Current Orbit PC Bulbs

[nobody]

There has been alot of talk on bulbs and it has made me wonder about mine. I have a 2 month old current orbit PC unit on my 12g. The bulbs are no where close to being replaced but they are not expensive and was wondering if an upgrade would help coral growth. Right now there are two bulbs. One is a 420/460 actinic. The other is 6500/10000 daylight. I was wondering if there is a better actinic bulb. But mostly if i got a 10000/10000 would that give me more growth. And either way i believe current uses sunpaq bulbs. Are they the best or is there better?

[Harry_Y]

Have you looked at T5 bulbs?

[JennM]

If you're sticking with compact fluorescents, you have two choices.. "dual" bulbs such as you have, or regular bulbs, either all 10,000K, all actinic (460 nanometer) or 50/50 (half 10,000K, half actinic 460 nanometer).

Personally I like the appearance of the dual bulbs - more aesthetically pleasing to the human eye.

As to which may be better for corals, I don't know. Wattage is the same. Par and all that is over my head so I'm not even going to go there - I'll let someone more learned than me field that one

If there is one thing I've learned about this hobby, lighting is probably the most controversial subject insofar as many have different opinions. Few are outright "wrong", and there are so many different choices in types of lighting, wattages, colour temperatures, pars and all that other good stuff, it can be overwhelming.

If your lamps are fairly new, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't sweat it for right now. Use the time to research what you want to keep, and what its/their requirements are, be prepared to field a lot of opinions, and then make choices that are within the general consensus to be appropriate to what you want to keep, and within your price range (sometimes there can be a big gap between what you want, and what's financially feasible!!)

HTH

Jenn

[nobody]

well mainly i am thinking of getting 10000/10000 bulb as oppose to the 6700/10000 that comes with it. Would that make any diff. in coral grow. I always thought the higher the bulb the better the growth

[JennM]

I don't know if it will make that much difference. Besides, there are many variables besides light, which will determine the growth of any given specimen.

Jenn

[nobody]

i was thinking more of the daylight bulb. Right now i have a 6700/10000 bulb. I was thinking of switching it for a 10000/10000 bulb. would that make any positive difference in coral growth

[JennM]

As I said, I don't know. Is it worth spending $X on a lamp to find out, when the one you have is perfectly fine - not in my opinion. I'd rather spend that $$ on something else... but that's just me.

Given that both lamps are compact fluorescent and both are 65w, I doubt there would be significant difference one way or another.

Jenn

[ckusnierek]

Of the 3 the 6.5K will be best for growth and more PAR to the corals but your tank will be yellow. Personally in my PC tank I am using 50/50. the corals look great and grow well. But they are all softies.

[nobody]

thats pretty much what i have now its two bulbs one 6700/10000k daylight and one 420/460 actinic. yea i am not a fan of the yellow. I did notice that the one half of the daylight bulbs is yelllowish

[JennM]

Yes the yellowish half is the 6700K, and the more white is 10,000K. Likewise, the more blue on the actinic side is 460 nm, and the more purplish is 420 nm.

Personally I prefer those dual bulbs aesthetically - to my eye they produce a softer, more inviting light.

I'm not in a race to grow my corals - as long as they're thriving, and I like the look of my tank, that is good enough for me.

Just like I prefer 14,000K metal halides (I have no actinics) versus 10,000K. If I did have actinics, I'd probably go with 10,000K... but since I don't, and I like a bluer light, I go with 14,000K.

From what I've seen/read/been told, corals are fine under any K higher than 6500, and in a nutshell, the rest is subjective Of course people study what will promote more growth etc., and if that's your goal, then I'll defer to somebody who can give you the science behind it.

Jenn