the preferred light when administering colour vision tests or experiments on colour research). White light (TL84 – 4000-4400K), which includes cool white tubes and compact downlights, are commonly used in offices/ institutions, shopping malls, as well as in modern homes. “F’ (previously “A” – 2000-2800K) includes the incandescent lamps and warm white downlights. It gives yellow-orange light and is the lighting of choice today in modern designer homes.

D65 daylight is good for plant as it approximates sunlight. For home décor, however, daylight tubes are nowadays considered as old-fashioned. Because of its high blue content, it gives a dull feeling and has a depressive effect on the mood. The older HDB homes were fitted with circular tube fixtures and home owners find themselves stuck with daylight as circular tubes comes only in daylight, of course unless they’re willing to spend the money and have the ceiling light fixtures changed. In contrast, warm white lighting evokes a cosy, romantic ambience, but I personally prefer a combination of cool and warm white, as a preponderance of yellow-to-orange tones gives too much of a hot sensation.

As the name implies, “plant” tubes are specially made to promote plant growth. It has 2 distinct peaks in the red and blue region. I’m not sure abt its colour temp range, but you can tell it apart by its purplish tinge (think additive colour mixing). For fish tanks, I personally like to have combinations of 2 daylight tubes and 1 or 2 plant tubes. Exclusive use of daylight gives the tank a whitewash and overly green appearance, sometimes to the extent of a “green water’ look from afar (if the tank is heavily planted but without red plants). Plant tubes also enhance the reddish-orange hues of the fish.