Trying to explain the importance of good lighting may be a bit of a challenge. Have you ever seen a really nice car with a really good paint job? Something that can take the "best paint" award in a car show? Now imagine if it were in a poorly lit garage with a yellow bug light used for lighting. I know this seems like an extreme analogy but it really isn't.

Your Mbuna are beautiful works of art and if kept right they have brilliant colors. However, if you do not present them under the right light you will not see their true beauty. Anyone who has had the privilege of experimenting with different lighting knows the analogy above is not an exaggeration by any means.

If you are not familiar with aquarium lighting, and all of the options available, you will probably come home with a bad choice. With all of the different brands and types of bulbs they offer, it can be very confusing. If you are going to try to figure out which bulbs are best on your own, bring the duct tape because your head is going to explode!

Having the privilege of working in the aquatics section of a rather large pet store and befriending many owners of other local stores, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in lighting. Below I will describe several types of lighting, then explain to you which option is best and why.

Incandescent - lighting uses a simple filament. Incandescent light are not very efficient and produce an enormous amount of heat for the light they produce, bulb life is short, and the spectrum of the bulb is not consistent. Overall they are a very poor choice in aquarium lighting.

Florescent - lighting uses a long glass tube which contain phosphor bits. Florescent lights are very efficient and produce very little heat compared to incandescent lights and lighting is more uniform. Overall they are the best choice in aquarium lighting and provide many more options in color and intensity.

Metal Halide - lighting provides many options in wattage and heat, produce a lot of light and are great for reef and plant aquariums. Metal Halide lights produce an enormous amount of heat which may require you to run an expensive chiller unit to cool your water. No doubt they are awesome lights for reef tanks but not really appropriet for Mbuna.

Florescent lighting is by far the most practical way to light your Mbuna aquarium. Florescent lighting is affordable, effecient, reliable, uniform, and provided many options in color and intensity. And best of all a good acrylic aquarium will already come with a compact low-profile florescent light fixture. Below are examples of florescent light bulbs available from Hagen.

Aqua~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (89.46 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• T10 Base
• Service Life - 7500 hours
• Intensifies fish colors
• Promotes plant growth
• Photosynthetic growing lamp
• Stimulates plants
• Promotes color highlights in fish

Flora~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (91 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• T10 Base
• Service Life - 7500 hours
• For growing plants
• Standard intensity
• Warm photosynthetic spectrum
• Ideal for planted aquariums and terrariums

Life~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (91 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• T10 Base
• Service Life - 9000 hours
• Full Sun Spectrum
• Directed aperture illumination
• High intensity
• Focused natural white light for all aquariums, terrariums and vivariums

Marine~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (91 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• T10 Base
• Service Life - 7500 hours
• Promotes marine reeflife
• Standard intensity
• Visible actinic blue spectrum
• Simulates deep marine light
• Stimulates marine growth

Power~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (91 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• Service Life - 9000 hours
• Promotes coral, invertebrate and plant growth
• High intensity
• Photosynthetic deep marine spectrum
• Total illumination for living corals, marine algae and freshwater plants

Sun~Glo Fluorescent Aquarium Bulb

• 30 W
• 36" (89.46 cm)
• 32.5 mm Diameter
• T10 Base
• Service Life - 7500 hours
• Simulates full daylight
• Standard intensity
• Full sun spectrum
• Refreshing, natural white light

I am just showing the different bulb options available by one manufacture for a light fixture that takes 36 inch florescent light bulbs which would come with a 60 gallon acrylic aquarium. I am in no way recommending you choose from the list above as there is really only one bulb in the list that I would really recommend. I will explain which bulb is best for your Mbuna.

Your Mbuna do not like high intensity light as they are native to living in rock formations many feet below the surface. A high intensity bulb may make your Mbuna shy and timid. Mbuna also look best in red and blue wavelengths so the Hagen Aqua-Glow is the obvious choice from Hagen. Coral Life may also have a descent bulb but I would run my Aqua-glow against anything from Coral life any day of the week.

If you have a light colored bottom such as crushed white coral a.k.a. white coral gravel and use light colored rocks such as Texas Holy Rock then I recommend running only one Aqua-Glow light bulb toward the front of the aquarium. If you have a darker bottom or if you are doing the dawn and dusk theme then I would run a Marine-Glow behind the Aqua-Glow.

I always run my lights on timers, even when running two lights. You can get timers from most fish stores, hardware stores, or home improvement centers. My Aquarium lights turn on by themselves at 6:00 AM when I get up so they are awake and ready to eat before I eat. the lights turn off by themselves at 9:00 PM every night.

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