Lighting Temperature

[mattdog]

Hey,

 

I just found out that my PC's are 7100K temperature. I got a 2x55w setup; one blue and one white. My question is, is this okay? Any benefits or detriments from this setup over my 20L. Is it worth it to upgrade to the 10000K lights? The color looks good over the tank IMO. Just need some feedback on this.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

[MKramer]

I suspect that only the blue bulb as 7100K, as that is the typical color assigned to actinic bulbs.

 

Whose lights are you using?

 

While color temperature can be misleading in flourescents, it tends to be fairly consistent within the aquarium industry. 6400-6700K being the daylight simulating bulbs, 7100-7300K being the actinic-generating blue bulbs, and 10000+K being the blindingly white bulbs.

 

Most 50/50 bulbs are one half 7100K and half 10000K.

 

While you don't have 50/50 bulbs, I imagine your white bulb is probably 10000K. It could possible be a 6500-6700K, though.

 

The setup should be fine. It's probably overkill on the actinic, but then, so are most other lighting setups on nanos.

 

Matthew

[anthony812]

All you really need is a 55K and above to have the natural spectrum for the lights..the 65K is the closest to the actualy Kelvin Temperature output by the sun and the corals seems to do best under them..so not to worry , your lights are fine..

[mattdog]

Thanks for the replies guys!

[mattdog]

Just to answer a few of the questions you had. The bulbs are from Hamilton. The white one says that it is a 7100K White bulb. It shines just like a 10000K though. Maybe they goofed? They are the bulbs with the pins layed out in a square.

 

Thanks.

Matt

[MrConclusion]

I have seen the same "7100K" white bulbs, but the ones I got were 18 watt and came with a really cool fixture I couldn't pass up.

 

They look like 6500K's to me when I turned them on. I agree with the above statements that the color rendition is superior to 10K's.