Lighting Question

[sj022698]

I am wanting to do corals and fish. I have 260 watt lights.

2- 12,000k
2- Actinic

Is it imperative to have the actinic? I'm not a big fan of the blue color. I'd rather have 4- 12,000k
Isn't 12,000k more natural?

 

[Aquascaper]

Actinic light does have benefits for the fish and inverts in the tank, not just in looks, as you are providing the blue wavelengths of light that occur in deep water which would otherwise be lost.

Natural light is closer to 10,000k with lower temps being more red (appears to us as yellow light) and higher temps being blue.

Generally people use 10,000k, 14,000k, 20,000k and more recently 50,000k depending on the types of corals and the look of the tank.

If you use Actinics you'll notice that fish and inverts appear more colourful.

 

[superman]

As far as "natural" light goes, daylight at midday is between 5,000k and 6,500k. So on the reef corals really don't fluoresce much. 10,000k appears more white to our eyes and doesn't do much for making the corals glow. Anything above that is very subjective as far as exactly how blue it looks. Keep in mind that bulb manufacturers only rate the bulbs in a general sense so that we have a vague idea of what color the light may be. I've seen 12,00k bulbs that look much more blue than some supposed 14,000k bulbs. When you are trying to decide on what color temps to put over your tank it is best to borrow lights from someone and view your tank with those lights for about a week before you decide whether or not it is too blue or too white. I find this especially good to do when I am trying to figure out what bulb combination works best for a customer. I usually try to start out more towards the blue spectrum, and then over the course of a month work my way back towards the 10,000k range. It is amazing how many people don't like the bluer look at the start of the week, but then by the end of the week they have grown accustomed to it and actually like the fluorescent look of the corals. So what I am saying is try to view as many tanks with different lighting combinations and then try some different types of light on your own tank, only then will you be completely satisfied with what you settle on.