Why dont use actinics in the planted tank?

Hi Brian.

For myself, it is simple aesthetics and need. I just don't care for the blue tint and my plants do well without them so far....

I know you are looking for scientific reasons, but to my mind, no need to get more complex than that

I look forward to the forthcoming reasoned and learned discussion...

 

I'd have to say appearance as well. Most of the reefers seem to do it as they think the corals look better under certain lights. Of course, this is probably the same group that adds UV LEDs and such to their lighting to get the colors to really pop.

In most cases I read that the new lighting made all the difference and that such and such a light was causing problems or not bright enough. In many cases the light that wasn't bright enough was pumping out so much PAR the corals were bleaching out. Most of it so subjective that any change must be better than what they had before.

Most of the time we have so much excess light that it really doesn't matter what spectrum is more efficient. You're already pumping out so much of one spectrum or another it just doesn't matter. Much like EI dosing. Once you're out of the really limiting areas it just does not matter for any practical purposes other than academic curiosity or for pummeling other people of forums with.

That said, I don't like actinics in general and think plants just look wierd when lit with blue light.

-
S

 

A couple of years ago, some Chinese scientists have had an experiment on anthocyanin's reaction to different light. Their paper said that anthocyanin was generating most fast (in a culture) when exposed to the light of 420nm. The anthocyanin did not generate at all at the red light.