Can corals Live on mostly true Actinic

[Irisservice]

I have a 72G RR BF with 2 65w 10k and 2 55 true Actinic 03.I like the way the 03 looks so i extened the time it stays on. I currently have the 10k's on for 8H and true Actinic 03 for 12h. I would like to add another pair of true Actinic 03 making a total of 4.And was wondering would this be a problem for the the fish and corals.

[matrixnyc]

I have read that fluorescent only lighting is not good for tanks with Coral and live rock, as well as an all Actinic lighting is not good for tanks with Coral and Live Rock. Most recommend a 50/50 Metal Halide & Actinic Combo solution to satisfy the Coral and LR needs. The 50/50 combo is your best bet, anyone else have any input on this topic?

[vpham97]

I have several ballast on my tank. The regular light run during the day. Then when I'm home, the actinic are on during the morning and night. So, the corals get the benefits from the regular light, and my brain get the eye candy from the actinic light when I'm home.

When you buy light fixture, see if it has independent switch for the regular lgiht and the actinic light.

[HoopsGuru]

as well as an all Actinic lighting is not good for tanks with Coral and Live Rock. Most recommend a 50/50 Metal Halide & Actinic Combo solution to satisfy the Coral and LR needs

I completely disagree. First, "coral" is a pretty general term with an infinite amount of differences. Second, I find it also vague to apply the term "most recommend" when you are dealing with such a wide range of tank sizes these days, there are too many ways to succesfully light and accomodate the "needs" of a system. For that matter, NO lighting is perfectly suitable to grow coralline algae...LR doesn't require special lighting. Your generalization would be more suitably applied for aesthetics....the one realm where MH is still the clear favorite.

According to Borneman, Calfo, Fenner, and such....almost all corals have the ability to use any form of light to meet their needs. In fact, most corals do not require the intense lighting they are given and actually "cap" their intake at a certain point.

I think I may be a good example of this fact.....when I started in the hobby I bought a SMARTLAMP and didn't realize it was all actinic. I had it over all my LPS and softies for quite some time and they did fantastic, just as good as they do with a 10k/actinic combo.

[Irisservice]

Thanks for the info.

[jadavis01]

I agree whole heartedly with HoopsGuru! There are many corals with vastly different lighting needs and some with virtually none. I have done a lot of reading on lighting over the past few years and I must say it seems like the jury is still deliberating on what is needed by corals vs. what we think was needed vs what is appealing to our eye. Generally, and I mean very generally, I believe the current belief would be mostly that all actinic is fine for many corals (many will grow and prosper). I like the way many corals floresce (sp?) under only actinic but I prefer the "brightness" of both actinic and daylight bulbs. I currently have 2 55W true actinic PC's (from Hellolights.com) and 2 55W 8000K PC's over a 29 gal tank. The actinics run 12 hours witth the 8000K's running 8 hours during the middle of the day.
I probably would have gone with a MH bulb and some actinic PC's from the beginning (3 years ago) but at the time the cost (hardware and electricity) seemed prohibitive and I got my PC fixtures used and cheap. I started with a 2 55W PC fixture (1 6700K and 1 7100K). I added 2 more 55W PC's a year later. I can say, again very generally, that most of my corals seem to be growing better under the 4 55W configuration. I keep mostly softies like Sinualria, Sarchophytons (leathers), xenias, mushrooms and a few LPS like Cynarina, torch and 2 types of Bastomusa. I suspect SPS might need (do better with) MH lighting.
Some will tell us that only MH is fitting. They do have that cool ripple effect! Some, like Dr. Ron Shimek will say we need almost no lighting as long as we feed well. Some day we may know for sure. For now a suspect somewhere in the middle should do. It is probably the hottest debate in the reefkeeperd world along with which skimmer is best.

[call69]

I would have to say that most actinic can be done... the store I go to has a few tanks that have 6 actinic PC bulbs and only 1 or 2 daylamps, and the open brain corals thrive.

[Irisservice]

Thanks for the reply.

[on_fire_8]

I have to say I really like the actnic look too. More actinic does great at keeping the red slime away too.

[phistio]

really? is there a link to support that?

[Irisservice]

make sense since the cyno lives off red spectrum lighting.