Aquarium lighting isn't just lighting, its specialist lighting; more than that, the way you light your aquarium really is the difference between life and death for your fish.
The idea is that the lighting system in your aquarium replicates as closely as possible the light conditions that your fish would enjoy in their natural habitat. The closer you get the better. Move too far away from the habitat lighting and your fish will become stressed and fail to grow. From a purely selfish point of view, if you don't have the right light in your aquarium, your fish will lose their colours, and the chances are that is exactly what you bought them for.
The important thing to understand when you look at aquarium lighting is the Kelvin rating; which is what the K numbers you see on aquarium lights represent. The Kelvin rating gives you some idea of the temperature of the light, that is, how warm or cold looking it is. Cold, blue light has a 'high tech' clinical feel to it and is around 10,000K; this is the sort of temperature that would be used for a tank where you keep reefs and plants. The lowest Kelvin rated aquarium lighting is around 5,500K; the lower rated lamps are used for aquaria with freshwater fish and no plant life.
The best lamps, which are available in a wide range of Kelvin ratings, are metal halide lamps. They produce a shimmer, not unlike sunlight shining on water. Metal halide lamps range in intensity from 75 watts to 1,000 watts and their only disadvantage is that they generate heat - so do be careful.
If you are a new aquarist, you'll probably start your aquarium lighting career with fluorescent lighting, which are the type that are usually provided as part of a lighting kit. Fluorescent tubes for aquaria come in a range of colour temperatures and in three standard sizes. Sizes are indicated by a T number; T12, T8, and T5. You'll need at least a couple of lights, depending on the size of your tank, because fluorescent lamps are far lower in terms of intensity than metal halide. On the plus side though, they don't get hot!
The topic of aquarium lighting is complex and wide ranging, and you would be well advised to get a book on the subject, unless you have a well-informed friend. We've only touched on the subject here, and we haven't got as far as even mentioning marine aquarium lighting!
In the meantime, however, you could take a look at our range of aquarium lighting - it might just whet your appetite. http://www.deslamps.co.uk/index.php?cPath=953_790&utm_source=ezine&utm_medium=articles&utm_campaign=Aquarium%2Blamps
No comments:
Post a Comment