Actinic and Day light bulbs

Hi,

for reef tanks can you just go all out 150 w Daylight bulbs? Or do you need Actinic? Are Actinic really neccesary?

 

My understanding is that the closer to daylight spectrum (yellow end) the animals will live....corals and such will be on the brown side.

But the more into the blue spectrum you get, the corals color up (pinks, purples, greens, etc) and you will greatly increase growth of these corals.

 

Actually the blue spectrum will not increase growth. If you use a bulb such as an Iwasaki (65K) you will get excellent growth but color will be minimal. If you use a 10K bulb you will still get decent growth but better coloration and if you use 20K bulbs, you will get very slow growth but some great colors. Now not all colors do best under 20K light so all in all, 10k -14K is ideal. Actinics are not necessarily necessary [smiley=bandana.gif] but to truely enjoy the beauty of a reef aquarium, actinics would be recommended.

-Mac

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

 

Also I think the corals do use the actinics for growth and the actinics penetrate deeper in the water. This is a question not a statement, its the way I have been understanding it.

Good morning everyone.

Jay

 

I also thought corals needed the actinic lights that peak around 420nm.

But i would like to know if anybody has used a blacklight over their tanks???? would it be benifical or detremental? (my be able to see phosforesence when it is turned off!)

 

From what I have read, black light would be detrimental at best, deadly at worst. (the wavelength of these type lights is about 370 if I can recall correctly)

I am no expert, but I would highly recommend against such bulbs......

Just my $0.02

P2B

 

Okay...

bird...no prob!

jay...penetration in an aquarium is not hard. We do not use actinics in aquariums to penetrate deeper because are tanks are not that deep. We use actinics to replecate water at 40'+ and thats all. There is no corals that I know of that use 420 or 460nm as a source for their growth. The zooxanthellae in corals use up light to feed themselves. There are many corals farms that just run 6500K halides to get quick growth. Some are now using 10 and 20K lights but not long ago most use 6500K.

geo...there is no benefit to going below 420nm. Blacklights are pretty much useless in aquariums, whether or not they would have deadly effects, I am not sure.

P2B...I also do not recommend those bulbs.

Mike

 

Thanks for the advice!

But any suggestions about the flouescence aspect after lights out? anyboddy tried it?

Switch it on for a while then turn off and see if any thing glows?

Or do those critters only live in the deep and in my little mind?

 

Well, to get fluorescents, I believe, would be too much light. Zooxanthellae needs a resting period so only moonlights should be used. Something around 1 watt (no greater than 15 watts on larger aquariums 180g +) will not affect corals "black out" period. If corals receive too much light they will expel some of their flesh, so be careful. But running some sort of fluorescent after the main lights shut off is fine, but only for a short period and something around 420nm will get good fluorescing. Also, this doesn't do much for fluorescing but red lights are kind of cool.

-Mac