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

["A JACOBSON" <amjacobson52@msn.com>]

I have a little problem with the long dawn / dusk periods, at least from a 
theoretical standpoint.  At the equator dawn & dusk are very short -- the 
farther away from the equator, the longer the transitional periods.  If we're 
talking about tropical fish, I would think the equatorial model would be closer 
to what they would naturally encounter.  If you had a species only tank, it 
might be neat to find out how long dawn/dusk lasts in the area they come from, 
and duplicate that.

Those natural moon cycles are incredibly cool, though.

Anita
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hess, Clay A<mailto:clay.a.hess@boeing.com> 
  To: gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com> 
  Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 8:36 PM
  Subject: RE: [GSAS-Member] Using Actinic/Blue Lights in Freshwater


  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> 
[mailto:carrera206@comcast.net] 
  Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 11:59 AM
  To: gsas-member@thekrib.com<mailto: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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