[milkdud]

I am ready to order a 2x55watt kit from ahsupply for a standard 29gal planted aquarium, but need a little help on light asthetics.

6700K bulbs are a little too yellow
10000K bulbs are a little too blue

Originally I was going to do one of each... but the lighting may appear uneven. (example, 6700 in rear of hood and 10000 in front of hood produces different visible spectrums front to back.)

I am curious about the 7800K lighting. Maybe two of these would be the best option to provide a good inbetween color temp (K) and provide even lighting as well. (ie 7800 in both front and rear of hood.)

Does anyone have any pics showing 7800K compared to 6700K, and 1000K lighting on a plant tank? I am really interrrested in the potential utility of these 7800K bulbs.

Thanks all. :icon_mrgr

 

[Ahkuma]

I was just about to make a thread on this as well. I need to replace the bulbs on my main tank and I like the blue look too. Curious to see what k is best.

 

[yoink]

I like to mix different bulbs if they are front to back, if I went with only a sigle color I would prefer 6700k. I think 6700/10000k looks better than either color by itself. I like 9325k with 10000k the best. I bought a few differnt bulbs and switched them around until I got something I liked.

 

[Left C]

I don't know if this is a good analogy or not. AHSupply's 7800K bulbs are new to me. I haven't seen them or read anything about them.

I just got some of the 8000K ADA PC NA lamps for an Orbit fixture. I have one of these bulbs in the front. In the back, I have a dual daylight 6700K/10,000K bulb. The 8000K bulb looks like a crisp white light. The 6700K part looks a little yellowish and the 10,000K part looks a little blueish.

Overall, I like the look of the 8000K bulb. I bought two of them and I might swap out the other dual daylight bulb for one.

I don't know if the color spectrum of the 7800K is similar to the 8000K bulbs though. The 8000K bulb has an extra small spike in the green color portion of it's color spectrum.

Many people like the 8800K bulbs which may be somewhat similar.

It would be great if you did a review on them.

 

[aquarium boy]

i have a new 4 65 watt light fixture and ordered 2 6500k(might be 6700k i cant remember) and 2 7800k the 7800k makes the 6500/6700k light even out to a light greenish blue color instead of a yellow color.

 

[crazy loaches]

My sight must be poor I cant really tell a difference between 6700K and 10,000K or even 12,000K with the bulbs I have tried. Honestly. Thats looking right at the bulb with the eye. I wouldnt worry too much about the appearence of the tank being uneven unless your talking more of an extreme difference in bulbs.

 

[spypet]

just to give you some color comparison;

personally I think all these bulbs between 6700-10k
are a scam just to get you to pay more money for
what is essentially the same color as a 10k bulb.
the only reason I got that 8800k bulb is because
it was cheap, not because of it's fashionable color.

 

[milkdud]

Great pics. Does anyone have a 10000K for comparison?

Fashion has nothing to do with it. It simply would be nice to have an aquarium that is lit up in such a way that it is pleasing to view.

To me, lights that are too yellow, tannins, etc make the water look like piss. Not pleasing.

Lights that are higher K tend to make things appear a little blue and have slightly washed out colors. I like that look for africans and SW.

For a FW planted tank I just want white light that does make everything appear as if it has a slight blanket of a particular color.



Cliffs: I enjoy looking at my tank most when it is lit in the most pleasing spectrum.

 

[eklikewhoa]

10,000k on the left and 9325k on the center and right

I think the 8800k posted above is much "whiter" then 10,000k!

Spypet, where did you find that colormax/6700k coralife bulb?

 

[crazy loaches]

As long as were posting pics I'll throw in some.

Here is a 12,000K daylight bulb(odyssea) along side a 6700K bulb (coralife) with the camera on auto:

The pic looks a bit washed out - this is more how it appears to my eye, both simply white. You cant even tell which one is which, much like in person.


But if we slow the shutter speed down and 'dim' the look of the bulb it brings out more color that isnt apperent to the eye:

Here you can just tell the lower bulb is slightly more blue (its the 12,000K).

But to be honest, the tank was so bright and white that it washed things out, especially with white aroginte substrate. And my coralife bulb just burnt out after like a few months :angryfire so I just bought all new lighting. I tired to get the greatest veriety of light one could get in a two bulb setup - 4 different colors:

Top is a 50/50 actinic/10,000K super daylight and bottom is a coralife colormax/6700K combo light. You can barely see a difference between the 6700k and 10,000K here and that small differnce is mostly because of the camera, to my eye there is no difference at all just retna burning white lol. :icon_idea

 

[sandiegoryu]

Did you mean turn the shutter speed up? Faster shutter speed means darker pics. Or did you mean close the aperture?

There is a thread on APC on 9325k and the GREAT difference it makes on the color of the tanks.

 

[spypet]

here are my old T5 18w bulbs; since we are showing off our bulb pix

 

[crazy loaches]

Did you mean turn the shutter speed up? Faster shutter speed means darker pics. Or did you mean close the aperture?

There is a thread on APC on 9325k and the GREAT difference it makes on the color of the tanks.

Either. Faster shutter speed or higher aperture number will dim the picture and bring out more color in the pic when photgraphing lights, each will have slightly different effects but not a biggie. However you can really change the look and apparent color temperture by doing so. So its really hard to accurately guage anything by pictures of light bulbs. It will also sometimes show how dim some bulbs are compared to others, I have a pic I took and one of the bulbs doesnt even look like its on since the bulb right beside it was so much brighter (even though they were both the same wattage). I do like the look of the mix of 4 colors I posted above (look of the tank I am talking about), I just need to clean it up alot before I take any tank pics

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I have dual AH 96w PC's. I run one 5000k and one 6700k to balance the reds and blues of my Discus and other fish.

I may go to a higher K rating at the next rebulb just to brighten the tank a bit more. I'm also sort of hoping it might help my Glosso a bit, even though most who know more than me tell me K rating won't make it stay any flatter.

Tommy

 

[eklikewhoa]

I have HC and different rotalas and will tell you that I run both 6700k bulbs and I have my stems shooting out horizontal shoots!
New shoots grow low to the ground as if it were foreground but I have high light over the tank which is 2x96w over a 30g