Basic Lighting Question

My Biocube 14 came with 3 kinds of lights


10,000K daylight compact fluorescent lamp
Actinic 03 Blue compact fluorescent lamp
Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED Lamps


What is the purpose of the actinic lights?

The daylight should run for 10-12 hours, then the moonlight for a few hours at night before bed?

 

some people use the moonlights all night

the 10k and the Actinic as you say should be on for 10 -12 hours each day - it represents an average day time period in the tropics

Actinic - is light from the blue end of the spectrum, and blue light penetrates water deeper than any other light - red light for example gets filtered out after a few metres in nature, so for some of the deeper living species, light from the blue end of the spectrum is the only light they have available so they utilise this light for photosynthesis (symbiotic algae does)

or

it makes things with symbiotic algae look really good, colours really pop - if you ever see any GSP or shrooms or Zoanthids or SPS corals under just Actinic light , then you would really appreciate this aspect

Im confident on the 2nd part of what I say at least ( I stand to be corrected on 1st part)

Steve

 

Daylight 8-10 and moonlight 10-12 would be better IMO, the actinic just bring out the color in some corals and your daylight is for growth. On my tank, i run a 14k bulb w/ no supplemental actinic, jus the actinic thats in the 14k, but my growth is slower than what it would be with a 6.5k or 10k, If I could find something to attach to the pendant to supplement actinic, i would definitely go down to 10k for my daylights MH so I can speed up this slow growth. I've been really thinkin about gettin one of these biocubes for a nano to put at my moms house. I would set up tanks everywhere I go if I could LOL.

 

I have monlights on 24/7 my actinics come on at 6 am and at 8 am my daylights come on and th eactinics stay on. The daylights go off at 6 pm and the actinics at 8 Pm it gives the evening and morning affect and the actinics are good for corals
Dan ny

 

moonlights I would run just for a few hours befor bed. I look at it like this. No part of the ocean gets direct moonlight throughout the night and some of these critters need complete darkness to rest and some corals need the complete darkness to feed. I never came to this conclusion untill I saw the difference between my tank at night with lights on in the room and without lights on in the room. A ton of difference. So many more critters out feeding in the complete darkness that you don't see when there is even the slightest inkling of ambient light. I hope this helps

 

Thanks everyone.

So what is the recommended hours to run the actinic?

 

All Day....My moonlights have a dimmer on them so I dim them down when I go to bed....it is not so much the blue moonlight then it is more realistic to the actual moonlight....
Danny

 

Hello Katie, wow, thats odd.... I don't NEED to say hi

Lets start from the beginning real quick....
ACTINIC lighting is not what you have on your biocube, yes I know Coralife tells you on the pretty packaging that it IS actinic but if you want split hairs actinic is violet and the lamp you have is blue, so while it is NOT AN ACTINIC lamp it functions as one. Many people call blue lamps actinic and vice versa but in all reality this is not the case, and started when every mass produced fixture came with "actinic" lamps that were blue as blue can get.
Ok, now more onto your question, blue lamps WILL be useful besides making the corals look good. While most blue or actinic lamps don't always have high PAR levels they tend to have good PUR values which in all reality is what makes the corals grow.
People that say blue lamps don't help grow corals are nuts, I bet if you had a tank full of ATI Blue+s you would easily grow coral even SPS.
Ok I am getting closer to your question now,
As far as how long should the lamps be on, I have seen most people run the LEDs all day and night, blue lamps 10-14 hours and the whites 6-10 hours.
Remember that PC lamps burn out VERY quick and the longer you run them the more often you will be replacing them. I would suggest replacing them at least every 10 months with 6-8 being preferred, BUT if you have checked out the price of the lamps you know that the replacements will add up. Something to keep in mind.

Good luck