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so my question came up because coralife offers actinic 420nm and royal blue 470nm so this is why i asked? what is the difference and which is better suited for my reef tank? specs of tank below
470 is going to be more blue than 420. At 400 nM, the spectrum would be percieved as violet; not to be confused with UV. the higher you go in the spectrum, the percieved color changes from violet to blue, then on to green, yellow, orange and then red at around 700 nM. Once you move beyond 700 nM you move into the infra-red spectrum. The ultra-violet spectrum is at a shorter wave-length below 400 nM. The main difference between 420 nM and 470 nM would be the percieved color....470 being more blue.
How that affects the aquarium is more difficult to explain and I dont think I can. In short, everything needs energy to survive. We use certain forms of energy to create other forms energy to sustain life. Plants need light energy for photosynthesis where they create more forms of energy that they need to sustain life. Light is composed of photons and photons of one color only differ from photons of another color by the amount of potential energy they contain. Certain colors have the potential to produce more energy than other colors. Probably why aquarists have chosen the specific colors they have. Now which color is best suited for which type of life I cant say; Im sure there is a scientist somewhere who knows or maybe even someone on the site who is smarter than I.