Actinic lights and Lunar Moon lights

tjsimon88

New Member
New to the salt water fish world. I have a 20Gal set up for about 6 months looking at what type of lighting would be good for this tank. Right now its a FOWLR looking to add some corals to it. What is the difference between the Actinic lights and Lunar lights? Do they serve the same purpose? Can you get by with one and not the other? Any advice would be great. Thanks
 

perfectdark

Active Member
IMO You need to figure out what types of corals you want. Lower light corals you can get away with some power compacts with daylight bulbs and an actinic blue at about 65 watts and up for your size tank. If you want higher light corals then T-5 lighting is a better option although IMO I would go with T-5's no matter what but they are a bit more expensive than Std PC's.
Moon light LED's are for aesthetic's they have no impact on coral growth. Actinic lighting is a blue spectrum of light that is seen at a certain depth in the water when the sun is out. The blue actinic are lighting offered in compacts and t-5's and offer the same watts for bulb size that the daylight bulbs do. They will also benifit your tank and help propogate growth. Its not necessary to have them but they make the colors of your coral stand out while giving them some photosynthetic light. Its is also a good provider for coraline algea growth. Its shown that coraline grows at a faster rate under actinic lighting, then when the daylight bulbs are on.
 
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