"white" light VS antic light

[agreeive?fish]

How much "white light" is required for fish health the same question for softies as well.. i have several diffrent tanks and i have finally figured out which combination i like..but before i spend the money ordering new t-5 fixtures and scrapping various forms of lighting i need to know how much "white light " is required for tank inhabitants as i prefer the subdued look of antic lights with very little white light..but i want to make sure i provide healthy lighting for my fish and corals... since this question involves several tank set ups the main way iam asking this question is

What % of the light needs to be white light... for FOWLR

What % of the light needs to be white light for SOFTIES

Thank You

[kraze3]

Its not really a % that your looking for. Fish really dont need light to survive, but it is nice that they can see where they are. Corals will be fine with more actinic light they will just grow slower. Its important you have the right amount of wattage for your specific corals to grow and be healthy. Most softies can grow with PC, T5, or MH. However 15 watts of PC lighting isnt going to help in a 210 gallon tank. It needs to penetrate the water and reach the corals.
What kind of lighting do you have? How many watts? What kind of bubls are you running?

[agreeive?fish]

On the reef (30g) i have 220 watts of pc..110 is 10k and 110 is antic..wife likes the way its lighted but i dont ..might not change this tank..but might. its her tank

on my FOWLR tanks the lighting is just a combination of diffrent size fixtures..a mess of fixtures..a jumble of fixtures..a disater area of fixtures..all standard cheap florescents.. with a cobination of antic 10k and 20k ranging in sizes from 24", 36" and 48" from t-8 and t-12.hence the reason for wanting to buy some new all inclusive t-5 fixtures


another way of asking the same question is how many watts of white light do i need for each watt of antic..in general not tank specific.. for softies and seperately for fowlr

or

What percentage of the total wattage HAS TO BE white..again in general not tank specific for softies and seperately fo fowlr

[jellyfish4me]

I understand what you are asking and would also like to know. I prefer to have more actinic as well. So I'm going to tag along.

For example: I have 4 x 96 watts over a 120 gal tank. I only want soft corals. If I put ALL actinics over the tank would soft corals still grow? I don't want all actinic lights, but what would happen? Do corals get anything from actinics alone?

[agreeive?fish]

jellyfish you are more than welcome to tag along

[tangtang clown]

me too. I want to know also.

[seapug]

It really depends on the specific corals you are keeping. There are many non-photosynthetic corals that would be fine in total darkness. Some photosynthetic soft corals grow in crystal clear waist deep water, others grow at 100+ ft.

It's also not as simple as a matter of watts or percentages of blue vs. white either. Two bulbs of equal power consumption can have significantly different lumen and PAR output-- A 150 MH bulb is much brighter than a 150 incandescent bulb.

It's really something you'll need to experiment with but, in general a 50/50 (a pretty standard configuration) or 75/25 mix of 3 parts blue to one part white using bulbs made for marine aquarium use would probably be okay for most moderate to lower light softies and mushrooms.

[agreeive?fish]

well the 50/50 mix is whats on the reef now..wife likes it and its her tank my maintenace chore..so ill leave that one alone..BUT..BUT...BUT on my Good tanks ie fowlr ill try the 75/25 mix and see what i think..i will be getting several fixtures for 2 six foot tanks and 1 seven footer so i guess i will have plenty of new t5 bulbs to play with to find the exact mix i want..thanks for the input

[agreeive?fish]

Shamless bumb for the sat morning crowd

[tangtang clown]

Let us know the outcome.

[agreeive?fish]

lets see if the sunday crowd has any opinions as to white vs antic

[zooxanth]

IMO 75% white (14k) and 25% actinic would be great for your softies. Any light that you find pleasing will be ok for FOWLR, but do remember the fish need to see where they are going, so not too dark.

[jellyfish4me]

Will any photosynthetic corals grow under actinic alone?