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It is time for me to replace the bulbs on my planted 38 gallon tank. There are 2 fixtures over the tank. One is a coralife T5 fixture with 2 x 21 watt bulbs and the other fixture can hold a 24" standard fluorescent bulb at up to 20 watts. The T5 fixture came with a colormax bulb and a 6700K plant bulb. There is no K rating written on the standard fluorescent bulb but it is all-glass aquarium brand, after looking at their website I believe that this bulb is 8000K and from looking at the bulb it is on the white side so this seems to be likely. My question is, what should I replace these bulbs with? Does anyone know how useful these colormax full-spectrum bulbs are? My thoughts are that I can either put 2x 6700K bulbs in the T5 fixture and 1 colormax in the standard fluorescent fixture or 1 x 6700K and 1 colormax in the T5 and a 6700K in the standard fluorescent.

Hi,
Personally, I think either would work. The main thing
is how are the plants doing with the current setup?

By the way, replacing them all at once can shock the
fish and plants. Like stepping from the inside of a
movie theatre directly out into the noonday sun.

While they should be changed annually, I'd leave a
week or so between and change one at a time over
a couple/three weeks.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

The current plants are some vals, crypt. lutea, crypt wendtii, java fern, anubias nana and 1 amazon sword. The vals are doing great, the crypts seem fine but I'd like more growth out of them, I can't seem to grow java fern and I get a new anubias leaf every couple of weeks. I have fluorish and excel but I don't dose them as much as I should.

I was taking a look at how many watts my standard fluorescent would take earlier and when I turned it over the light went out. I tried a bulb that I know works and still no luck with the fixture. I think the electronic ballast may be shot. So now I'm at a point where I think I might just buy a second T5 fixture to give me 84 watts and stick with 2 colormax and 2 6700K bulbs.

Hi,
Sounds like a plan. The anubis sounds about right with
its growth considering the light and available nutrients.
If the Val is thriving, and the cypts not, your water would
seem to be favoring the plants that enjoy water with some
calcium in it (relatively hard water).

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Yeah my water is very hard and very high in pH as is all the water around here. I tested my hardness before and I can't recall the exact number but it was on the higher end of the scale. I do know that all of the local water in my area sits in a pH of between 8.0 and 8.4. Can you recommend any other plants that would do well in such hard water?

Hi,
Try some of the plants listed in this group:
http://www.azgardens.com/habitats_goldfish.php

I used this group because of the span of pH,
and not particularly because they are "resistant" to the
fish.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--