Actinic Bulb

[radioman]

I am thinking about getting a light that has an actinic light and daylight light. My question is if these both need to be on at the same time or not. and what each is for?

thanks

 

[garuf]

acitinic lights cause algae

 

[JamesC]

acitinic lights cause algae

That's a bit of a sweeping statement. The same is true of all light, that it will cause algae.

James

 

[garuf]

sorry yes I agree it is a bit much, what I should really have said is that acitinic lights have a spectrum that plants cannot utilise and therefore the light is used by algae instead of plants.

 

[JamesC]

Just because plants aren't able to really utilise the spectra emitted by actinics doesn't mean that algae can. Indeed it is less likely that algae can if you look at the absorption as a function of wavelength for the various chlorophyll's that plants and algae have. The one area that algae might benefit over plants is in the green and yellow-green wavelength's. This is due to the absorption wavelength's of carotenoids which most algae have and aquatic plants don't always have.

James