the key to that is that it is 50/50 bulb which can be used with success. It
contains the right spectrum of light with some in the red spectrum and a lot
in the blue spectrum. You can get away with less light if it is in the
right spectrum. Let me rephrase that: the reason some people say that you
can use any type of flourscent bulb and acheive growth as long as you have a
lot of wattage is because Most bulbs have at least some light in all of the
wavelengths. If you put enough bulbs over the top of the tank that will
eventually give you the amount of light that you need for each spectrum.
However it is conceivable that 1 bulb with spikes in the proper wavelengths
could equal the effectiveness of multiple bulbs with spikes weak in either
red or blue. Unless you put some thought into selecting your bulbs you will
be wasting your money and valuable space on top of your tank. I could now
go into reflectors but that is a whole other discussion. I know this to be
true
to go back to my original statement: the bulbs that come stock with 90% of
flourescent light strips are made by penn plax. These bulbs SUCK for plant
growth as they EXTREMELY weak in the red spectrum. you would need at least
a couple of these to equal one chroma 50 in red light. Think about it....
the science checks out and I know this from personal experience with a 10
gallon in which I couldn't grow a damn thing with when I had the 15watt
stock penn plax bulb, however I went to walmart dropped five bucks and all
the sudden I could grow all kinds of things. Don't get me wrong wattage
does matter! but for a guy with a ten gallon with a 15 watt strip over it I
just thought it was a cheap upgrade I mean cmon 10 gallons? Being a newbie
I don't think he's going to run out a get 36 watt PC flour kit ya know?
Ben Conaway
Fisheries Biologist
State University of New York at Brockport
p.s. plants aren't adaptable at all. Ask my discus who live at 79 degrees
because the plants melt right away when I crank it up.
A lot of people use the Custom Sealife SmartLites for planted tanks, which
are
50% actinic, and 50% 10,000K daylight.
Now, I'm not recommending actinics, and I don't deny that color of the
bulb can
have some effect on plant growth. But plants are very adaptable. They
may
prefer some wavelengths over others, but they'll use whatever you give
them --
as long as the wattage is adequate.
Leigh
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/