One area of fish keeping often neglected is aquarium lighting. Effective lighting not only enables you to view the contents, but it also enhances the colour of fish, plants and invertebrates. Inappropriate aquarium lighting may not only have a direct effect on the welfare of plants and corals, but may also impact the health of fish.
The health of many species is directly related to the quality and quantity of light they receive. They use the energy from lighting as a means of powering photosynthesis on which their health depends. Those that concern us most are the microscopic symbiotic algae, or zooxanthellae, which inhabit the tissues of many marine corals, and the tropical aquatic plants that we grow in our freshwater aquariums.
Lighting for freshwater aquarium were mainly consisting of T8 or T5 fluorescent tubes. T8 are the norm being the fatter tube and have been around since fish keeping began. Whether you are using a single or double fitting depends on what your tank requires. If you only have fish and very little plant life a single tube will do the job. If you are having a planted aquarium, and you love the natural look that plants give you, you will need a double light fitting. Plants do require lots of light at the right spectrum. Some times you may even need 2 x double light fittings. It all depends on what plants you are using.
T5 tubes have been around for several years. Most people would use T5 lights for heavily planted aquariums. T5 are the skinny tubes but the light they emit is stronger than T8. T5 also come in HIGH OUTPUT and LOW OUTPUT. We only sell HIGH OUTPUT. If you are going to the trouble of boosting your light use the better system. HIGH OUTPUT tubes are brighter , more intense and penetrate the water to a deeper depth. T5 light fittings are not recomended for use inside aquarium hoods. T5 lighting is slowly being replaced by LED,s
LEDs are becoming more popular than ever with lower power consumption and a much longer life span. Newer LEDs have more light spectrum and are getting better and better all the time. The thing to remember is there are LEDs for freshwater and LEDs for marine. They have different spectrums. Even so there are hobbyists that still prefer T8 or T5 tubes. The advantage of LED’s is lower power consumption and a diode combination of white, blue and reb coloured diodes. They are a slimmer fitting and do not produce as much heat as straight fluoro’s. We have several different LED,s in stock.
We carry most types of replacement fluoro tubes and P.L tubes. We now carry L.E.D tubes that can replace your old fluoro tubes so if you want to update your light to L.E.D but your fitting is still working just replace the tube.
