sunlight

what k or nm is sunlight?

 

6500 K at noon with out clouds.
That is what every colour film is balanced in the photo world

J

 

um...i dont get ur question... r u asking what is sunlight?

 

At the equator, right?

 

He's asking what color temp natural sunlight is. K=Kelvin NM=Nanometer

 

I don't think the equator matters as I'm far from it and the sun here is 6500K

J

 

if the sun is 6500k then wouldnt it be perfect to have all the light on our tanks at 6500k? and if we use all 6500k the tank would be yellow why is it not yellow outside in the sun light? these are questions i just wondered about. i know they are stupid question

 

It's all in your head

Your brain has the ability to adjust the colour of things you see. Just like if you are inside under tungsten lighting (around 4500-5500K) you do not see the yellow. even through is is really yellow.
I ran with 6500K in the Tank for 2 years I never saw it as yellow. Until I installed the 10K bulbs.

Water stripes out high spectrum wave lengths first yellows and reds. Blue can actually penetrate water deeper. Because we do not have the ability to give our Aquariums the intensity of the Sun we must compensate by heavy supplement of Blue light to get light down to the bottom of our tank.
This brings up another subject of why the PAR ratings of 20K lights aren't as high as 10K or 6500K but I don't really know the answer to that one. Maybe Gresham or someone else will chime in. (possibly correcting me, but that's OK)


Jason

 

Sunlight on cloudy days is also a couple thousand k higher than on a clear day! Besides, most reef life doesn't live just inches from the surface (like in our tanks), so color filtration from the water plays a role. At even 10 feet down, the light is already much bluer than on the surface.

 

well if blue light only penetrate down to were the corals are which is why when your diving without a light everything is gray with no color then why even worry about the other collors and just use actinics. although 250 watts of actinics wreck your eyes when you looked at the tank. anyone ever try that many actinics im wondering what would happen. i have never seen a reef at only 1 foot depth well maybe in some spots but not with the type of corals we keep and the wave action would tare it apart