Here's what I ended up using...
4-Plain, basic bulbs that come with the all-glass twin tube hoods
2-Coralife actinics
2-Coralife color max (I like these a lot)
4-Aquatinics (made by the vita-lite folks)
The tank has six rows of bulbs with two bulbs side by side per row. It's an
Oceanic 200 which is 7'x2'x2'
I put the plain ones at the front of the tank, then the actinics, then
aquatinics, and then the color maxes in the back. Not sure I like them in
the back but the color in the tank seems really nice. I really don't like
the yellow color of the ultralumes and trichromatics. I think it makes
things look a little funky in there. That's why I didn't use them.
I think that a 50/50 mix of aquatinic and actinics renders nice color, but I
didn't want to spent the cash on all of those bulbs. Most of the ones I
used were laying around the garage or in the back of the pet store where I
still fill in from time to time -- I know the spectrum probably isn't what
it used to be, but I'm really only concerned with color at this point. But
since I got a real job now, I wont' be there too much longer. Anyway, I
digress...I bought some cheap shop lights to house most of these (man did I
get what I paid for...these things are pieces of shit) and hung them from a
shelf above the tank so that they're about 4" above the water. Even thought
fluorescents lose a lot of their beneficial spectrum in that 4", I don't
really care. I figure the plants will be just fine. It's only been a
couple of days since I made the change so it's too early to tell if they
like it or not.
Cheers,
Mike
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Michael F. Adams Jr.
Graduate Studies in Transportation/Environmental Engineering
College of Engineering--Traffic Lab
C216 CE/Trans Building
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
606/257-4349