Need an opinion on lighting...

[loganj]

I maintain a 150g African Cichlid tank at a medical center. It currently has a 2x96w PC setup on it with 10k bulbs. The tank looks good, but it's a bit bright. I was thinking about changing the bulbs to 50/50's. I'm sure these will be a little dimmer, but do you think the actinic will bring out the colors of the cichlids better? The 10k almost seem to wash out their colors because of their brightness. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Mr Burns]

i'd be worried about the actinics bring about a lot of algae...

 

[WilliamBanik]

Logan,

I don't have experience with 50/50 bulbs on African tank, but can say a 50/50 bulb really brings out the colors of my Austrialian Rainbows. I suspect beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That said 50/50's are quite pleasing to my eyeballs.

Best regards,

William

 

[sumphead]

Not to stir the fire, but to ask from a non-knowing non-freshwater standpoint. I am much like logan in regards to freshwater. I always thought freshwater plants and algea preferred the lower end of the spectrum like around 6600K. Why would actinics fuel algea any more than 10Ks?

R-

 

[WilliamBanik]

SH,

As a non-knowing salt water keeper, I appreciate your quest for knowledege. In the freshwater world actinics emit 400-440nm which promotes alage growth. In general freshwater plants will absorb the same spectrum but prefer the 650 to 680 nm range. I'm pulling all these stats off the top of my head so I need to confirm them and can't for the life of me recall the the spectrum of true 10K bulbs.


Best regards,

William

 

[sumphead]

*nods* Great. Thanks for the unput.

 

[loganj]

This tank has no plants in it. I'm about to redo it with a lot of rockwork to simulate the cichlids natural habitat more closely. The tank used to be SW, but was changed over before I started taking care of it. I wasn't aware that the actinics would promote algae growth in a FW tank. Has anyone else had any experience with this? I wonder if the standard "blue" bulbs would be better than "true actinics" for this application. I'm thinking you can get the 50/50 bulbs, although I'll have to check on it, with either 7100k blue or true actinic. Any thoughts?