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[APD] Re: Lighting

This all said. What kind of lighting is best for growth in an aquarium using florescent lighting? Is it the plant growth bulbs? Full spetrum sunlight bulbs? or just plain florescent bulbs from any lighting store? How do we analyze bulbs when comparing them? Is there a measurement that is best? (Kelvins, watts, etc.) It seems that what was said is that the color of the bulb doesn't really matter as much as the watts per gallon. Is this true?

Lief Youngs
 
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 09:26:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Thomas Barr 
Subject: [APD] RE: Algae and Kelvin
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com

Phillip,
FW is a highly variable place vs the Marine system. Kelvin does not matter as far as plants and algae. In marine systems, the differences might be more subtle, but I would challenge that as far nusiance algae are concerned there, Kevlin does not matter there either.

The issue at hand is the Chloroplast and the LHC that traps the photon.
Algae and plants have the same or similar LHC's and the light is goiung to filter down to the P680 or P700 wavelengths at the lowest energy. So if I have a 450 nm light source, it will work it's way down and lose energy till it gets to 680nm to be fed into PSII.

Obviously you cannot go "up" the energy gradient so lower wavelengths don't work.
There is a Bacterichloroplhyll that is lower energy, 785 or something, but everything pretty much filters down to 680 or 700.

I think why many claim a certain lighting is "better" or does not promote algae etc, is that research will show that in natuiral systems, very subtle differences and response times can help one species gain a leg up on another and allow it to complete it's lifecycle.

But the practical in our aquariums is far removed from this comparision.
The same can be said for many theories that are often stated about aquariums.

You can see several studies done on cool whites vs fancy pantsy aquarium bulbs, one is on Aquabotanica's site.

The other larger issue is that few of these lighting studies work specifically with epiphytes or attached algae. Most deal with phytoplantkton which are not an issue with FW or SW aquaria.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


++++++++++++++++++++Lief Youngs++++++++++++++++++++
   http://geocities.com/SouthBeach/Mansion/4739
   Colorado State University Graduate May 2004
       B.S. Bioagricultural Sciences major
        B.S. Agricultural Business major 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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