Leave Actinic on with MH?

Should I leave the actinic on?I have been and just now I turned it off and so the MH is just on. I can noticed a very small amount of blue with the actinic on, but I guess I should so it gets more of the blue spectrum. I figured it was one less thing to create more heat.

 

I turn my atinics on a few hours before my MH and they go off a few hour after my MH "kind of a warm up cool down thing" I have 20k lamps too and the tank does look pretty blue but I like it kind of a deep water effect.

 

If I'm not mistaken, with 20K lights actinic supplementation isn't necessary, but won't hurt at all. With anything less blue, or lower K, such as 10K and 14K, actinics are necessary. I went from 10K to 14K, wanting a bit more blue. I've heard that 20K is a bit "too blue" for some folks' tastes.

I think next time I replace the 14K's I'll be going to 20K. I hardly notice a difference between my current 14K bulbs and the 10K I had. I find I really like blue a lot. Different strokes. . .

 

I burn my actinics 16 hrs a day so that I only have to run the MH's for 7 hrs.

 

I turn my actinics on at 8:00 am and off at 9:30 pm. I stagger my Mhs 1st one on at 9:00 and the 2nd one on at 12:00. 1st one off at 5:00 and 2nd one off at 8:00 pm.
I try to be at least a little similar to real daylight in the wild.

 

Are you running a 14k mh bulb? if so I would run actinic like reef said.

 

It's a 14k bulb, so I guess I will leave it on.

 

More lighting stuff..great. : )
I have actinics from 6:00 am till 9:00 pm....MH 20k turn on at noon and run tandum with the blues then MH off at 6:00 pm..and just the actinics until the lunars kick in at 9:00 pm when the blues kick off....so actinics for 15 hours MH 20k for 6 hours and lunar for 9 hours.....
Everything works out ok...no water temp issues...no growth issues....when I jump from 30 to 55 I may adjust accordingly...if needed.
LG