RE: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater

["Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@boeing.com>]

Al,

Yes, you are correct.  I actually have a combination of a number of
various spectrum lights on three different aquariums.  Each seems to do
well, two of the tanks have the 10,000K lights on them, one is a combo
10,000K/6700K bulb I believe.  I do not cycle my lights relative to one
another, they all come on in the morning (~5am)and are on til about 11pm
at night.  I do not currently use CO2 on any of my tanks. And, I do not
have a wet/dry filter on any of these tanks at this time, they primarily
use back filters.

My one 100 gallon tank has, the 10,000K/6700K combo light and a 5000K
bulb on one side of it (all from AH supply) and the other side is 5 13
watt compact flourescent lights that replace 5 standard 60 watt
incandescent bulbs (put together from Home Depot parts).  I flip these
two hoods from side to side on the tank about every other month.  I
really like the look of the fish under the combo light side, the "Home
Depot" side is much yellower and not as bright.  The "Home Depot" side
tends to produce more algae, but, the plants grow faster too.  SO,if I
flip the two sides back and forth it seems to control the algae better
and lets the plants have bursts of growth and then slow periods as well
with nothing dying. The fish in this tank include a number of rainbows
and tetras that look really good in the combo light, but, not so good
under the "Home Depot" lights. This tank has sword plants, crypts,
anubias, floating plants and some java fern.  This tank has very little
algae growth on the walls of the tank too.

Another 100 gallon tank has a mix of two 4 foot shop lights
(Spectralight bulbs)(from Home Depot again), two 36" bulbs (from The
Fish Store in Seattle), one is a 10,000K light, the other is a full
spectrum bulb and a 11 watt (~7 bulb)compact flourescent bulb (from Home
Depot) at one end.  This tank is much darker than my other 100 gallon
tank, but, it is also much heavier planted with anubias, java fern and
bulbitus.  I really like the way my fish with blue colors show up in
this tank.  I have some peacocks and C. Moorii in this tank that are
dynamite to look at.  However, my clown loaches do now show well in this
tank at all.  The plants in this tank grow very slowly, but, I have very
little algae build up on the tank walls too and I like the low
maitenance of that.

I have been experimenting with my other two tanks, a 55 hexagon and
another 100 gallon tank and cannot get a combination of lighting that
works well at slowing the algae growth in them.  Part of the reason for
this I believe is the amount of natural light these two tanks see.
Soooo, I am not sure it would be helpful to explain what the lighting is
on these two, other than to say, neither tank has a 10,000K light on
them.

Finally, your question about shifting the lighting to simulate dawn to
dusk sounds interesting from a visual perspective.  I have a neighbor
with a system that does this on her reef tank.  It is computer
controlled and simulates the moon phases, as well as the daylight hours
throughout the year.  Major money in her system, but, it is cool to
watch with her corals and such....the corals and other live critters do
react to the changes in light and you can see them do it.  On a plant
tank I am not sure you can see any reaction other than the fish finding
a sleeping place for the night.  I would like to hear how this all goes
for you when you have it up and running the way you would like to have
it.

Clay

-----Original Message-----
From: carrera206@comcast.net [mailto:carrera206@comcast.net] 
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 11:59 AM
To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
Subject: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater


Thanks for all the responses.

Clay- What exactly is your light config? Are you using the 10000K lights
and if so what is the color cast (I think it is a bluish white)? It
sounded like you used the 10000K or 10000K/Deep Blue combo lights with a
6700K or 5000K light. Is this correct?

I am currently using the AH supply retrofit kit 4 x 96 watt CF bulbs.
One pair of 5000K and one pair of 6700K. I run the lights on a cycle of
the pair of 5000K lights turning on for 5 hrs or so and the pair of
6700K lights taking over for another 5 hours with some overlap with all
4 of the lights on for 0.5 hrs or so. I like the change that occurs with
the different lights but although the CRI is quite high with the 5000K &
6700K lights I wondered if the 10000K or lights might make the fish look
better. I tend to like a bluer light despite my having pretty white
lights now.

I am thinking that the dawn to dusk effect of using a set of 1000K/Deep
Blue lights for 3 hours switching to the 6700K lights for 5 then back to
the 1000K/Deep Blue lights will achieve this. What do you think?

I don't have a lot of plants other than annubus and a couple of java
fern, but they do not grow much. I believe that I don't have enough CO2
in the water because of my wet/dry trickle filter and my main interest
is the fish.

Thanks again,

Al

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