actinic light
- Thread starter twobitt
- Start date
perfectdark
Active Member
No it definatly serves a purpose. It has been proven that coraline growth is accelerated by actinic light. Also corals do use that light spectrum as part of their photosynthetic growth in reefs.
twobitt
Member
The reason why I ask is because my goal was to get an anenome for my clown and my lfs sold me this actinic light saying that the anenome would need it to live. I then talked to a diff lfs and they told me that the white or day light is what was needed by the anenome. Both are flourescent HO lights. Getting 2 different answers from the stores prompted me to ask the question here under the clownfish section as to which light is needed by the anenome. The answer I got there is that neither would provide sufficient light for photosynthesis or something like that. So if this is correct I was wondering if the actinic served any purpose or if I should just get rid of it seeing as how I don't care for the shade of blue it puts off.
perfectdark
Active Member
The spectrum of blue that actinic lighting puts out is replicated by what is seen typically at the equator, 10 meters or feet I forget which under the surface of the water. This combination of daylight and actinic we use in our bulbs simulates this the best. It is proven that actinic lighting is essential in certain aspects of coral growth and propogation. However as far as anemones are concerned it is far better to have intense lighting not so much the color spectrum IMO. Most all anemones need extremly high intensity lighting, most often PC lighting is not sufficient. Also taking into consideration tank depth and size plays an enourmous role in lighting and how intense they need to be. Compact flourscent lighting in most cases does not have the intensity needed to penetrate most tanks to sustain life in an anemone. Hoewever tanks that are relativly shallow compared to most standard tanks can support some species with high watt compact flourscents. It's recomended that nothing less than t-5 HO lighting be used if your intention is to house an anemone, and even at that depending on species you still may need to expand on the wattage of the t-5's by adding more than 4 bulbs to the fixture or go to Metal halide lighting. IMO.. Hope this helps.
reefraff
Active Member
Actinic lamps are not "needed" but the critters will utilize the light if provided. Actinic lamps don't provide a whole lot of PAR which is what the animals need to grow. If you have 4 lamps you wouldn't want but 1 actinic depending on what type of lights we are talking about. With good T5's (tek or Ice Cap reflectors) then you could use an actinic and a blue or two and 10K or daylight. Other fluorescents you should be using 10K's and maybe a blue so you have enough PAR to keep the anemone alive.
reefkprz
Active Member
I agree actinics are not needed but, many people think they are for aesthetics only and are superflous that couldnt be further from the truth, actinics are completly capable of providing photosynthetic wavelength desired by some corals and calacerous algaes, while they definatly lack the "intensity" of halides they do add a nice look as well as being functional.
IMO when the LFS said your anemone "needed" actinic light they were wrong. your anemone can utilize actinic light but does not require it. you could sustain an anemone under pure 10k halides with no problems. IMO it would not suffer from the lack of actinic light but will probably show its best colors as well as gain useful photons for photosynthesis from added actinic light.
IMO when the LFS said your anemone "needed" actinic light they were wrong. your anemone can utilize actinic light but does not require it. you could sustain an anemone under pure 10k halides with no problems. IMO it would not suffer from the lack of actinic light but will probably show its best colors as well as gain useful photons for photosynthesis from added actinic light.
twobitt
Member
It's becoming quite apparent that I need to scrap my current lights and upgrade in order to house an anenome. What I have now is 2 standard flourescent lights 1 actinic/1 daylight. I really don't want to use Mh because I don't have any way of hanging the lights, they are quite expensive, they draw alot of power and create alot of heat. I was looking at some t5 and cf systems online using 4 bulbs and was hoping someone could tell me which of these 2 types are going to provide higher intensity lighting. My tank is a 60 gallon I think it's 20 inches deep or whatever is standard for a 4 foot wide 60 gallon.