High Output T5 Tubes

[solonavi]

Hi Guys,

Got some new T5HO yesterday and snap a few pix of them powered up. Tot of sharing it here.



There are 3 different tube in this pix. Anyone wanna guess what are they?

Cheers
JC

[valice]

The reddish one is the 5000K Aquamedic Planta tube?
Center one looks like a 10000K tube...

[Justikanz]

How come got purplish colour one?? 5000K, 6700K, 10,000K?

[solonavi]

Valice got the planta correct. Its 5000Kelvin with quite a peek in the 650nm spectrum thus look pinkish.


This is the same tube in my 3ft fixture.


As for the other two tubes in the 1st pix? Nope. There is no 10000Kelvin nor 6700Kelvin. Answer is available in my blog actually. Its 6500Kelvin and 3000Kelvin.

The 3000Kelvin look too orange for me and is not avail in 3ft. Thus end up I'm using a combi of 5000K and 6500K.


JC

[valice]

Actually hor, the planta haven't burn in yet... That's why it is so pinkish...
After a day, it will be "whiter" but from the reflection off the reflector, the pink tinge still can be observed...

From your tube wordings, it is the OSRAM 6500K?

[solonavi]

Yup. Its Osram T5HO/865.

JC

[Ariel]

Yup. Its Osram T5HO/865.

JC

Bro,
Can tell me where u got the 6500k T5HO tube?
Greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[solonavi]

The 6500K are Osram. I got them from Sinter @ Sim Lim Tower.

Cheers
JC

[mordrake]

putting in any reflectors? will greatly enhance the tube outputs...

[solonavi]

hee. Of course. Pix taken without else you'll hardly see the color difference.

JC

[vratenza]

Bro Solovani,
read your blog.....found your research into the lighting intriguing.... so i gather that 10,000K tubes are "algae-inducing"? I am currently using combi of 6500K and 10,000K.....should i change to all 6500K?
Thanks!

[solonavi]

I wun dare to say that 10000K will induce algae. Its something to think abt.

If your tank is well (no algae), I see no reason to change. Hovever, if u are combatting algae and have tried all means, maybe its something u might want to think abt.

Cheers
JC

[valice]

10000K lighting doesn't induce algae!

Spectrum is merely a representation of the components of light emitted... So the difference between 10000K lights and 6500K is merely more green components, refer to JC's fabulous charts, in the 10000K, which makes the human eye think that the tank is brighter... Period.

Algae is merely an opportunistic creature that feed on excess nutrients, lights and what not which the plants don't use... So if you use 10000K and don't provide sufficient CO2, and still whack alot of nutrients, of course the algae will love you and grow... This is true also for 6500K lights...

The plants will adapt to using 10000K lights in the long run...

[khuancc]

Is this Aqua Medic Planta 5000k tube good for planted aquarium? OR is it more for marine plants?

[valice]

Hahah.. Aqua Medic's Planta of course is for planted aquarium... It has the peaks at the reds and blue spectrum, hence are good for plants in planted aquariums...

I am not sure about the requirements of marine plants... Will need the reefers answer that...

[khuancc]

Hahah.. Aqua Medic's Planta of course is for planted aquarium... It has the peaks at the reds and blue spectrum, hence are good for plants in planted aquariums...

I am not sure about the requirements of marine plants... Will need the reefers answer that...

appologies for the noob's question asked... haha, becos my old brain all the while thought for plants must die die use 6500k..

[valice]

It is alright to ask any question in the forums... If no questions asked, no answer given, so forever blind to the truth... We are all here to learn from each other...

Plants would like light spectrum between 5000K to 10000K and then adapt to the available light for their photosynthesis...

[michael lai]

Hi Khuancc,
I'm sure valice just spoke his mind without any malice intended. Don't worry about newbie questions, don't know just ask. There was a time when I didn't know what was a regulator and a solenoid.

[valice]

Yah... Really no malice in valice...
I used to not know that a substrate was just anything that is at the bottom of the tank! Even simple gravel sand was substrate... Hahaha...

[GaspingGurami]

Colour Temperature and Algae:

Perhaps this will be better in a separate thread, but since we're also discussing colour temperatures, I'll post here. Mods, pls move this if it's better elsewhere.

My better half owns this tank of Angels, Tiger barbs, 2 CAE and Ghostfishes. And in it, I plant Vallis nana mainly and some stalks of Anubias barteri var nana, A. angustifolia, Cryptocoryne wendtii, C. aponogetifolia, C. crispulata var crispulata, Java ferns, taiwan moss and a Marimo mosball.

BBA and GSA used to be the bane of this tank when it was illuminated 10 hours daily by an 18W PL lamp rated at D65. (1.2 Watts per Gal).

With no change to any other parameter, I replaced this PL light with a 15W FL (1 Watt per Gal) with some chaina brand I can't remember. The box said Daylight 10,000K for Marine and plants. I did no water change, no algae removal, generous feeding as per normal.

For the first 2 months, the plants look bad. But algae was not increasing either. Only complaint from the lady was I used UV light instead of normal light making her fish look pale. (the emmitted light looks very blue, much bluer than my Aquamedic T5 alse rated 10000k). I explained her complaint's not true since UV is so high a wavelength that it cannot be seen but still the name stuck.

On the 3rd month, the plants adapted, and started to show some growth. Surprisingly, the algae actually receeded so much that the glass, substrate, driftwood, everything else is algae free, except for some old BBA left behind on the old leaves of the Anubias, and some red algae on the tips of the Vals floating at the water surface 2 inches below the bulb.

Curious to know what is the colour temp of this "blue 10,000K" light, I brought home a Minolta spectrophotometer. The reading came as no surprise. The lamp's output read 24,000 K. I didn't bring a lightmeter to check, but I'm sure this 15watt FL gives out lesser lumens than the 18watt PL.

These are my observations. I'm not claiming here that 24,000K light stops algae, neither am I claiming that the plants outcompeted the algae but I'm just stating my observations to add to this pool of information for all to interprete.