actinic bulbs

[rmw4547]

whats the differance between day light actinic and actinic bulbs.

[spleify]

I know there are different spectrums, and color temps. I'm sure someone will chime in with a more scientific explanation than I have given.

What brand bulbs are you looking for? Maybe that will help us help you. A lot of bulb manufacturers have spectrum charts available.

Spleify

[rmw4547]

I Have 20k 150MH lights and want to know if there is a white actinic to balance the blue of of MH lights.

[rgrobe]

It depends on the type of bulb. With a Power Compact one tube may be daylight and the other actinic. Some single tubes, t5's or T12's may have a mixture of phosphurs to create a spectrum from daylight to actinic but usually is one or the other. True actinic 03 is a blue color light. Daylight is a more white or yellow ranging from 7100k to 20000k. A combination of both is best in a reef situation.

[Kmiec123]

I would suggest getting a whiter bulb on the MH's and supplementing the blue with pc's, VHO, or t5's
Hope this helps.
Carl

[spleify]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13623037#post13623037 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kmiec123
I would suggest getting a whiter bulb on the MH's and supplementing the blue with pc's, VHO, or t5's
Hope this helps.
Carl

+1 good Idea Carl

[BuddhaKiss]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13622748#post13622748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rmw4547
I Have 20k 150MH lights and want to know if there is a white actinic to balance the blue of of MH lights.

I have to admit this confused me for a bit...usually you would want a blue actinic to balance the white of MH lights. But you have 20K. I guess you could run some 10k bulbs (T5, PC, etc) to offset the blue of your 20K MH, but I would think the MH would overpower it. As another poster stated, I prefer to do it the other way to have a dusk dawn effect. As a side note, I prefer 03 actinic over 02, it seems to give my corals much more pop.