TUNING SPECTRUM

HOW TO FURTHER BOOST PLANT COLOURS

How to get the best light spectrum for aquarium plants? If you use T5s, this involves fine-tuning the bulb array to have a mix of colours. For LEDs, it is looking out for stronger red/ blue diodes. 

T5 APPROACH

a bulb mix with stronger reds and blues

​One example in a 4 tube T5 lights array:
​
1 X Giesemann Super flora/TruLumen Flora/Zoomed Flora sun/Dennerle Color plus (reddish)
1 X Plantmax 3000k or 2700k/3000k bulbs by Osram/GE/philips (orange)
1 X WavePoint Ultra Growth/ATI purple plus  (purplish)
1 X Giesemann Super flora/TruLumen Flora/Zoomed Flora sun/Dennerle Color plus (reddish)
See Joe Harvey's combination using 6 tube array below; read his full journal here~
Also see Tom barr's 120 gallon aquarium tank and 8 bulb combination (far right picture above).
Read the full journal here .
1 Giesemann Aquaflora
2 Zoomed Flora
3 Sunwave Wavepoint
4 Red Wave Wavepoint
5 URI Red Sun
6 Sunwave Wavepoint
7 Zoomed Flora
8 Giesemann Aquaflora

my bulb combination in my farm tank

LED APPROACH

a diode mix of more reds

An example of red heavy LEDs on my own 120p using custom built BML leds. The diode configuration ratio is as of below. White LED diodes already contain significant amounts of blue, so I opted instead to add orange/yellow tones to round out the spectrum.

BML no longer makes planted aquarium specific fixtures. However, one can experiment with similar ratios in custom builds.
For the Twinstar LED series, the E series come with heavier weighting in blue, while the S series is red heavy. 

DOES CRI MATTER?

CRI stands for Color Rendering Index and it measures how closely a light's ability to illuminate an object matches natural/ideal daylight. The higher the CRI rating of a light, the more accurately it renders an object's true color.

As with many concepts, marketers are generally right in claiming that higher CRI lights do generally renders nicer looking coloration, at least when pertaining to general consumer lighting. However, this does not mean that low CRI lights will always produce unattractive lighting.

There is a big difference between color accuracy (how close an object's color looks like vs natural sunlight) and vibrancy (saturation of color tones). Aquarists are generally concerned with the later rather than the former. My own LED fixture on the right only has a CRI of 78, as the overall spectrum is red/blue heavy. However, this allows it to produce more vibrant hues of red and purples.

To this end, CRI index is not particularly useful for hobbyist aquarium applications. Choose a light that renders the tank in a fashion that you like. To make the colors pop more in fish and plants, mixing red/blue spectrum in makes a ton of difference.

UP NEXT...

TOP MYTHS

  • 6500K is the best 'spectrum'?
  • Do stronger reds cause algae growth?
  • Don't green plants reflect green light?

THE 2HR AQUARIST'S GUIDE TO LIGHTS & LIGHTING

choosing
​101

How to evaluate strength, colour and spread.

T5 vs
LED?

Which is better and why?
how do I choose?

buying guide

What T5 brands to go for? What LED brands are good?

tuning
​spectrum

How to boost plant colours, get the super reds?

top
​myths

6500K is the best? Strong reds cause Algae?

where
to buy

My recommendation on commercial choices.