planting bulb vs cfl help

[Sethjohnson30]

Originally Posted by Dugsul808

How do you calculate the par?

You buy a par meter. Or just ask hoppy. He is the lighting god.


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[acitydweller]

Hoppy knows his math

[Dugsul808]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

That 14 watt CFL bulb should be about 20 inches above the substrate to get 40 micromols of PAR, which is as much light as you need, with CO2 to grow the carpet. Any closer to the substrate and you will very likely have to fight off algae attacks.

What about a 14 watt 6500k same brand bulb?
And I'm trying to grow it with the dry start method though

[kamikazi]

Sylvania makes 13 watt CFLs that are 6500K. I use their bulbs.

A 14 watt 6500K CFL should work great.

[kamikazi]

sorry, double post...

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by Dugsul808

How do you calculate the par?

I don't know of any way to calculate the PAR, but I may try to figure out a way to do it starting with lumens. I haven't tried that yet. You can buy a lux meter from Amazon or Ebay for around $15 plus shipping, and use that to measure the light intensity in lux at the same distance as your bulb will be from the substrate, with the light sitting across a couple of chairs. Divide the lux reading by 61 and you are very close to the PAR at that distance.

EDIT: No you can't calculate PAR. If you had a point source of light, mounted at exactly the focal point of a perfect and huge parabolic reflector, you could calculate the PAR. But, we never have either a point source of light nor a perfect parabolic reflector. The problem is that so much of the light is not directed to the aquarium substrate, and the light that is directed to the substrate isn't evenly distributed over a known area. No matter how much data you get you are always short of data to calculate the PAR or lux at all accurately. We are stuck with having to measure it if we want an accurate number.

[BDoss1985]

I use 2 6500k cfl bulbs made by Sylvania in my bedroom 10g planted tank and they work great. Forgot to mention they are small so they're in a normal 10g hood.

[Darreiamss]

i will certainely recommend 14 watt CFL LIGHT as no doubt it will last longer and will also consume less electricity than that philips bulb. and it will not heat up too much as the bulb gets heated as it makes water too much hot

[Dugsul808]

Originally Posted by Darreiamss

i will certainely recommend 14 watt CFL LIGHT as no doubt it will last longer and will also consume less electricity than that philips bulb. and it will not heat up too much as the bulb gets heated as it makes water too much hot

I'm using the 14 watt right now. Got some result seeking more runners but sprouting slowly

[Dugsul808]

Originally Posted by kamikazi

Sylvania makes 13 watt CFLs that are 6500K. I use their bulbs.

A 14 watt 6500K CFL should work great.

I seen some 13watt 6500k bulbs at long but they were 17$ for 1. So I'm trying to look for something cheaper

[Kai808]

Hey, I usually get the GE Daylight 6500K from Walmart for $6-8???. What kind of substrate are you using? I had DHG in my 10g first planted tank. It was sitting in an open garage with just ambient sunlight. It took about 3 months to carpet.

[Dugsul808]

Originally Posted by Kai808

Hey, I usually get the GE Daylight 6500K from Walmart for $6-8???. What kind of substrate are you using? I had DHG in my 10g first planted tank. It was sitting in an open garage with just ambient sunlight. It took about 3 months to carpet.

I just get some ge day lights at Walmart for 5$. And I'm using ada substrate