Aquarium hobbyists’ tips on combining aquarium lighting lamps.
Continued…
• The best color rendering in an aquarium can be achieved by using special new-type T5 fluorescent aquarium lamps simulating “tropical light” such as ADA NA Lamp 8000K: T8 Arcadia Freshwater Lamp 7500K, JBL Solar Ultra Natur 9000K CRI 1A class, Hagen Life-Glo 6700K, JUWEL High-Lite Day 9000K, Aqua Medic Ocean White 10000K + Planta. Excellent light is provided by Feron T4 White 6400K + T5 950. If special ones are not available, you can use regular T8 series 965 lamps with 6500K and Ra98 – they correspond to the highest D65 standard for color rendering and are suitable for color calibration. They combine well with T5 Aqua Medic Ocean White 10000K in a 1:2 ratio.
• Arcadia and JBL lamps render colors almost identically. T5 860 and T8 765 lamps give too dull of a light with pale green colors, lamps with a color temperature of 3500-5000K are too yellow, and the T5 Sylvania Aquastar 10000K lamp is completely unsuitable for a freshwater aquarium. T5 Aqua Medic Ocean White 10000K and T4 Feron White 6400K give very decent light when mixed with 965/860. If you do not have any special 7500-8500K aquarium lamps, T4 Feron White 6400K, or “full spectrum” lamps, you can use T5/T8 series 965 6500K Ra98. Do not install the T5 950 5000K series – in an aquarium, they give a distinct yellowish tint.
Arcadia Freshwater Lamp 7500K not only has peaks in the blue and red parts of the spectrum for plant photosynthesis, but also improves the rendering of all green shades of plants. Spectrum peaks are in blue 430nm, yellow-green 550nm, and orange spectrum. Its advantages: high radiation intensity, reveals the beauty of green and brown shades of aquarium plants, makes fish coloration brighter, and promotes plant growth.
T5 HO Life-Glo II 6700K was released in 2007. This is a new version of the T8 lamp. The light is magnificent. Green is even slightly phosphorescent, red and brown shades are reproduced excellently. You can slightly mute the green by installing 1/4 of lamps 965, 950, 860. Aqua Medic T5 HO Ocean White 10000K. This lamp gives slightly phosphorescent green colors and a slight color shift in red and brown shades. Plants and animals show their natural coloration and growth. Combine with Ocean Blue Actinic for a marine aquarium, and in a planted aquarium – with the Aqua Medic Planta plant growth lamp. To compensate for the too high color temperature and improve color rendering, use in combination with T5 series 965 6500 CRI=98.
The Aqua Medic Planta T5 HO lamp also simulates tropical light, but it has enhanced blue and red parts of the spectrum to improve plant photosynthesis (PAR). Juicy green colors of plants, even slightly phosphorescent. Red and brown shades are also very good. The water seems to have disappeared, but the plant colors are a bit cold. To make the light slightly warmer, combine 1:1 with T8/T5 965 6500K. Sylvania T5 HO Aquastar 10000K simulates the tropical daylight spectrum. Promotes aquatic plant growth due to peaks in the blue and red parts of the spectrum. Everything is yellow-purple. Green colors completely disappear, becoming frankly yellow-whitish, brown and red shades are very poor. How the manufacturer calls this “tropical light” suitable for a freshwater aquarium is a mystery. Outright consumer deception. The same can be said about the Sylvania Gro-Lux 8500K “phytolamp” – color temperature says nothing about color rendering quality. This is a lamp with the same distorted spectrum as Aquastar. Even their joint use does not give an aesthetically acceptable light.
• Among T8 lamps, you can use T8 Hagen EXO-TERRA lamps – linear T8 Reptil GLO 2.0 Daylight Terrarium Lamps have a color temperature of 6700K and an absolutely identical spectrum to T5 HO Life-Glo II 6700K, and their CRI = 98, with just a little UVB added. Disadvantage – T8 lamps lose half their radiation strength in a year, and UVB can stimulate algae (testing is needed!).
• Regular T5 HO lamps suitable for a planted aquarium. The general principle when choosing lamps is a color temperature of 6500-9000K and maximum CRI. Lamps must be wide-spectrum – trichromatic, with three peaks: in the blue, green, and red parts of the spectrum. This provides high-quality color rendering of any shades. Trichromatic lamps include all T5 HO “tropical” light aquarium lamps and regular T8/T5 965 series lamps with CRI = 98. Lamps with a color temperature of 3500-5000K give a very yellow light and are completely unsuitable.
That is, only T5 fluorescent lamps of the 965 6500K Ra98, 860, 865 6500K Ra85 series are suitable for a planted aquarium. The best of them are T5 HO 965 6500K. The 965s convey subtle color nuances and are used in dental offices for matching crown colors, photo laboratories, and museums. Having a color temperature of 6500K, they are very close to the standard D65 light source and have CRI > 95, meaning they meet the highest color matching requirements. Despite this, color rendering underwater is worse than that of special aquarium lamps with a higher color temperature of 6500-9000K.
