Actinic/10,000k combo bulbs

gatotsu77

gatotsu77

AC Members
May 17, 2006
1,185
0
36
Contemplating replacing the lighting on my 55g some time... not sure if I really want to dive into another expensive component just yet. :-\ At any rate, I was looking at this:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...82x65wattpowercompactsinglestripw2lunarlights

It's a 65w x2 power compact light which has bulbs that are 10,000k/actinic combo. Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't actinic more for marine? Isn't 10,000k also a little too blue for plant growth in freshwater? (generally I hear 6500k is best) I'd love to get this setup, since it would push me to 2.5 wpg, but I'm in no way in urgent need of an upgrade just yet. I'm just poking around options. I don't plan to do CO2, so I don't want it TOO bright, but I will start dosing ferts. Ironically, most of the plants I like are low/medium light plants anyway, so they'd likely do fine with the light I have currently. (110 watts of fluorescent) In the advertisement, it suggests that power compact is 3x brighter than fluorescent... I don't think this means that light would be equivalent to 390 watts of fluorescent, but is it beneficial vs standard fluorescent?
 
Awesome, thanks. :-)
 
wackydan said:
I've got the actinic and 10k on my freshwater and the plants are growing like crazy at about 2.3-2.5 wpg.

Yes... actinic is more for marine from what I understand.... I bought a spare bulb that is strictly dayliight for when the bulb that came with my light blows.
Click to expand...

Wow, someone else who doesnt think putting actinic/10k over a planted tank will cause all your plants to vaporize and algae to devour your tank :rolleyes:... I never claimed they are the best, but am amazed at how many fear mongers spread misinformation about how terrible they are and that it would be like a sin to use them:grinyes:.
 
Ah, I absolutely love the color of actinic and 10000k combination bulbs....just be wary, its a lot more blue than what you're probably used to.

Never tried growing plants under them though.
 
I'm tempted to buy a 6700k bulb and run the one combo bulb and one 6700k bulb to see how it works out for me. What all does blue light do to/for plant growth? Would it be wise to just get 2 6700k bulbs and either sell or just not use the 10,000k/actinic bulbs?
 
gatotsu77 said:
I'm tempted to buy a 6700k bulb and run the one combo bulb and one 6700k bulb to see how it works out for me. What all does blue light do to/for plant growth? Would it be wise to just get 2 6700k bulbs and either sell or just not use the 10,000k/actinic bulbs?
Click to expand...

The way I look at it is the extra blue doesnt really mean its going to help a whole lot, just somewhat. Its been said before that the amount of blue is sufficient in most other full spectrum bulbs. Tom Barr has said heavy reds with a little blue is about perfect. So If your contemplating swapping out the 10k/actinic for a ~6700K I would expect the 6700K is going to be slightly better for plant growth. But many like the whiter look of 10,000K and also the extra blue with actinic (and also some dont). Remember not all actinics are equal. Some peak in the mid 400's (wavelength), these will at least be somewhat useful. But the deeper actinics in the 300's most likely will not be usefull at all.

If you have a twin bulb setup you can always use a variety. Here is one thing I tried (albiet for a short time):

5050_vs_colormax.JPG


Two bulbs but 4 different colors. We have a 50/50 (actinic + 10k) and another 50/50 but its 6700k/colormax (coralife bulb). It was actually to much light for the tank without co2 and not enough plants, so I cut it back to one bulb and have treated it as low tech ever since.
 
loaches r cool said:
The way I look at it is the extra blue doesnt really mean its going to help a whole lot, just somewhat. Its been said before that the amount of blue is sufficient in most other full spectrum bulbs. Tom Barr has said heavy reds with a little blue is about perfect. So If your contemplating swapping out the 10k/actinic for a ~6700K I would expect the 6700K is going to be slightly better for plant growth. But many like the whiter look of 10,000K and also the extra blue with actinic (and also some dont). Remember not all actinics are equal. Some peak in the mid 400's (wavelength), these will at least be somewhat useful. But the deeper actinics in the 300's most likely will not be usefull at all.

If you have a twin bulb setup you can always use a variety. Here is one thing I tried (albiet for a short time):

5050_vs_colormax.JPG


Two bulbs but 4 different colors. We have a 50/50 (actinic + 10k) and another 50/50 but its 6700k/colormax (coralife bulb). It was actually to much light for the tank without co2 and not enough plants, so I cut it back to one bulb and have treated it as low tech ever since.
Click to expand...

Too much light without CO2, eh? Around what level would you deem it to be necessary to have CO2? I'd like to get a bit more light on my tank, as I plan to add more low-light plants, but the prospect of giving it too much light concerns me. This is on a 55g tank, and I'd have 130 watts of power compact lighting. (I have no intention of doing CO2 on this tank... don't really want to take that dive just yet) I'm likely just going to keep various anubias, hornwort, a few onion plants, (I have 3 bulbs, one is just now sprouting) a couple swords possibly, some pennywort, and a few others which I can't seem to think of the names for at the moment.
 
since its a freshwater tank why not get a Coralife Freshwater fixture you can get a single tube fixture or double and they come with 6700K bulbs. Thats what I have.
 
Its hard to say. The only tank I've used CF's has been my 45G Odyssea Tank. It has a flat reflector. So thats 2.88wpg. Part of my problem was that I dont have enough plants in it though, and kept getting algae (that was using 1-2X dose daily of Excel). But my tank was more cube-ish and both lights were together. On a 55 its a lot longer I assume if you had two they would be end for end which should yield a lower light level hitting thr bottom than if they were both together (another reason why wpg doesnt always work perfectly). This tank was kind of an experiment I never finished... it ws to be a heavily planted brackish tank. It was to be mostly java fern and jungle val, as well as a few others, but at first had lots of algae problems and diatoms persisted for months and months and killed off many plants. Its only got a few ferns left right now, the one actinic/10k bulb, and no ferts of any kind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom