Actinic Lighting Suggestions

[Cleancoupe]

I'm looking for some actinic lighting suggestions for my 175 gallon bowfront tank. I'm currently running two 250w DE Lumenarc MH pendants and I'm using two 96w PC for my actinics. It's time to replace the PC bulbs and I'm thinking instead of replacing them swithcing them out with some LED's for actinics. Does anybody have an good suggestions? I was thinking about the reefbrite strips or maybe going all LED. I just have some LPS and a few SPS. Tank is 6' long. Thanks

[Cleancoupe]

Anyone?

[Cleancoupe]

Bump

[mfinn]

For pure actinic lighting that doesn't completely wash out with mh's, I prefer VHO bulbs. Specificly the 454 bulb.
I tried panorama leds and they completely washed out under T-5's.

[sirreal63]

ReefBrites or Panorama Pro's. I am using a mix of Panorama Pro's and Stunner strips and it works well enough. You can also DIY some 3 watt LED's and get a better ROI and effect.

[sweet ride]

Reefbrite XHO all blue will not be completely washed out when when put together with MH, but if you are looking for a true actinic effect ie. your coral will show the florescent just like in the true actinic bulbs you will not get from the Reefbrite.

[ReeferBatman]

Try it before you buy it :) PC and T5's offer a somewhat lower, and more breadth of spectrum of "actinic light" (peaks @ 420 nm) than LED's alone which spike a little higher in the band at a concentrated area (one I tested peaks @ 450 nm) .

My experience is that the LED's brought out more intense 'yellowish-green' tones than the t5 actinics which brought out deeper greens and more oranges... Making some corals look better some not as good. Just for fun I've tried Blacklights too (350-370 nm ) and you get a lot more orange out of the corals...

Example:

Blacklight ~350-370nm on Prizm Favia

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/8537/mytankblacklight.jpg

LED Actinics ~450nm on Prizm Favia

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/787/mytankledactinic.jpg


Different light sources give different looks to the corals... don't expect the same look when you change to LED's.

Just sayin'

:)

[Cleancoupe]

Thanks for the input.