Does it make sense to not even use a daylight bulb?

[DC_40gallon]

I am going to replace a few of my bulbs in my wave point 4 bulb fixture. I am mulling over doing a ...

red bulb (super coral generator it says)
purple bulb(coral growth generator it says)
leave a 460 actinic
and do a violet actinic 420.

Let me know what you all think!

It will be for a 40 breeder so fairly shallow (16-18 inches I believe).

I currently have a cabbage leather, kenya tree, baby frogspawn, candy cane colony, green star polyps, a few acro frags (will definitely be adding more), 2 chalice frags (will be adding more), and a monti cap frag.

Thanks all for your advice and thoughts!

[saltwaterfiend]

I love the purple of actinics but it isn't enough by it self. I would think you still need to get sunlight why not just use higher k bulbs like 12 or 14 k they will have more blue tint and still give you the sunlight. I don't know scientificly what they need it's more of a prefernce you see everyone likes different bulb k and fixtures

[DC_40gallon]

It came with factory 12 k's and they are bleach white in my opinion. It looks like a traditional house 60 watt bulb.

[DC_40gallon]

bump. I messaged Grim, can't wait to see what his thoughts are!

[saltwaterfiend]

12 k are supposed to have blue tint but every maker is different look for a brand that claims they got a nice tint In there 12k cause 6700 is daylight I think and higher k mean more spectrum like blue. Correct me if I'm wrong guys

[DC_40gallon]

hmm interesting saltwaterfiend, I'm up for feedback as well. My factory 12k's are insane bleach white in my eyes.

[Chiefsurfer]

What fixture?

The Kelvin rating does NOT mean it will be more blue. BASICALLY, the Kelvin reading(from what I understand, also trying to make it a simple story) is the intensity of the light. A lot of times to achieve the higher intensities, you usually get a more blue color, but it is not necessarily the case. As seen in the difference in same-rating bulbs by different manufacturers. For instance, a radium is bluer than the same K rating pheonix, or so on. The best way to tell is to check out sites online that show a diagram of the color spectrum in the bulb. The higher blue spike, and smaller orange/yellow spikes means the more blue. Just as a for instance, I have a 75.25 bulb from UVLigthing, it is like a pinkish(like a kz fiji i guess) but it is rated 10K.

Will try and post 2 comparitive photos of a bluer white bulb, and a more yellow/orange daylight bulb.

Ok, here is a "generic" blue plus full actinic bulb. This would be comparable in purpuse to a ATI blue plus in a generic brand:
http://www.expresslightbulbs.com/media/data/aquablue.gif

And this is the ACTUAL ATI blue+:
http://www.bubbles-shop.com/loja/images/ATI%20blue%20plus.jpg

In those examples above, you can see the ATI blue spike starts further to the left than the generic(more violet) and much less in the green and yellow spectrums. The generic will likely be a paler blue, instead of that DEEP blue look.

Below, I will compare 2 daylight bulbs. The ATI aquablue special, and another "generic" bulb.
Generic: URI(what I have been calling UVLighting) 12K "actinic white"
http://www.f3images.com/IMD/lighting_uri_actinic_white.jpg


ATI:
http://www.aquamarin.com.sg/images/products/ATI_AquaBlue_Special_Chart_350.jpg