Lighting Question for New Discus Tank?

I am setting up my first Discus tank, 65 Gal. - 48" X 18.5" X 17" and have some lighting questions. It will have gravel substrate, driftwood and hopefully some LIVE plants. I was over at the Lowe's store yesterday trying to decide which T-12 bulbs to use and I am not sure which to get. They have the one marked for Aquarium and Plants but it has no K rating listed and a CRI of 90 and then there is another one which was either Full Daylight or Full Sunlight with a K rating of 6500 and CRI of 75. They are both 40 watts each and I was planning on having 4 of them in my canopy. From this information can you tell me which would be the best choice for showing up the fishies and for general plant growth.

Thanks,
Bryant

[Wahter]

for people who didn't see my reply on the other forum: ;D

CRI = Color Rendering Index.

Color rendering describes how a light source makes the color of an object appear to our eyes, and how well subtle variations in color shades are revealed. A lamp’s color rendering ability is measured on the Color Rendering Index (CRI) scale from 0 to 100 (with 100 representing the index given to natural sunlight). The higher the CRI rating, the better the lamp’s color rendering ability.

For more info; check here:
http://www.lightenergysource.com/ColorRendering.htm

Personally, I like lights that are around 6500k for color temp. From the information I've read, you want lights with a spike in blue and red spectrums, however we humans can't see those, so you will also want a spike in the green spectrum (which bounced off plants). Tri-phosphor lights have these. If you're using standard / normal output fluorescent lights, I like the Ultra Sun by ZooMed:

http://www.zoomed.com/html/lites.php

But you can save some money and instead of getting a specialty light, go with something like a 5000K light, such as the GE Sunshine (which can be found at Home Depot or sometimes Walmart).

HTH,

Walter

For anyone who has any confusion about lighting and how it affects you, your fishies, your plants and your aquarium, the link which Walter refered me to in the above post is an excellent source of information. Thanks again Walter for all of your help and for anyone who doesn't know it yet Walter also has an excellent source of information on his website at www.aquariumhobbyist.com/discus/

Hope you didn't mind me brag in on you here Walter but it has been alot of help to me and I sure it will be to many others as well.

Thanks,
Bryant

[hooha]

any links on testing/scores for different lightbulbs?
I've seen the following link for GE bulbs, however Lowes carries Sylvania bulbs, it would be nice to have a comparison with that brand as well
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/H...7/spectra.html