actinic lighting

i am starting a 55 gallon reef tank. my lfs uses t5 ho light. over each tank they have 4x t5's.....3 bulbs are actinic and only one is daylight. i like the blueish tint in the tank, but do corals like having 75% of their light actinic? his corals flourish and he runs his business under these lights. would it be safe for me to run 75% actinic over my reef? what benefits do actinics possess?

 

Kinda sounds like you answered your own question . In a 4 bulb fixture, I like the look of 2 ATI blue plus, an aquablue (12K), and either a fiji purple or a pro color.

~Will.

 

If they are blue then the lamps are BLUE not ACTINIC... Many manufactors call them actinic, such as Giesemann's Actinic+. It is a blue lamp, not actinic. Actinic is a violet lamp.

Blue is a very common lamp. Can you run it solo? Oh course, many such as the Actinic+ or Blue+ by ATI put out a good amount of PAR and are bright. Downside is too much blue can drowned out certain color corals, reds especially.

Actinic on the otherhand is not too bright, don't put out much PAR and would look goofy IME as a dominate lamp.

Many LFS will use actinic or blue for that matter to try to bring out colors as it isn't their intention to keep corals long term, so growth isn't all that important.

75% blue lamps will be fine in your tank but will be awfully blue, BUT to many people that looks great.