Anubias with actinics

[Fish24907]

So I let you all know that I'd update you on the status of my Anubias in my tank with actinic (420 nm) lighting.

It's been 20 days so far and they seem fine. How long should it take before plants start decaying? Should I be happy right now that they look fine?

I really hope they can grow fine with my actinics. If they do, I'm getting more and replacing my other cheap looking fake plants in my tank with them.

 

[jlk]

Thanks for the update! I am curious if you will be able to get other types of plants grow under these lights. Anubias are pretty indestructible- i think if i put mine in a closet in a bowl of water they would still be alive a month later!

 

[blert]

My plants are growing like mad under one 10000k and one actinic (t5ho). I love the way actinics make colors pop, my Glo-fish (Danios) look amazing and my Praecox Rainbows shimmer like a disco ball. I have Anubias, Sagitaria (dwarf), Hygro Angustifolia, Rotala "Indicta", Wisteria and Ludwigia. When it's time to change bulbs I'm going to go with 2x white bulbs and my DIY actinic supplement LEDs.

 

[MDChurch]

I too have a t5 10,000k and one actinic over a freshwater tank with anubias and amazon swords now for about 3 months. All of the swords have got new growth coming from the center of the plants. Have even had to thin them because they started taking over the entire tank which is a 20gal. long. It seems to work great and looks great too! I have had better growth than I ever had with standard flourescents. Not dosing any ferts either.

 

[Fish24907]

Yeah, there's a lot of info to take in regarding this. So, I just decided to try it out and I see you guys did too. The anubias cost me $8 so that's no big deal.

And with all the info out there, the one basic thing I do know is that plants are green because they reflect green light and absorb red and blue. So blue light should help out my anubias a little...and from what I hear, a little bit of light is all Anubias need.

Here's a discussion I found that I think is pretty good: Lighting Spectrum and Photosythesis - Lighting - Aquatic Plant Central

 

[Fish24907]

Uh oh! I'm starting to see some dark black patches on my Anubias leaves. I guess they are starting to rot and may not make it!

Urghh. I really was hoping this would work, I just love the deep blue sea look that my actinics give my tank.

 

[Fish24907]

Update: My Anubias are actually fine, so ignore the above post . The "dark patches" that I saw were actually just brown algae that was easily cleaned off of the leaves (I noticed this just now as today I did a big water change and cleaned my gravel and stuff).

This is great news for me...and any of you who may want to use actinics in a lightly planted freshwater tank.

 

[aqua_chem]

Actinics will usually give off 40-60% of the PAR that full spectrum bulbs will. The actual effects on algae and plant health from using exclusively low wavelength light is still debated.