metal halide users

bracebldrs

New member
just wondering if a couple of people could give me there
opinion on the use of actinics in addition to mh14ks .i have a 125g
with 3-250w,14k.i know it depends on what you keep im working
towards corals .do you notice a diff in growth with actinics?
isnt 14k a mix of both?
 
actinic lighting is not necessary and is most often used for your own eye appeal, i ran 20KKs for years without supplemental lighting with excellent results, swapped to 10KKs and IMO it was to white so i added VHO actinic to blue it up, while i didn't have any significant increase in growth i did have better coloration with the 10KK/VHO actinic setup.

kc
 
Actinic lighting is a rather loosely defined thing, as is color temp in terms of how it applies to aquarium lighting. In general, actinic lighting is blue to purple spectrum lighting. Look at the varieties available in actinic lighting: actinic, pure actinic, actinic+, 420nm, 460nm, blah blah blah. In the end, its all about color preference with actinic lighting because they tend to have rather little PAR when compared to bulbs at the yellow end of the spectrum, ie daylight. I'm of the opinion that it is good to provide full spectrum lighting. This is well provided by most bulbs at the yellower end of the spectrum; even 6500Ks have some blue in them. However, many 14K and 20K bulbs tend to have one huge spike at some wavelength in the blue spectrum and rather little elsewhere (much like "actinic" lighting). If anything, your 14K is lacking on the yellow end of the spectrum rather than the blue or "actinic" end. Not knowing what specific bulbs you use, however, I do not know for sure. In the end, you'll still get growth out of a 14000K or 20000K bulb, but it won't tend to be as fast as you would get with a good 10000K or 6500K bulb.
 
Keep in mind, also, that each manufacturers bulbs will be different. A Hamilton 10K may be more yellow than an XM 10k. It also depends on what ballast you're running them on. I use XM10k's on a PFO ballast and the light is pretty close to white. I have a friend with the same bulbs on a coralife ballast and the light is more yellow.

Check out this link, http://www.cnidarianreef.com/lamps.cfm
It's got a comparason of all the major brands, different spectrums and also shows them with and without actinic supplementation.
 
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