Hi, I am very confused about the efficacy of actinic lights in freshwater tanks. I've looked into this online, and most sites say that actinic bulbs are not very effective for freshwater plants. But then the bulb's package says "ideal for saltwater, reef and freshwater aquariums" and "spectrum resembles that of the absorption peak of chlorophyll-a which is the most important pigment found in plant cells." What gives? Is this just the manufacturer trying to sell to more people? (It's Coralife.) What happened is that I recently upgraded from a 20 gallon to a 55. I bought the 55 used, from a guy who previously kept a saltwater system in it, and he threw in a bunch of stuff with the tank that he couldn't use anymore. I can't use most of it either :headshake2:. But I did try out the actinic bulbs he gave me, and I thought they looked pretty cool. I have lots of plants in my aquarium, but I wouldn't call it a "planted" aquarium, because for simplicity's sake I buy only plants that I can either tie to rocks or leave floating. I have lots of java fern, one anubias, and some watersprite. I'm lighting with two 15 watts actinic bulbs. Is the actinic ok for my particular plants, or should I go back to fluorescent? Thanks!
set me straight - actinic in freshwater?
- Thread starter LeahK
- Start date
Not useful for plants. They make fish colors pop out amazingly though. I run one day light and one actinic.
The photosynthesis process requires a broad spectrum of light, though it is most sensitive to wavelengths in the red and blue spectrum. Just using actinic would only provide light in the blue wavelength and plants need more. A combination of actinic and regular fluorescent may be good but actinic alone is a bad idea.
might be a better idea to just order online and save your self a lot of money. i would get a 6500k-10000k bulb to replace it with. how many watts is the bulb?