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#1
08-26-2003, 03:25 AM
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hmmm....
Is actinic lighting just for effect or is it useful with photosynthesis? I have one actinic (96w) and one 10000k daylight bulb (96W) and was wondering if the entire 192W is useful and can be counted when figuring out the watts per gallon for coral keeping and such... Hope this makes sense...
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Aspen....where the beer flows like wine!! 
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#2
08-26-2003, 03:42 AM
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yes and no.. hows that for a answer
 Seriously though actinic light VHO of the same intensity as say a 10000K VHO would actualy be more usefull than the 10000K, the problem is the actinic light (in the same type of bulb) is usaly less intence than a Day light bulb. Having said that deep water corals have adapted to be able to more efficiently use the lower nm light spectrums (ie actinic and blue light) so in some cases it is just as good. now weather you can count the wattage to figure out how much light you have I will have to say no.. you can't count the wattage of any type of light to say how much light you have going into your tank. the reason I say this is wattage is only a measure of how much power the bulb consumes not a measure of how much light it produces, so you would be better off using intensity or PAR as a measure of your light. The problem with this is light meters can get expensive and not many stores will allow you to measure a bulb befor you buy it. now having said all that I will through one more twist at ya.. instead of saying watts/gal which can be totaly messed up by how deep a tank is, how about saying watts/square foot of tank surface. this will more indacate a measurment of how much your light is spread to cover your tank. still not a accurate measurment but it is a lot better than watts/gal. Steve
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 *everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
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#3
08-26-2003, 03:51 AM
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So whats your watts per square foot ?
And why do you only use this for water surface area ? Wendell
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#4
08-26-2003, 04:20 AM
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You had to go and confuse me didn't ya Steve. : ) Ok, maybe you could make this simple for me. The light sytem I am talking about is the coralife 36" 192W PC strip. My tank dimensions are 36" x 16" x 20" (i think... the 16" is only in the middle...on account of being a bowfront). What I am really interested in is whether or not I have enough intensity to keep anything more than shrooms and softies... Is this enough info to give me a rough answer or is there more that needs to be considered...
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Aspen....where the beer flows like wine!!
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#5
08-26-2003, 04:32 AM
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well take a 40 gal tank and a 40 gal breeder tank for example
a regular 30 gal is 36" long and 12" wide giving you 3 square feet of surface area (or if you prefer bottom area) a breeder 30 gal is 36" long and 18" wide giving you 4.5 square feet of surface area a 30 gal X-high is 24" long and 12" wide giving you a surface area of 2 square feet. so as you can see the same light on each of these tanks could have a much different high requirment to spread it out evenly over the tank. also the different hight on these tanks is going to give you a very different intensity reading at the bottom of the tank. so while we have all these differences the watt/gal is identical on each of these tanks. Steve
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*everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
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#6
08-26-2003, 04:36 AM
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Quote:
I had two 96 watt PC's on my tank and I did keep some low light SPS like digitata. and some LPS like a Brain and torch ect. I will say that when I added a MH to the tank there color got more intense. but ya you have enuf to go, and laiter you could add a MH if you decide you want to keep more light demanding corals. Steve
__________________
*everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
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#7
08-26-2003, 04:39 AM
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Steve
Whats your watts per square foot ?
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#8
08-26-2003, 04:42 AM
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hmm, if I add it all togeather it is 115 watts/square foot.
83.3 watts of MH/square foot and 31.6 wattrs of VHO actinic / square foot. Steve
__________________
*everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
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#9
08-26-2003, 04:48 AM
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I'm still in the R&D stages right now, but I hope to have everything ready to go within the next few weeks. I plan on a 3 - 4 inch DSB (~80 pds of sand). My lights are elevated about 2 inches from the top of the aquarium so they will probably be about 3" above water level once it's filled. Is there truth behind the glass cover theory? I've heard that the glass reduces the intensity... I guess it would seing how glass absorbs UV rays. I have a kitten who I know will want at those fishies... (girlfriends....always making guys get cats!!!
 )
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Aspen....where the beer flows like wine!!
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#10
08-26-2003, 04:53 AM
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Quote:
As of yesterday, I'm at 147.  Hopefully my acros will brighten up and stop dying now with my new VHO Super Actinic bulb and increased water flow. 31.7 w VHO actinic / sq ft 32.0 w PC 50/50 / sq ft 83.3 w MH / sq ft
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