Lighting Questions.

[EagleTalonTim]

Hello all! This is my first post and probably not my last I am wondering about my lighting for my saltwater tank. I have a 75 gallon tank that has been running for about 4 months now and I have just started adding fish about a week ago. I bought one of those 48" CoralLife Aqualight High Output lights from Petco which was on sale for $100. I just could not pass it up since I new I needed a light for my tank. I have had this light on my tank for about 3 months. It came with 2 different bulbs that were already installed in it. One is a 10,000k lamp which says the "Daylight" bulb, and the other is an "Actinic" bulb which says a dawn/dusk bulb. The question I have is why do both run at the same time and why can I not select which one is on at what time? I was thinking of having the blue one come on at 8am, the white come on around 12 and turn off at 4 or 5pm, then the blue turn off at 8pm. Is this possible or even worth doing or could this cause problems?

 

[abulgin]

The daylight bulb is the "white" light that contains most of the usaeble wavelengths. The actinic bulb is mostly for aesthetics - some corals "fluoresce" under actinic lights. Honestly, most people use actincs for dawn/dusk effects and to give the reef that "deep water" look. If you plan to keep photosynthetic corals, your current lighting will be terribly inadequate. You would need at least 3 or 4 daylight bulbs on a 75 gallon tank, with individual reflectors. If you willl just keep fish, your lights are fine.

 

[EagleTalonTim]

So I should get another one of those light setups like I have and put 2 10,000k bulbs in it? How long during the day should I have the daylight bulbs running? And, can I have the actinic lights running from 8am to 8 or 10pm?