Csl Actinic Vs. Actinic 03

cbshark

cbshark

Member
I've read in earlier posts that the CSL 50/50 bulbs are not really actinic. Is this true? I just purchased some 50/50 10,00k/actinic 03 pc bulbs hoping that it would be the one thing missing from my coralline equation. I had a 10 gallon nano set up for about a year with 32 watt 50/50 csl pc and my water parameters tested perfect for what shoild stimulate coralline and I even added rocks with it on it and it never spread. If anything, it died off or was covered up by green algae. Now that I transfered everything into my 125 gallon, I have the same problem. I've had 325 watts of CSL pc lighting on the tank with no coralline growth whatsoever. My corals have always done great, but no coralline. Am I right in assuming that by adding the actinic 03 bulbs, I should have a much better chance of growing coralline than with the CSL pc's?
 
enomadra

enomadra

Member
I am not sure that a 50/50 light vs. an actinic 03 would make a difference in coraline growth :notsure: , but one of the experts can chim in on that. I do know that i have heard of people using a toothbursh and scrubing the coraline alge each day for several weeks to get it to spread, and I think having lots of snails helps spread it also because they move around on it spreading the spores. I think other factors would include having a good stable calcium level. I use the Kent calcium additive with their Enhanced Pro Buffer dKH additive. I have red, pink, purple, green, and a small amount of blue coraline growing. I have so much of it that I have to scrub it off of my powerheads and other equipment. I put a pic to show some of it, heck even the crab has it growing on him. OH, how old is your tank? I am not sure but I think that as the tank matures it prob. get easier to grow it when the parameters are right. I am sure you will be able to get some to grow. I'm not trying to come off as an expert as I surely am not, these are just some of the thing I have heard numorus time on this board:D
 
enomadra

enomadra

Member
OH, I almost forgot. I am currently running 440 watts of PC on my 55 gallon with both stlye bulbs Blue spetrum and true Actinic 03. I will be switching to just Actinic 03 when it comes time to change the Blue bulbs as I have heard that the True Actinic 03 is bettter for the coral. :D
 
neowind

neowind

Member
The blue bulbs have little to no par rating at all. They are not doing much at all for your tank. Your best bet would be to get some 10k bulbs and some actinic 03 bulbs and then you will start to see a big growth spurt in everything. I would throw the blue bulb (fake actinic) out the window. Its sad that LFS and other places recommend these and try to play it off like they are close to the same as actinic where they are no where close. I had a LFS look me in the eye the other day and swear it was the greatest thing. I ask them about par and they was like whats par.
 
elpezgrande

elpezgrande

Member
I replaced my CSL 50/50 with a true actnic 03/10k 50/50 bulb and noticed 2 things. First it looked more like natural lighting because it had less blue in it. Second, my toadstool leather now opens up the "flowers" at the ends of it's polyps. I wouldn't say it has effected my coralline much, but I already had decent growth under the CSL bulb, so I don't think switching the bulb will help much if you have hardly any growth right now.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by CBSHARK
What exactly is PAR?
Photosynthetic Active Radiation.
It's usable light. A bright bulb can actually have less usable because human eyes respond better to light in the middle of the visable range. The dimmer light in the high energy range like blue or violet may appear dim to us but is at least as useful to coral as the whiter light.
 
cbshark

cbshark

Member
Thanks Bang. Hey, did you get your pump? I never heard from you either way. How's it working for you?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Hey, sorry, I've been away.
I received the pump but I have not tried it yet. Thank you for asking!!
Bang
 
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