Placement of lighting

[melissasreef]

I have a 260 watt PC Lighting system. I have 2 pc bulbs of actinic light, and 2 12,000k daylight bulbs. Does it matter which bulbs are placed at the front or back of the tank?

Thank you for your imput!

 

[DarG]

Id alternate so the color and par is more uniform throughout the tank ... something like actinic - 12K - actinic - 12K

Or you can place actinic front and back and 12K center as that may focus the higher par 12K's over the center if most of the corals are placed there.

 

[melissasreef]

I only have two options. Actinic front Daylight back, or the opposite. I dont have the option of actinic front and back. Which is why I want to know which should be in the front. Or if it really doesn't matter. I already have them on timers, so the actinic is on 7am- 11pm Daylight 9am-8:30 pm. Moonlights allday long.

 

[DarG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15462031#post15462031 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melissasreef
I only have two options. Actinic front Daylight back, or the opposite. I dont have the option of actinic front and back. Which is why I want to know which should be in the front. Or if it really doesn't matter. I already have them on timers, so the actinic is on 7am- 11pm Daylight 9am-8:30 pm. Moonlights allday long.

Are they two seperate fixtures with different wattage lamps? Not sure why you cant move the lamps to different positions.

 

[melissasreef]

it is one fixture 48 " Long with 4 bulbs. I can not do actinic front , Daylight middle, and another actinic back. There is only places to plug two bulbs in on each end. So I need to know if it matter if actinic are in the front or daylight. I have to have the bulbs set inas I decsibed or else my timers wont work. There is one switch for the front bulbs and one switch for the back.

 

[DarG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15463898#post15463898 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melissasreef
it is one fixture 48 " Long with 4 bulbs. I can not do actinic front , Daylight middle, and another actinic back. There is only places to plug two bulbs in on each end. So I need to know if it matter if actinic are in the front or daylight. I have to have the bulbs set inas I decsibed or else my timers wont work. There is one switch for the front bulbs and one switch for the back.

I got you ... sockets/lamps arent staggered in your fixture so you cant do dawn/dusk and your tanks left side and right side would get different color lighting.

In that case, It probably doesnt matter unless the majority of the colors end up under the front lights or back lights. In other words, if the corals would be more under the front lights, you can maybe provide them a bit more par by placing the whiter lights in front ... or if they are more concentrated to the back where the back two lamps would provide more light to them, then you can provide them a bit more par by placing the daylights in the back ... you get the picture.

If it doesnt matter, and I suspect it probably doesnt because most likely you have the corals centered, then do whatever looks best to you. The tank will probably appear more actinic/blue with the actinics in front. So whatever you think looks better.

You can consider the combo actinic-blue/daylight lamps for more uniform lighting throughout the tank when it comes time for replacement of the lamps but you will lose dawn/dusk effect.