Actinic (50/50) and FW planted tank

[BurtonMan]

One of my two lamps is a 50/50 Coralife. Does actinic make a difference in a freshwater planted tank?

 

[Shiftaltumlock]

IME, NO! It will not do you anygood in a planted tank. That tube is for corals. Go with tubes that are rated between 5000 and 6700K.

 

[Fishiebusiness]

I'd also recommend the daylight bulbs. I would like to add that plants can use lighting in the actinic output range, so it would not be totally wasted, after all, zoox in corals and chloroplasts in plants both contain cholorophyll. However, no one has really tried plants with actinic so the actual results are a mystery to me.

 

[fresh_newby]

Actinics are utilized in plants, just not that much, so if you have a 50 watt actinic, you can guess that 20w would be utilized, the rest wasted. I have read that some hypothesize that actinics may tend to favor algae though. I think that is more the argument than whether plants use it or not. it is thought that algae favors actinics more than plants, so you may see more algae growth with an actinic component than if you hadn't. IMO it is far better to just replace the 50/50 with something in the 6700 spectrum and call it a day.

 

[twig]

i got some pretty weird lights when i put my w/b lights in after two of my 10k super daylights burnt out.

 

[echoofformless]

Both plants and algae will use the part of the spectrum that the actinic light produces, however the prevailing opinion seems to be that algae is better favored by it than the plants. Therefore I would largely avoid the actinic light in a planted tank. But it's not altogether useless. Just better left to its intended coral purpose.

 

[wesleydnunder]

...However, no one has really tried plants with actinic so the actual results are a mystery to me.

Untrue. Many have tried it. None I know of were succussful. The only thing I've seen thrive in FW under actinics is brown algae.

Mark

 

[drgold]

you don't HAVE to keep it in the 5000k-6700k range. Lots of folks use the all-glass (GE?) 9325k with great results. It allows you to see more of the red range in plants, rather than everything washing to green under 6700 or lower. Fish look better, too. In my tank, I run 8000k and everything looks and grows great. Of course, 5000-6700 may be best for growth, but you can sacrifice a bit for looks as well. Just a thought.....

 

[misopeenut]

ive grown hairgrass, rotala, glosso with the 50/50 bulbs. its actually not that bad, yes the algae but that can be controlled by water changes, algae eater, scrapers