How bad is Actinic only?

[fritz]

I've heard that Actinic light is more for us and isn't very usuable to corals. I'm waiting for my new bulbs to be delivered so my tank is running on 150 watts of VHO Actinic only. It's a 55 gallon tank with zoos, mushrooms, yellow polyps and candy canes.

By the time the new bulbs get here they will have been on Actinic only for one week. How bad is this for them, or am I fine?

 

[Deanos]

As long as they were healthy beforehand, they'll be fine.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

as deanos said if they were healthy before they will be fine. but i would still throw in some daylight bulbs in there. my opinion i would give them some white light at least.

 

[fritz]

The only other fixture I have is the stock (RO) 48" strip light from AGA. Am I better off using that (with a new bulb of course) till UPS comes on Tuesday?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

if worse comes to worse use the vho fixture. they will be fine with the actinic. i was just giving u my opinion on what i would do.

 

[fritz]

got ya, thanks. Everything is wide open, in fact they look healthy and fine. I just read today that Actinic wattage "doesn't really count", it freaked me out abit but once the 10k bulbs come in I guess I'll be fine.

 

[noodleman]

I think i read soemwhere on RC some guy had a zoo only tank with only actinics, he didn't get much growth but he said he had some great colors

 

[DRZL]

Actinics are actually beneficial from what ive read, the color spectrum spikes at 430 nm-460nm, blue spectrum actually helps photosynthesize (looking for article) so its not just for you but for your corals

Freshwater due to the low K plants prefer (theyre not underwater where the light is bluer) most people feel its unecessary in THAT freshwater application.

Do u have a link to what your talking about? ive never heard true actinics (not just a blue bulb) are unnecessary

 

[fritz]

Here's the link plus in there is reference to a September article that Anthony Calfo wrote going into greater detail but I can't find that one. I've also read that the spectrum super saturates photosynthesis in zooxanthellae, but I didn't know if "super saturates" is a good thing or bad thing. Wet Web Media is a fantastic resource and all but it sucks when you are looking for a very specific piece of information.