Actinic Lights Are For....

[salt e]

What?....what purpose do they serve if any other then helping some fish / corals / anemone's bring out color...? i have one CORALIFE 48 incher over my tank, and i have no idea why its there i know, i know....Ignorance is bliss

 

[golfish]

looks is about 90% of it...there's nothing like a full blown reef with a couple actincs on late at night....

 

[Bebo77]

looks and dusk to dawn effect...

 

[salt e]

icic... i really didnt think they were for any special purpos...just wondering... thanks

 

[phender]

Yes there is/was a special purpose. Water filters out low wavelenghts of light. Blue light penetrates the farthest. Land plants use mostly red and blue light to do photosynthesis. Since red light doesn't penetrate very deep in the water, the algae that live inside the corals have adapted to using more of the blue light.

That being said, because most of us now use 10K - 20k bulbs (as opposed to 5k - 6.5k like the old days) actinic lamps are not really neccessary anymore. They do bring out the colors better in some animals though.

 

[gcarroll]

phender & golfih are definitly correct. The corals do get usable light from actinics but since none of use rely on them for photosenthesis (because we use other sources of light like metal Halides)