Atinic Lighting
 

Ok,

Can someone please settle this for me.. I have had some confusing conversations on this one.. Is atinic lighting simply for looks or is it important to the health of the corals?

Thanks

Chad

Re: Atinic Lighting
 

I could go, (and have gone) into a long explanation on why aCtinic lighting is not a necessity/ To make a long story short, aCtinic lighting is purely aesthetic. It looks good to the human eye. :rolleyes:

It's not necessarily the actinic lighting itself that's important. It's the specific spectrum of "blue" light which corals need.

So if you use let's say a halide "iwasaki" bulb over your 50g cube tank as your only source of light. You corals would do fine. That bulb provides a full spectrum of light which contains enough "blue" spectrum for corals.

If you added some actinic supplementation to your Iwasaki bulb it would make the overall appearance of the tank seem more white and at the same time increase the "Blue" spectrum of light. It's not necessary but it may help with coral color and Coraline growth etc.etc.

So no it's not " always " necessary but it depends on the situation.

cheers

Blue color is what is left when the other frequencies are filtered out as one goes deeper into the ocean. Thus logic tells us that if we supply full freqency lighting to our corals they will grow and be "happy" Remember please that corals can't "see" worth a hoot. :onfire:

Blue color is what is left when the other frequencies are filtered out as one goes deeper into the ocean. Thus logic tells us that if we supply full frequency lighting to our corals they will grow and be "happy". Full frequency is 6400K at the water surface at noon in the tropics. Remember please that corals can't "see" worth a hoot because they have no eyes :onfire:

Ater saying that, guess who has actinic lights on both of his tanks.
:BIG:

Actinic Lighting....Various Authors

Cheers
Steve

The reason I ask is that my DIY hood may not mount the lighting I had planned.. Would you say two 10K PC lights would provide enough blue spectrum? Ove my 20g nano btw..

Chad

A larger spectrum of blue...aka actinic IS desired by some anemones (refer to Joyce Wilkerson). It is also the most esthetic part of lighting the reef for me, aside from moonlight.

Yes it would if you like the looks of it. Remember I said I have a 50/50 over my 15 gallon? I can't stand it because it is too blue, and the par is too low for my liking. So when the new 2x65W light arrives, I will try the 50/50 in it instead of the supplied actinic. I hope with the supplied 10000K, and the 50/50 it will look better.

Well, I planned on having two 20w atinic's along with my 2x 55w 10k PC... but turns out the 20w are a bit too long for the hood.. I really like the look of the atinic tho.. I am using a 15w one ATM... but I thought the two 20's would look better with 2 10ks...

Chad