Actinic light

[madrefkepr]

He everyone!

Being new to reefing, I have a question about actinic light. Right now I use (2) 30 watt triton (Aquarium Products) NO bulbs on my 65 gallon tank. I am designing a canopy which will house pc's but might take some time to get it done. Only have some polyps and mushrooms, which are doing very well, not interested in anything that requires much light for now.

I don't grow much purple in my tank. Almost all the coralline I have is green. I do have some new purple, but not much. Would this have anything to do with not having an actinic light? Would I be better off changing one of the tritons to an actinic bulb for now?

Dave

 

[Len]

For now, I'd keep the the tritons as is. Actinics are not as efficient as "full spectrum" bulbs, and since your lighting is currently very minimal, I wouldn't suggest reducing it any further. As to whether actinics will promote certain coralline strains, I'm sure it's possible, but I can't confidently say which. For all I know, you could simply encourage more green coralline 8O Generally, in captive aquariums, one species will dominate the tank and choke out the rest. Perhaps the green coralline is boss of yours.