According to measurements, 965 lamps have even higher PAR than most special aquarium PAR lamps. Among Philips T5 lamps, the most suitable are TL5 965 Ra98, TL5 865 Ra85. Among T8 lamps – Philips TL-D90 De Luxe Pro 6500K, Philips TLD 865 Ra85, TLD 965 Ra98. The 950 5000K lamps give too yellow light in the aquarium.
• The best regular T5 HO lamps for a planted aquarium: T5 HO Philips TL5 HO De Luxe Pro 6500K (without mixing), Osram Lumilux SKYWHITE 880 8000K (somewhat cold, mix with 840). T5 HO Osram Lumilux Skywhite 880 8000K lamps have a peak in the blue light region of 460-465 nm, which increases the color temperature and makes them more suitable for a planted aquarium, Osram 965 Lumilux De Luxe Pro (slightly yellowish). If the color rendering of green shades of 965 lamps is good, but there is a slightly bluish tint or the green is a bit oversaturated, you can combine them with lower color temperature 6500K lamps and thereby compensate for the shade shift. For this purpose, regular lamps with the highest possible color rendering quality are used: series 965 6500K Ra98. For example, the combination of T5 Aqua Medic Ocean White 10000K with Philips T8 965 6500K, Ra 98 in a 1:2 ratio looks wonderful.
If you are interested in T8 lamps with high PAR exclusively for efficient large-scale plant growth, check out the inexpensive novelty with the highest PAR – Philips Advantage. Among Osram T5 linear lamps for aquariums, only the HO-FQ series lamps are suitable with major reservations. These are LUMILUX DE LUXE 965 Daylight (6500K) and LUMILUX 860 Daylight (6000K) brands. They have a good CRI = 85-95, and higher luminous efficacy and power than HE-FH series lamps (i.e., eco ones). But their light is very cold and poorly conveys the colors of aquatic plants. It is better to mix them with 950 or 850.
• Feron T4 White 6400K. The best alternative to ADA MH-HQI, ADA NA Lamp 8000K, Arcadia Freshwater 7500K, JBL Solar Ultra Natur 9000K, Hagen Life-GLO, and Aqua Medic Ocean White 10000K lamps are Feron T4 lamps (Russia). These are not T5, but they have a T5 base and a color temperature of 6400K. They provide magnificent light that is radically better than T8 765 6500K, T5 865 6500K, or T5 860 6000K. The most important thing about them is the color temperature and spectrum, which are almost ideally suited for Nature Aquarium. Unusually juicy green colors and very beautiful blue shades of fish. Brown leaf shades appear much better and more naturally, and green plants are even slightly phosphorescent, but this can be fixed. Compared to T5 HO, T4 Feron White 6400K is the cheapest high-quality lighting option for Nature Aquarium. Without a significant decrease in luminous flux and color shift, Feron lamps last for at least two years. There are no complaints about the ballasts. Mix their light with warmer lamps.
There are other lamps – for example, T8 Philips TL-D 54/765 6500K, but they are an order of magnitude worse. I installed Feron T4 6400K in the aquarium simultaneously and turned them on alternately. The difference is huge! Philips T8 765 give a yellowish unhealthy tint to all plants. The light from Aqua Medic T5 HO Ocean White 10000K is slightly worse – plants are pale and there is an excess of blue tint in the fish coloration. You can correct this by mixing their light with T8 965 6500K CRI = 98.
• T5 6500-9000K fluorescent lamps are economical, do not overheat the aquarium, are compact, widely available, have the necessary color temperature and magnificent color rendering. The lifespan of T5 lamps is up to 5 years with a drop in radiation intensity by the end of their lifespan of only 15%.
• If you want to create a “pseudo-sea” with white corals in your aquarium, use blue lamps such as Hagen Marine-Glo. If correct plant growth and their beauty are important to you – use Osram Fluora or Hagen Aqua-Glo lamps. If you want to impress guests with an unusually whimsical fish brightness – install Hagen Power-Glo lamps, which give a very wide range of colors. Under Hagen Flora-Glo lamps, plants look much brighter and greener, but do not grow very well. There is also the unusually bright Hagen Life-Glo lamp, which, at the same power as other lamps, provides uniquely strong illumination. True, plants do not like this lamp – the light from it turns out to be insufficient for them, because human eyes and plants perceive light completely differently.
• Ultraviolet (germicidal) lamps are used for water disinfection. The effectiveness of ultraviolet radiation depends on its intensity and the thickness of the water layer. Most medium-sized microorganisms can be killed by irradiation with an ultraviolet lamp with an intensity of 35,000 µW/s per 1 sq. cm of surface. An ultraviolet lamp emitting a light flux with a wavelength of 254 nm is placed in a tube made of quartz glass. Water is pumped into the sterilization chamber by a mechanical pump, and from there into the aquarium. The distance between the lamp and the tube walls is 5-10 mm, and between the tube and chamber walls – no more than 10 mm. The chamber is made of an opaque, non-toxic material.
Light sources in the aquarium. Fluorescent lamps.
Aquarium hobbyists’ tips on combining aquarium lighting lamps. 
Latest changes and additions made on March 07, 2012.
