bta and uv

[andycook]

Do BTA benefit from having some UV lighting?

 

[andycook]

or actinic or any other light suppliments beyond MH?

 

[bigdaddyadam]

from my understanding, anemone's have very similar zooxanthellae in their bodies as that in corals...the zooxanthellae can utilize differing spectums of light but from my understanding the 10k spectrum has the most available energy for photosynthesis in zooxanthellae...that being said, BTA's do react differently to the addition of actinic lighting, if for no other reason than that you can stagger the lighting to mimic a photocycle like a real day with a high noon and less light in the morning and at night...there is some research out their that photoperiods induce spawning, splitting, etc...not to mention actinics wil make the anemone appear much more luminecent...I have always supplemented with actinics for looks but in my understanding there is little ulitizable light in that spectrum...I say try it out if you want but if not your anemeone will not suffer for it

 

[RightWinger210]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9847443#post9847443 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bigdaddyadam
from my understanding, anemone's have very similar zooxanthellae in their bodies as that in corals...the zooxanthellae can utilize differing spectums of light but from my understanding the 10k spectrum has the most available energy for photosynthesis in zooxanthellae...that being said, BTA's do react differently to the addition of actinic lighting, if for no other reason than that you can stagger the lighting to mimic a photocycle like a real day with a high noon and less light in the morning and at night...there is some research out their that photoperiods induce spawning, splitting, etc...not to mention actinics wil make the anemone appear much more luminecent...I have always supplemented with actinics for looks but in my understanding there is little ulitizable light in that spectrum...I say try it out if you want but if not your anemeone will not suffer for it

What he said, basically, the actinic's make the tank have more of a white/bluish look to it than yellowy 10,000K lights it's also a little more natural to everything in the tank to have the blue light spectrum of the actinic lights. And the UV light is a separate system used for filtration of biological organisms. This is not a light to light up your tank with.

Edit- "I have always supplemented with actinics for looks but in my understanding there is little ulitizable light in that spectrum."

This is not true, plants and the zooanthellae that reside in corals and nems use the blue spectrum for photosynthesis, I could be wrong, but Im pretty sure they do use the blue.

 

[bigdaddyadam]

this is what Calfo told me long ago, that if you are counting actinics, you are crazy, I told him I had 130 watts of PC on my old 20...he said is half that actinic? I said yeah and he said well then you have 65 watts of "real" light.

caveat, corals and anemone's do use blue light, i.e. 15k or 20k, this is not the same as actinics

 

[andycook]

I'm running 3 175W MH with 10K ushios. I prefer tanks more toward the white light than blue.