"Blue Light" Special

[Anna Piranha]

Ok, this is probably something that everybody, except me, knew. I had to replace the aquarium bulb yesterday. A bulb is a bulb, yes? Well, the temperature of the one I chose was 10,000 Kelvin. Now, this is where I really can see the stupidity of my ways... One of my hobbies is photography, so I am familiar with the Kelvin scale in terms of color temperature. 10,000K is in the blue spectrum. So I put this bulb in and VOILA! My tank looks like the Blue Lagoon minus the sandy beach! It's BEAUTIFUL and the colors of the Discus are absolutely vibrant. I have a Red Melon, two Blue Diamonds, checkerboards, a Snow White, and a couple of Pigeon Bloods. They look like Discus Supermodels in this light! Wow!

Ok...I'm just about over it...but who knew???

Do you suppose bad things will happen now, like increased algae growth or some way-out thing that occurs in Discus tanks when you apply blue light?

Take care everyone!
Anna

[M0oN]

Shouldn't have any problems aside from the discus being shy for a little bit from the light change...just make sure you do water changes I imagine...

[RandalB]

Anna,
Everyone using All-Glass hoods has 9325K bulbs running. I've never had a problem with higher K rated bulbs and discus.

Aside from being more expensive than others, I don't see any problems with 10000K Bulbs...

RandalB

[jeep]

Thanks for the info. My discus really don't have much color since I removed the gravel and plants and I've been thinking about changing the lighting.

What's the brand name?

Got any pics of your fish???

Brian

Another good combination to bring out colours is:
Blue Moon and normal bulbs. Of course it is a bit more exspensive.

Works great for me.

Ronald

[MonkeeFish]

since we're talking about lighting can i pop in a question??

i bought this undercabniet light fixture and
so i figure out a way to squeeze it into my lil plastic hood
(got pix if u guyz wanna see juss tell me )
so i hooked up all the wires
but now everytime i wanna turn it on
i kind of gotta mess around wit the bulbs
and if im lucky i touch it and wow it comes on

Do u guyz suppose it's the type of bulb im using that is causing this
or maybe there's something wrong wit the fixture

the fixture in my house
comes on usually when i plug it in
unless the bulb burned out

[paniza]

MonkeeFish,

I believe the problem is your starter... if you have one ... which is the small cylinder that sparks the lamp.

AFAIK there are 2 type of fluorescent systems, automatic and with starters (cheaper) which the second sometimes happens what you just described.


HTH

[paniza]

Btw, I have one of these nice blue bulbs from philips in an aquarium upstairs ... today I went to buy the same lamp for the discus and I coudn't find them anymore. >

I went in 5 different stores but no luck. :'(

It was their lamp for aquarium and plants...so nice! Now they have a new version that looks so boring... oh well, perhaps the new one works better. dunno.

[Alan]

Monkeefish, check the ballast of your fluoroscent lamp. If it's not compatible with a T8 (the top of the line 1-click type) that may be your problem. Also, the bulb has to be T8. They're available at Home Depot or Lowe's.

Paniza, try Home Depot or Lowe's or your local lighting/hardware store. Or you can get "Aqua Glo," which is a bit more expensive, from your LFS.

[M0oN]

Could also be that the pins of your light aren't touching the metal connectors in the ballasts properly...had that problem with older "snap in" ballasts before...

[MonkeeFish]

i will check on the bulbs

it could alwayz be the pin soo confusing lolz