# T 12 light bulbs shop lights



## pirayaman (Nov 3, 2007)

ok lighting gurus i have searched for t12 and it gives me a message 
so please help

setup 
210 gallon 
wisteria 
amazon swords 
banana somethings 
dwarf hairgrass 
i cant remember what else but a lot of diff plants

i just got 2 shop lights they are 48 inchs long double bulb 
i got 4 light bulbs they are ge ecolux f40t12 they are 40 watt t12 bulbs they are 3150 lumens color temp is 4100k cri 72 its 2.62 of watt per gallon is 2 of these enough to grow my plants better than 2 aquarium lights (they came with my other tanks) 
i dont run co2 
i do use api leaf zone and flourite/ gravel mix about 50/50 maybe a little more flourite

i do want a good planted aquarium and my old lights werent cutting it

please help


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## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

maybe my math is wrong but isnt that .75 wpg. let me re read your post to make sure i didnt miss anything.

I think you need more power to grow plants effectively. 210 gal tank is most likely 2 ft tall. It is harder for the light to reach the bottom of the tank with that much water in the way. lets see some pics of your tank.


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## pirayaman (Nov 3, 2007)

ryanimpreza said:


> maybe my math is wrong but isnt that .75 wpg. let me re read your post to make sure i didnt miss anything.
> 
> I think you need more power to grow plants effectively. 210 gal tank is most likely 2 ft tall. It is harder for the light to reach the bottom of the tank with that much water in the way. lets see some pics of your tank.


it would be two 2bulb 40 watt t12 thats i guess 80 watts devide by 210 igot 2. something these bulbs are just regular light not plant lights or anything i dont think they will work

and why arnt all the plant light specialists giving me some help here


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## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

pirayaman said:


> maybe my math is wrong but isnt that .75 wpg. let me re read your post to make sure i didnt miss anything.
> 
> I think you need more power to grow plants effectively. 210 gal tank is most likely 2 ft tall. It is harder for the light to reach the bottom of the tank with that much water in the way. lets see some pics of your tank.


it would be two 2bulb 40 watt t12 thats i guess 80 watts devide by 210 igot 2. something these bulbs are just regular light not plant lights or anything i dont think they will work

and why arnt all the plant light specialists giving me some help here
[/quote]
40 X 4 = 160/210 =.76 wpg.........180 watts is 1 watt per gallon in a 180 gallon tank. You got your math backwards......you need to get 6700k to 10000k kelvin rating bulbs. This is the best for plant growth. also Im sure you tank is 72 in long and your light is 48 in. sounds like you will be dim on the sides. You can spread your lights apart so they reach both ends of the tank.


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## Winkyee (Feb 17, 2003)

If you feel safe in doing a bit of electrical work, you can get quite a boost in lighting by replacing your current ballast and adding 2 4 tube ballasts and using them to drive one tube each.
You'll also switch to T8 or T6 tubes from (big als) that will give you about 3x the light you have now.

Link -->> ODNO

More in depth -->> ODNO 

Testing -->> ODNO measurements: power consumption vs light output


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## pirayaman (Nov 3, 2007)

finally thanks guys

oh one more question i was at homedepo and saw they had new plantlights it had a pic of a aquarium on the box but the k rateing was 3700 kelin these shop lights have 4100k why would those 3700 be any good if your telling me to get a higher rating im not disagreeing its just a question ill go find some 10000k ones but why would they have a plant light with 3700 and say its good also what about natural daylight bulbs they were selling these as well they were like 5000 or 6000 something would those work they are only 5 bucks im sorry for all the questions but i know notthing on lighting


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## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

pirayaman said:


> finally thanks guys
> 
> oh one more question i was at homedepo and saw they had new plantlights it had a pic of a aquarium on the box but the k rateing was 3700 kelin these shop lights have 4100k why would those 3700 be any good if your telling me to get a higher rating im not disagreeing its just a question ill go find some 10000k ones but why would they have a plant light with 3700 and say its good also what about natural daylight bulbs they were selling these as well they were like 5000 or 6000 something would those work they are only 5 bucks im sorry for all the questions but i know notthing on lighting


6700 to 10000 is just a normal range the bottom line is go with the light that has full color on the spectrum scale that is usually found on the box of the bulb. the more color the better. Some bulbs unlike this 6700k show in this pic will have almost all blue in it. notice the 6700k have a fairly equal amount of each color.


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