Do actinic bulbs serve a purpose in freshwater?

[TheManichaean]

I'm considering a Current USA Satellite, which has combination of a daylight lamp (6700K / 10000K) and an actinic lamp (420nm / 460nm).

Does the actinic light serve a useful purpose in freshwater planted aquaria?

 

[Guest]

Waste of money in a FW planted tank in my opinion. See if you can get a couple of 6700K bulbs, rather than the actinic.

Also consider AHSupply. Great product at a reasonable price.

 

[malkore]

Correct Mojo - actinic03 lighting really serves no purpose in a FW tank, especially not plant growth. Some people report stronger algae growth with actinic lighting, but there's not a general consensus on this.

Regardless, actinic's are for marine tanks, to provide proper spectrum to corals and other inverts.

Some like the blue color in their FW tanks...but I don't think it looks natural, and it will hide some of the blue tones in fish, and will make browns appear black or dark grey.

 

[chrism]

i used to use one as a "moonlight" night light, the cardinals blue stripe really lit up... i think it did add a nice effect when combined with normal lights...

im not sure if they added to the algea i did have more when using the actinct tube, but my tank was still kinda new then...

 

[malkore]

I don't suggest actinic's for moonlight. FIsh can see actinic light, and thus it'll confuse them into thinking it's not night time. Plants will also see enough blue spectrum in actinic light to think it's still daytime, and that can affect their growth.

 

[TheManichaean]

Excellent, thanks.

 

[chrism]

when i bought the tube, it was sold to me as a "moonlight" tube... i used it all day and for an hour after the main lights went out, so it was more of a subtle change to night...