Lighting Suggestions for a New Picotope 3 Gallon Aquarium Kit

that light should be fine wolfman just know that Actinic does nothing for your tank. You also might want to keep a close eye on dosing ferts and water changes and watch the temp. It's completely do able I've seen some incredible planted tanks

if you don't like the 50/50 light, just get a 10w compact flourescent light bulb that they sell at walmart in the fish section, they're longer, so it'd fit better than a normal compact flourescent.

DeeSeven said:

that light should be fine wolfman just know that Actinic does nothing for your tank. You also might want to keep a close eye on dosing ferts and water changes and watch the temp. It's completely do able I've seen some incredible planted tanks

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Actinic bulbs produce their peak output in the 420-460nm range which is right in the range of blue that plants use for photosynthesis. The misconception that it doesn't help plant growth is based on the fact that the blue end of the spectrum encourages stocky, bushy growth, while a 5500-6700K bulb peaks more in the red end of the spectrum which encourages elongation in plants. Both ends of the spectrum are necessary for healthy growth, and the blue tends to make things look more pleasing to the eye, although that is of course a matter of taste.

actually it completely depends on the bulb since it has to be around 420 and 440 nm anything past that you'll get algae. But with no spectral graph of the bulb, no way to really tell