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Re: Light Color




>My DH surprised me with a compact florescent for my hood for Valentines day
>(that is true love!).  But....the bulb is 10000K half actinic.  I also have
>2 regular daylight florescents on the tank.   Should I swap out the half
>actinic for a full daylight bulb on the compact?
>
>Terry Barber

The easiest thing to do is to run the light and see if you like the look 
your tank has with the bulb you already possess. I would personally want to 
run an all daylight, either a 5500K or 6700K depending on pricing, and not 
use the actinic. Actinic lighting is really intended as a supplement for 
corals in reef tanks and doesn't provide any benefit to a planted tank.

You could also try running some low color temp lights in your existing 
fixture and use the actinic to "balance them out". The plants aren't 
terribly picky about the light color, that is more of a personal preference 
and aesthetic issue. My favorite example is sodium vapor lights (HPS), 
which provide excellent plant growth but look horrible due to their 
yellow/orange color.

         -Bill
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Waveform Technology
UNIX Systems Administrator