# Lighting Q



## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

So I am still running my 2 , 65 watt Pc lights on my tank.
I was wondering if there would be any ill effects from running say 2 actinic lights in it instead if 1 actinic and one 10,000 k .
Is this going to effect my corals ,coralline growth or anything on the negative side ?
Thanks everyone.

Oh just another short Q. Does anyone know of a company that does tank sitting other then Big Als ? As I am going to the states for about a month with my Reserve unit and need to look into that.


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## marblerye (Jul 25, 2010)

i did tons of research on this when i was in the market a long time ago for a T5 unit.. let's see what i can recall without getting too scientific...

i know that actinics promote coral and invertebrate growth as it feeds the zooaxanthellae algae, as well its wavelength peaks at 420nm which gives it that blue appearance. this is good because it makes coral colors really 'pop' with vibrance. however, you still need the daylight lamp (10,000k or higher) to complete the spectrum which acts like sunlight for your tank. running only actinics won't be able to do this, so yeah you'll need both lamps. 

on my tank i've noticed that my anemones respond really well to the daylight (14,000k) lamps because when it comes on that's when the anemones bubble up and extend to absorb the light. this doesn't happen too much when the actinics are up though, so i know it gets more 'food' from the daylight lamps than they probably do from the actinics alone. however with my fixture it's on a timer to turn on the actinics first in the morning to say it's sunrise, then the daylights come on with the actinics for the day until in the evening the daylights go off while actinics stay on to signify it's sunset and then at night the actinics shut off and moonlights follow to say it's goodnight.


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## marblerye (Jul 25, 2010)

just wanted to add; i read somewhere (i think the manual..) that using only actinics for a long period of time can actually cause blindness to your fish.. and humans too if you stare at it enough daily. Okay maybe not sudden blindness but it can mess up your vision real bad. 
actinics are on all the time on my setup from sunrise to sunset with the daylights going on in between so i can only assume this disclaimer refers to using ONLY actinics on as your dominant lighting source. Afterall it's light hanging out in only one spectrum which i guess can damage the retina just like staring at the sun (most likely at a lesser rate).


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## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

Ok thanks. I was kinda thinking something along the same lines with having the one spectrum.. I am just gona run a 50/50 with the actinc until my 4 bulb t5 comes next week.


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