Black lights doing good things,

[bob`_your_dog]

I know no-body agrees but i think they're cool. My 3 little hitch-hicker anemones seem to be doing great with it. Anyway i need to upgrade my lights but i dont know which one. I can only afford 1 bulb at the moment, I currently have one 30 watt sun-glo (4500k, 1700L), 1 - 40 watt fresh water plant grow, and a 40 watt black-light. Everyone has warned me that the black light will give me mad algie but it hasn't at all, but i do have alot of colours comming up on my rocks, when i bought them they were quite bare, now there's tons of red, purple and white things popping up all over them (i dont know what they're called)

But now i dunno what bulb i should get, i was thinking that i need a blue light, but i dont know if i for need a white more importantly, and if any of my current bulbs are actually worth anything to a reef tank. I plan to be adding a few soft corals over the next month, brains and what eva

 

[1152 Flying Fish]

try actinic white and/or actinic blue both is prefered

 

[bob`_your_dog]

Yeah i saw them and was considering one, but would the white be a better choice considering my current lighting or are they the same?

And i was wondering there's a lighting shop down the road from me, they have about a million at least different types of flouresent light and metal hadiles, surely all these specilized marine lights must have a standard equivilant that can be bought for a fraction of the cost, if i can find a bulb with the same Kelvin rating wouldn't that do the job, Cause i mean light is light isn't it? Or is there some special magic inside these marine bulbs , my student loan is comming up for repayments and a cheaper alterantive is sounding great around about now.

I personally think that pet shops are using the so called marine bulbs as some sorta of money making scheme, cause when i bought my 40 watt they told me i have to use this cetain ballast which i stupidly bought! anyway i got home and a couple weeks later i wanted to buy the 30 watt, so i decieded to look inside the magic box that house's the ballast and it was just a standard ballast of which i have a way to many in the garage! So it's all a conspiricy to me! I bet these bulbs are just standard bulbs with different names, and i would like nothing better than not to feed these greedy, fancy car driving, fish shop owners more money

 

[Great Lakes]

Actualy Bob, there is some magic to the marine bulbs.
They have a higher Kelvin that can be found in any typical bulb on the market.

MArine bulb manufacturers also have a good reputation of producing bulbs that put out max lumens per wattage and K rating.

Not sure on your ballast situation except that on the surface magnetic and electronic ballasts look pretty much the same. Yet the electrnic is preffered due to their nature to operate at far cooler temps.

Look into a good 50/50 bulb. That is a half actinic half 10,000K. It is a good start if you need top performance out of marginal lighting.

GL

 

[bob`_your_dog]

HHMM so if i can find a bulb that produces 10,000K then that sould be good enough? Now what Lumens/lux should i be looking for, for a 4 foot tube?