Lighting

[Sean]

I've been looking at getting new lighting for my 55 gallon peacock tank for a while now and I'm getting ready to order some online somewhere. I really like the Coralife ones. they give you these options: 10,000k Daylight, Colormax, Nutrigrow, 20,000k, Actinic, and 50/50. I don't know anything about lighting so I'm looking for some opinions from you guys. I think either the 10,000k Daylight or the 20,000k sound good for showing off colors (which is what I'm looking to do) but the 20,000k is made for corals so I'm wondering if it would be too bright? Which ones would you guys use, or what kind of lights do you use on your show tanks?

[Sean]

the colormax sounds pretty good too

[Ron]

Any good light should show what color spectrum it throws. The color(s) we see on objects is the color(s) the object reflects. For example, if you have a blue peacock, it's largely reflecting blue light and you want a bulb that shows it emits a strong blue color.

IMO, the only light that shows all colors well is the sun. When I had more blue fish in a tank, among other non-blue, I'd get a 50/50 (full actinic was too strong and made everything blue). When I've had tanks with much more orange, yellow, and green colors, I'd get a strong daylight bulb.

[four_by_ken]

I have two of the Coralife fixtures in my Peacock tank.  That is 4 bulbs total.  T5 bulbs.  They are actually Coralife "saltwater" fixtures.

I have two atinic and two 10k bulbs.  I think it is perfect amount of light for a peacock tank.

One fixture just wasnt enough light for me.

Check out my picture in this thread.  Light looks natural and not blue at all. 

http://michigancichlid.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=2059.0

But, I think different bulb manufactures can be more intense blue.

[Sean]

Looks good. So you think the 10k would work or would the 50/50 work better? I have to pick one or the other because I only have two fixtures and I don't want the tank to be half and half.

[four_by_ken]

Looks good. So you think the 10k would work or would the 50/50 work better? I have to pick one or the other because I only have two fixtures and I don't want the tank to be half and half.

Does each fixture have just one bulb or two?

How many bulbs total on your tank?

T5 or T8?

If I had to go with just one... I would probably go with the 10k myself.  I like the tank BRIGHT.  But a 50-50 would probably work out nice also at it will show a little more of the blue in the fish, but just not quite as bright.

[Sean]

There's one bulb in each fixture. T8. I like the tank really bright too. Maybe I will look into getting a fixture with two places for bulbs so I can use the 50/50 also. But for now just one bulb in each. I will also hopefully get some marineland hidden leds eventually which are pretty bright and do have a blue setting

[four_by_ken]

There's one bulb in each fixture. T8. I like the tank really bright too. Maybe I will look into getting a fixture with two places for bulbs so I can use the 50/50 also. But for now just one bulb in each. I will also hopefully get some marineland hidden leds eventually which are pretty bright and do have a blue setting

With my dual bulb fixture, the bulbs are so close that the light all blends together and you cant tell it is two bulbs giving off the light.

But, I would fear that with your two separate T8 single bulbs... if you did one 10k and one atinic... you would have brite white on one half and blue on the other half.

So.... I would go with 50-50 in both fixtures myself.  (I mind of changed my mind from the last post)  My reasoning behind this is that with peacocks, blues are so prevalent... I think you would want to bring that out at least a little bit.  The 50-50 bulbs will help with that over the 10ks.

Or you could even do a 50-50 and a 10k.

Something else to remember is that over time, the bulbs will loose some of their "power".
I couldnt believe how much our lost after about a year, maybe a little less.  Replacing them (they did not burn out) made a HUGE difference and back to the look we loved at the start.

[Sean]

It won't be too blue and wash out the other colors? I will be picking up a bunch of stuff at and after the auction. So the tank will be full of lots of colors. there will be lots of red, blue, orange, yellow, and a little bit of green (I want this one to stand out since it will be the only green fish, will the 50/50 do that?)

[four_by_ken]

It won't be too blue and wash out the other colors? I will be picking up a bunch of stuff at and after the auction. So the tank will be full of lots of colors. there will be lots of red, blue, orange, yellow, and a little bit of green (I want this one to stand out since it will be the only green fish, will the 50/50 do that?)

It should.  You said you liked a lot of light.  Could do a 10k and 50-50.  That would be a nice blend and you wouldnt get the half and half look to the tank if one of them was an atinic.

[Sean]

Ok, I will try to order one of each. Thanks! Do you remember where you got yours?

[four_by_ken]

Ok, I will try to order one of each. Thanks! Do you remember where you got yours?

I originally got my fixtures from GreatLakesAquariums.

I dont remember where I got the replacement bulbs from.  I found prices to be pretty close locally and after shipping, there wasnt much savings on getting them over the internet.

[Sean]

Thanks for all the help, I'll look around and see what I can find. 

[four_by_ken]

Thanks for all the help, I'll look around and see what I can find. 

My pleasure.

[Steve]

On my two 55g tanks I use the Odessya (sp) brand off ebay (about $55+free shipping)

They are T5 48" dual light set up with one 10k bulb and one atinic bulb on the one tank, and the other is a 6500k and atinic on the other tank. I've had them each for over a year now and they show colors very nicely on both my tanks.

Just tossing that out there as another option because they are much cheaper than coralife and yet are still a good quality fixture.