Lighting Questions

[tragikmagik]

Right now im using a fixture with two 48 inch bulbs. 1-40 watt Aquarium photosythasys bulb stong in the reds and blues. and 1-40 watt 6500 full spectrum bulb. I plan on upgrading as these were cheapies, also I want to get the red out of the photo bulb. Im wondering if it would be better to get 1-100% Actnic blue and 18,000 K Full spectrum, or just 2 50/50 actnic bulbs..

 

[Great Lakes]

If your Sig is correct, I see you don't have any corals.
This means you need not worry about actinic lighting as it is traditionally a supplemental light for corals.

Saltwater fish differ from their freshwater cousins by showing off their colors without too much light trickery.

I would opt for a nice pair of 10,000K bulbs myself. Algae doesn't love them as much as the 6500K or other "sunlight" bulbs, and it will provide you a nice crisp, brightly lit tank.

GL

 

[bob`_your_dog]

What i would like to know is, if tou have a 10 000K bulb, does that cover the whole spectrum from 1 -10 000K or is it only in the 10 000k spectrum, and if it only covers the range around 10 000K, is a 6500K colour range need for corals or anything at all?

.....Sorry for asking in your post

 

[Navarre]

Hmm.. tricky question.. I think you will find that its not a presice 10k... the lighting will be in the form of a wave where it will peak at its strongest light in the 210K range. there will be yellows tyhrough to blues but they will be drowned out to the naked eye. Corals do remarkably well in 10k lights as the strength of light they want is closer to their natural needs. the higher up you move the less light they can use. People do use 6.5k bulbs but they usually do this for propogation as the coral grows faster in most cases. Its aweful to use as a main light though as it looks like the corals are sitting in Urine!

I use 10k and the results are very good so far. I do want to step up to 14k in the new tank to get acrisper image but i knw this wil be at a comprimise on the light the corals need. However i do intend to increase the amount of lights over the tank so i am hope this will compensate.

 

[tragikmagik]

OK...It is correct that i do not have any corals in my tank. I have not got them because i was not sure if my lighting was up to it, and i did not want to kill it right off the bat. I have some live rock that has some things growing on it, one looks like a small brownish purple anemonie, and i have little white veins that have little pinkish feathery looking things that come in and out. Im not sure what these are but im pretty sure that i want to keep them alive. I would like to purchase some coral in the future and i just want to make sure my lights are good enough. So should i put 1 10K bulb and a actinic blue, or 2 10K's , do i have to have the blue for corals or will they live in just a pair of 10K's? This light thing is so mindboggling to me.

 

[Navarre]

I would go with 2x 10k. The actinic is not really that beneficial to corals and is more for the human eye to enjoy as it brightens corals colours.

 

[tragikmagik]

ok so a pair of 10k's it is... Thanks