T8 Blue (Moonlight?) sufficient for photosynthesis?

Hi guys, just a quick question...

I’ve recently placed a T8 blue (moonlight?) bulb in a tank that holds catfish and hatchets in an effort to provide “dimmed†lighting due to the species in tank (the hatchets spend most of their time mere cm's below the bulb), so will this blue light be sufficient for algal growth (snails form a big part of my syno’s diet) as well as photosynthesis for the two plants I have in there? Are there any possible negative effects from this type of bulb on the fish themselves and is there a bulb that will better suit my requirements?

I'm aware that some catfish don't see red light too well so am considering a bulb at this higher spectrum, so same questions as above apply...


Thanks!

 

In a word, No. Plants utilize light in the 6000 kelvin - 10 000 kelvin spectrums. Your blue light is in the 14 000k - 20 000k range, so it will be useless to plants for photosynthesis.

 

Thanks for confirming this Sean J, i had my suspicions about this, so will replace today or tomorrow. might have a few choice words for the guy at the LPS next time I'm there too.

Given my aforementioned requirements, is there a "dimmer" fluorescent lighting option that you can recommend?

 

Think what you trying to achieve is a bit mutually exclusive.... Dimmer light wont allow algae growth - no way around this...

Single 6500k lamp covered/wrapped by some of that alluminium netting that they use for fly screen doors works in cutting out about 30% of the light - available from builders generally...

 

Thanks azurekoi, will look into that option this weekend too.

Being new on the site I'm very happy with the quality of info and the advice received so far, so will def be here a lot as things progress. thanks and keep it up guys! :beer:

 

Just a follow up before i replace the bulb... I took the box out the cupboard and this is what it said. The manufacturer (Resun) claim that it's good for plant growth, but is this BS? Thanks again for the advice all!

 

No way a blue tube can have a colour temp of 6000k as stated.... look at diagram of 1st pic - all the peak of lamp is in the blue spectrum.... advertising bulltwang if you ask me about the stated plant growth...

 

It's crazy that these guys get away with this. I'll mission from work for a new bulb today. Thanks again azurekoi!

 

Yeah the info on that box is way wrong. The correct plant tube would have had equal spike in the red around 760nm

Like Shawn said a lamp with that much in the blue can in no way be 6000K