Compact fluorescent lighting Question

[ShawnE94SL]

I have a 90g aquarium that houses one Silver Arowana. I have a Hamilton Technology 48" lighting system that includes 2 10k bulbs and 2 Actinic bulbs. My question is, are the blue bulbs necessary for a Freshwater Aquarium? Should I be running all 4 lights with just white bulbs? And if so, what bulbs do you recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Shawn

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Actinic bulbs are really there for looks, if you prefer 10k, then by all means, but watch out for algae as you'll effectively be doubling your light output (actinic doesn't really count towards WPG)

 

[ShawnE94SL]

I didn't know that about the Actinic. They just came with the lighting system. Should I use a lower spectrum white bulb? I need to replace all 4 bulbs anyway so I want to do this right. Should I go with the 7k bulbs? Algaw does grow fast in my tank

 

[Simpte]

You don't need near that much light over a non planted tank. 2 bulbs should be plenty. K rating will depend on how you want the color to come out. 10000K is good for fish. Actinics aren't needed at all.

 

[ShawnE94SL]

Do you think 4, 6,700k bulbs would be too much for my tank? I would like to utilize all four ballast since I paid about 500 for the lights over 7 years ago

I like a nice bright tank and lights that really show off my fish.

 

[malkore]

As simpte already said, without live plants you do NOT need 4x65w bulbs. If you do this, you'll start having algae problems. Only way you could do it would be to add live plants, and a CO2 system to outcompete the algae for nutrients.

Or, leave the actinics in - since nothing is 'broken' right now...why try to 'fix' it?

 

[Skyrmir]

If you want good color for your fish your going to want the 10-11k lamps, and probably just 2 of the 4 you have. The 6700k lights would give you a huge algea problem pretty quickly.