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Power Compact Lighting: Actinic vs. Day bulbs

jowens

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The time has come for me to replace one of my Power Compact Flourescent bulbs on my 110W, 36" setup. The current bulbs are both "day" bulbs, supplying only white light. Can anyone provide me information on actinic ("blue") bulbs? I know they're favored in reef aquariums, but are they good for planted freshwater tanks? If so, does the combination of white and actinic bulbs look cool from a purely acstetic perspective? My plants are going great as-is, but I'm always looking for improvement!

I was going to order from: http://www.hellolights.com

Thanks,
Jason
 

jowens

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Boston, MA
I emailed hellolights and here's their reply:

"FW [freshwater] plants do well under 6,700 or 8,800K. The difference being 6,700K is closer to "yellow" sunlight. 50/50 [1/2 actinic, 1/2 day] bulbs are nice looking for our eyes, but less beneficial for your plants. Actinic is specially designed for coral pigments called zooxanthellae, which your FW plants lack."

There's my answer!
 

farm41

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monroe, or
If you can get them, 5000-6700K would be the best. I have most of my tanks using 5000K and 1 using 6700K, there is a small difference in color, but, no noticeable difference in plant growth.

HTH
 

jowens

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Boston, MA
According to Hellolights, green plants do best in 8800K lights and red plants do better in 6700K lights. Since most of my plants are green, I'm leaning towards 8800K. Their exact words:

"Depending on the pigments of your plants, if you have more red
pigments, go with 6,700K, if not, then go with 8,800K."
 

farm41

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monroe, or
Before you order from hellolights, you should take a look at this site Aquarium Hobbyist Supply I haven't ordered from them myself, but, I have heard only good things about them. I think their bulbs are less expensive.

As far as the Kelvin Temp., I have heard it is not the temp as much as it is the intensity. If you want natural color, it would be closer to sunlight which is in the 5000K, the 6500K is a little more blue.
 

jowens

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5 Year Member
Messages
88
Location
Boston, MA
Before you order from hellolights, you should take a look at this site Aquarium Hobbyist Supply I haven't ordered from them myself, but, I have heard only good things about them. I think their bulbs are less expensive.
Farm, I few months ago I was interested in starting a Nano-reef tank, so I was spending a lot of time on the forums at http://www.nano-reef.com. I'll tell you what - these people know their lighting. Virtually all of them constructed their own power compact lighting setups via online stores like ahsupply.com and hellolights.com. So basically, I just sponged these folks for knowledge and they told me this: www.ahsupply.com is the best place around for hardware, but www.hellolights.com is where you should get your bulbs. They're a bit more expensive at hello, I guess, but everyone on the boards seemed to think it was well worth it because the quality of light produced is really superior from hello bulbs. They said there's nothing wrong with AH bulbs...but hello's were better than anyone's. Anyway, I have real evidence to support this, but I also have no reason to disbelieve when they're saying down at nano-reef.com.

(By the way, I recommend everyone check out Nano-reef.com at least once. Very tempting to set up a 20-gallon salt water tank if you have the money. If you already own an RO unit, I think the whole thing can be done for well under $400.)
 

farm41

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1,191
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monroe, or
That's great jowens, I just wanted to make sure you new about the place. I'm still just using T8 lighting.

I hope all turns out well.
 

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