Royal blue VS Actinic blue bulbs

[shimmy]

What is the difference between the Royal blue and the Actinic blue compact florescent bulbs?

[shimmy]

Does anyone know?? I don’t want to spend $65+ each and find out they are will not work for me…

[chris88]

its the wording of your question i think. Royal blue vs. actinic blue? What are your trying to figure out exactly? If you are looking for growth bulbs then dont use actinic becuase they are lower in par and are not very borad in spectrum. On the other hand if you want them to help make your colors pop then actinic bulbs are the way to go. If you are using you power compacts as your main source of light then find a bulb that has an 11,000k spectrum which si more of a bright white. You could even find something similar to ati blue plus bulb which is heavy in the blue spectrum but is not classified as an actinic bulb. post what bulbs your are comparing so i can give you more specific advise.

[shimmy]

I was looking at the ones offered from J&L aquatics
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb-pc65ac/Coralife+65W+Actinic+Compact+Fluorescent+Bulb+-+21%22+%28Straight-Pin%29.html
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb-pc658d/Coralife+65W+Royal+Blue+Compact+Fluorescent+Bulb+-+21%22+%28Straight-Pin%29.html
I was trying to decide on what would give me a good color for my fish but without sacrificing the life of my corals and they don’t say anything about the difference in the two. Its all so confusing being new to SW tanks. hope the link works too.

[bauder1986]

I was looking at the ones offered from J&L aquatics
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb-pc65ac/Coralife+65W+Actinic+Compact+Fluorescent+Bulb+-+21%22+%28Straight-Pin%29.html
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/lb-pc658d/Coralife+65W+Royal+Blue+Compact+Fluorescent+Bulb+-+21%22+%28Straight-Pin%29.html
I was trying to decide on what would give me a good color for my fish but without sacrificing the life of my corals and they don’t say anything about the difference in the two. Its all so confusing being new to SW tanks. hope the link works too.

Oh Shimmy, the "Royal Blue" is J&L Aquatics's way of trying to rename the actinic blue to spure up sales. But the Actinic bulb of "Royal Blue" is the one you want. Is your fixture with 2 x 65watt bulbs?

[shimmy]

No I have a 4 X 65W fixture, so what would be the best setup to run for color and still have corals? Im currently thinking of running 2 x 65W 10,000K daylight bulbs with 2 “blue” (no idea on which ones are the best that’s why I started this thread) bulbs behind the daylight.
Is this a good idea or???

[bauder1986]

No I have a 4 X 65W fixture, so what would be the best setup to run for color and still have corals? Im currently thinking of running 2 x 65W 10,000K daylight bulbs with 2 “blue” (no idea on which ones are the best that’s why I started this thread) bulbs behind the daylight.
Is this a good idea or???

well, 50 / 50 is a good idea, the perfect balance between 10000k and actinic. but if your tank is shallower than 24" what I would do is get one actinic and place it in the middle and the rest 10000K. that way you can have some brightness and you will get the effect of the actinic as well. But the set up is very dependent on your tank depth and what corals that you are stocking in the tank as well.

[shimmy]

The tank is a 72gallon bow front, 48” long and 24” high. The lighting fixture is a 2 bulbs wide by 2 bulbs long that’s why I was thinking daylight in front and blue in the back but would it be more affective to have a 50/50 in the back for more daylight? As for corals I am not totally sure what I want to put into it currently all I get is one anemone and a Kenya tree. As for future corals im unsure I kind of buy cool looking stuff as I see it and just want to be ready for anything.

[blacknife]

I got the uri internal reflector ones last time. i used to have all 50/50 but wanted to try something different so i got 25/75 and a 454 blue the 454 really makes the colors come out of the tank, the 75/25 is slightly blue looking but nothing to crazy. not sure of how it is affecting growth of the corals yet they have only been in there a couple weeks but the GHA seems to slowly be settling down.

[chris88]

don't get the coralife bulbs they will not have as much Par as the UVL/URI bulbs. they only problem is that the Uri bulbs have a bit of a pint look to them that some might not like, but they are a much better quality bulb. I would do this exact set up for your tank which will have great color and some nice par for the corals. you dont want to have all blue light corals also use, red, yellow, purple, some green, etc.

Uri 75.25
Uri actinic white
Uri super actinic
and a uri 50/50 if you want more growth or uri 454 bulb if you want a more blue look with some nice pop out of your green colored corals.

I am also up here in f mac

[chandigz]

What is the difference between the Royal blue and the Actinic blue compact florescent bulbs?

I believe the difference between the two bulbs is a slightly different spectrum. Standard actinic peaks at 430nm while I believe that the royal blue peaks at 460 nm. I think the royal blue tends to be more blue looking. I don't know how it affects coral growth and colour though.

[shimmy]

Thanks everyone for the input and help, I will take it all into consideration when ordering more bulbs but im starting to think im going to end up buying lots of bulbs with lots of trial and errors. If anyone else has any other suggestions for my setup I would like the here them.
Chris its good to see im not the only one the lives nowhere from decent fish supplies.

[Drock169]

Oh Shimmy, the "Royal Blue" is J&L Aquatics's way of trying to rename the actinic blue to spure up sales. But the Actinic bulb of "Royal Blue" is the one you want. Is your fixture with 2 x 65watt bulbs?

I'm not sure how you got the renaming part to spur sales, the coralife packaging in the picture says Royal blue, i dont think J&L renamed the bulb.
It is a different spectrum of Blue provided than the regular actinics.