actinics and plants?

[fishstoreguy]

I have a 24" Coralife power compact on my freshwater tank to grow plants. My question is whether plants use light in that blue actinic range or not. I like the blue because when both lights are on it washes out alot of the yellow from the flourescent and seems to penetrate deeper into the tank (24" deep) I can find very little on this topic on the web. I work at a LFS and have had mixed responses from employees and customers alike. does anyone know?

 

[ergo sum]

"Actinic
These tubes emit light only from the blue end of the spectrum and are used in marine setups to supply the blue that is missing from normal aquarium lighting but is required by marine algae, anemones and corals. They are usually only available from specialty aquarium stores and are not cheap. They have little or no application for growing plants. "

http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/light.html