if you put 130 watts on a 29 gallon tank and 65 of them are.

[krap101]

actinic, will the plants be all jacked up? and how bright will 130 watts be?

1 65 watt actinic and 1 65 watt 10000k bulb

 

[hashbaz]

Sounds like you would have nothing but algae. Actinic lights don't do much for plants, so they would only fuel the algae. I would turn off the actinic if possible.

The plants would be fine but would see little more than 2.24wpg (65watt / 29 gallons).

130 watts is very bright 8)

 

[krap101]

okay

 

[greenmaji]

there would be enough useful light for plants.. so you might be able to fight the algae with plant growth.. If you try it keep us posted!!

 

[malkore]

what you'll have is 65watts of useable plant spectrum, and 130 watts of useable algae spectrum.

I personally would only try this out as an experiment, and I'd run pressurized CO2 to reduce (or try to) algae problems.

 

[krap101]

well i dont even know if ill win the light now... the last one finished at 52$!! it started as 1$ so i thought that i might win it but wow!

 

[travis simonson]

I actually use 96 watts of Actinic03 420nm CF lighting over my 125G (just because I like the way it brings out certain colors) along with 348 watts of mixed 6500K, 6700K, and 10000K lighting and have never had an algae issue because of it. The PAR (photosynthectically active radiation) is very low with actinics (thus the reason they don't help with plants much) but freshwater algae also uses the same types of chlorophyll as freshwater plants so neither algae nor plants are able to put the actinic light to much use. I feel very strongly that actinic lighting does not contribute to algal growth in freshwater tanks. Its only effects are cosmetic

 

[hashbaz]

I feel very strongly that actinic lighting does not contribute to algal growth in freshwater tanks. Its only effects are cosmetic

Perhaps this is yet another very common misconception.

 

[travis simonson]

Perhaps this is yet another very common misconception.

IME it certainly is When I first decided to try using actinics with plants I asked Tom Barr (well-known plant guru) if actinics had any effect on algal growth in a planted tank. Here's his explanation:

All plants and true algae have Chl a and have chloroplast.

These are what capture sunlight and use it to produce NADPH and ATP.
There is no light that selects for plants but not algae. There are very subtle differences in deep clear waters in marine systems that let one alga get a jump on perhaps a another species allowing it to dominate for a time.

Not exactly a valid comparision.

Atinics will not help nor harm a tank, wasted light in some respects.
Some claim blue produces compact growth, I've never seen any difference over some 2 years of growing plants with many bulbs. Cool whites do just as well as pricey "fish plant" bulbs. This was shown in green house studies and was a well done study.

It really gets down to aesthetics, do you personally like the color or not?
I like Triton bulbs the most, i have had ther 8800K and 5000K mix, I like that mix a lot but the Triton still is my winner. It's 7200K, not that it(K ratings) means much.

6700K was fairly blueish when they came but now people are saying it's yellow

If you like then atinic for the color, use it.
It's not going to make your plants grow better/more compact though.

I don't know many people who know plants from such a well-studied scientific perspective. I take Tom at his word because he does this for a living and has never given me bad advice before. Not that most people will want to use actinics with plants but to my color-blind eyes they just look cool