randy

i got a corallife deluxe lunare series fixture and it has a 10,000k super day light fluorescent lamp and true actinic 03 blue fluorescent lamp in the 420 nanometer range and lunar aqualight blue-moon-glow 470 nm led.

my question is that the super daylight and 03 blue should be used togeather or apart . i think they look better together.and how long should i leave it on per day. is there to much or too little.

should i leave the blue moon glow on all the night time or when i look at it

any information about lighting would be helpful to me.

ahill3780

IME/IMO the 10K and Actinic should be used together for best effect. If possible you might want the Actinic to come on an hour before the daylight and go off an hour afterwards to sort of simulate dawn/dusk. The moonlighting is up to you on how long you wish to leave it on. You can either turn it on when you want to view the tank afterhours, or leave them on all night.

Although, IMO if you have more than 1 lunar light for every 2' of tank length then it is going to be a little bright and may disturb some inhabitants.

HTH,
Aaron

__________________
"The only thing that happens fast in saltwater tanks is failure."

[url=http://www.fishtankforums.com]
[img]http://www.fishtankforums.com/sigpics/91_fishtankforums.png[/img]
[/url]

randy

so should it run all day on a timer to do the dawn/dusk sumulate or like when i am home for the best results. if so are thease light made to be on all day.

jd@ga

Hey randy , Is your tank f/o or a reef tank?

randy

i was planning to make a reef tank

randy

I Hope This Helps

__________________
Sw-46 gallon tank ( bowfront )

Tommy Gun

Hello everyone!

Sorry to make this my first post on this site, but I know a little bit about lighting since I just got my first tank set up and running and a big part of that was a lot of research and shopping around for affordable and suitable light fixtures, so I thought I would chime in.

It is my understanding that BOTH lights should be used in your tank during the day, especially in a reef set up. The reason is that the blue actynic lighting is not just another cool 'effect', but it is actually the light that will travel deepest underwater since it is the strongest wave-length of light. This means that any corals or photosynthetic animals/plants near the bottom of your tank will be soaking up more more blue light than white light.

I currently use a four bulb fixture with two independant plugs for white and blue light. I have them both on some resonably cheap outdoor timers (waterproof) that are made for christmas lights and things like that (less than 5 dollars at a home depot). My blue actynic lights come on at 6 a.m. and stay on by themselves for two hours until the white lights come on. Then in the evening, the white lights turn off at 6 p.m. and the blue lights stay on until 8 p.m. This gives the effect of dawn and dusk and my fish arent scared to death by a sudden jolt of lighting. I also chose these times so that I have a couple hours per day to admire my tank with only the blue lights on, which, IMO makes it look like I have a whole different tank.

Jay

For the record I am not a Salt water expert.

My take on this, and I am talking photosynthesis here, is that it is the INtensity of light and not necessarily the spectral color that is of primary importance. IMO 10K to 20K light in the 3 - 6 watts per gallon range will penetrate water much better,in our shallow aquariums, than blue atintic and will be superior in driving the photosynthesis process. Also we need to keep in mind that a color temp in the 10K (Kelvin Temp), and up range, is weighted toward the blue side. Adding the blue light has some benefit both biologically and esthetically but is not "the force" it is commonly thought to be.

I use 10K compact fluorescent tubes in my planted tank up to 4.5 watts per gallon. The growth and health of the plants is robust.




Edit Note: I have edited out a quote,I included from a resource, which upon reading through several times, I found to be contradictory and a little misleading.


Jay

Tommy Gun

Jay,

I agree that intesity must be more important than color and I appologize if I seemed to say that blue actynic light is a must for corals or any other photosythisis, since I just dont know if that is true.

I wanted to help Randy more with the question of when to run the blue lights and the white lights and for that, my opinion based upon what I have learned so far, is that both should be on at the same time for the majority of the day or period of time that the lights are on (my neighbor's freshwater planted tank is on all night, I think because he works third shift).

My other research leads me to believe that the blue actynic light will reach farther into the water with more intensity because as light is filtered through water, the blue wave length will travel farther. This is why when you watch under water cameras on tv, everything seems nice and blue; because they use blue actynic lights on their cameras to see farther.

I also think that blue actynic light would more closely replicate a coral's natural habitat for the reasons of the filtered light that reaches them is 'bluer' than at the surface.

Again, I am hear to learn as much as I want to help, so I bring this up to get further info from anyone. Everything I said before and in this post is what I have read and learned while setting up my first saltwater tank and searching for suitable lighting. I appologize if I am misleading or wrong on any of this.

Jay

No apologies needed here...that would never be my intent ...and I think we are on the same page. I think that sometimes more importance can be placed on an observation or fact than is needed.

IME the depth of out tanks renders the penetration fact/observation mute. As long as I can maintain an intensity of over 2.5 Watts per gallon in the 400 -700 nm range in my tanks, life is good. I also like the blue in my 10K tubes, it is pleasing to my eye.

Yes light is filtered out as depth is increased and blue light prevails, but photosynthesis is less robust at increased depth and "stuff" that requires photosynthesis to grow and flourish like plants do less well. They adapt at using blue light, but would do better with intense white in the correct spectrum. Does that make sense

I agree they should be used together for whatever photo-period works for your tank. I like the idea of a phasing them in to create a dusk dawn effect.

Jay