Growing macro algae under actinic light

[popsock]

has anyone tried growing caulerpa or similar under actinic light only?

 

[Unarce]

I'm only using a 9watt actinic bulb for the chaetomorpha in my sump. Still grows pretty fast. Big difference between caulerpa and chaetomorpha, though.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Interesting. What kind of growth do you see with the actinic bulb vs a daylight or PC bulb?

 

[Unarce]

To be honest, I can't tell the difference in the growth rate. It's one of those Coralife Mini Might single lamps, and I used to use the daylight bulb (5000K I think). During the whole spectrum debate we had in this forum a couple of years ago, I plugged in the actinic.

The growth pattern is different. The chaeto was light green, with long strands under daylight. It's dark green, with tight curls under actinic. Since I'm still able to sell about 6 cups a month, I just stuck with it.

 

[Anonymous]

been my experience, the crappier the light, the better it grows...

 

[Anonymous]

I would think that Red Macro would grow pretty good under Actinic and Green Macro would grow better under light from the read end of the spectrum.

Hmmmm, I detect another experiment in my future.

Guy <--- wanders off mumbling

 

[Anonymous]

Guy, My red graci grows best in areas of very high flow and mostly actinic light. My green Graci grows in areas of very high flow and very actinic light. My chaeto hates actinic and likes 6500K light with moderate flow. So I think that we are dealing with some multi-variable organisms here. I bet there is a combination of lighting and flow and nutrients that favors each algae family and I am not sure what that table looks like, but I would love to know.

 

[Anonymous]

I just use old pc bulbs. Why do we change our bulbs? because the spectrum shifts and algea starts to grow. So why not use the lights to Purposely grow algea.

B

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Very good point Bingo.