Actinic 03 Vs. Blue 7,100K

[aaronpaulpalmer]

Hi,

A friend of mine is setting up his first reef tank and he just received a couple of brand new PC ballasts at a great discount (free!)

Here are my questions: First what is the difference between actinic 03 bulbs and blue 7100K bulbs? Is there a visible difference in your tank? Is one "more blue " than the other? Finally, which would you all recommend?

thanks.


(I'll admit that I am ignorant in this department since I use MH... so I seek the vast knowledge of the wise and powerful forum)

[bamann345]

Copied from the hellolights.com web site.

"Q. What's the difference between a "Blue 7,100K" and "Actinic 03" bulb?
A. Excellent question! OK, a little background: The original "Actinic 03" bulb was made by Philips. They were not made for aquarium use, but were adopted once news spread about the beneficial aspects of using this bulb over reef tanks. Nowadays, "Actinic 03" has become the marketing term used to identify "blue" looking bulbs. Many bulbs are passed off as "actinic", when they are just a blue bulb.
So, to answer the question, Blue 7,100K bulbs are visually brighter than HelloLights Actinic bulbs. Blue bulbs will NOT fluoresce your animals as well as our Actinic bulbs. Many others sell "actinic", but they are really selling blue bulbs. The phosphors coating the interior of our Actinic bulbs are specially formulated to produce a narrow spike of concentrated violet/blue light. This is why they appear to be more faint than blue bulbs. If you have tons-o-corals, then we suggest going with Actinic 03. Remember, a visual measurement of a lights utility is a poor one."



I personaly like the 03 look, I think it makes the colal color up much better.

William

[Doug1]

The so called 03 or actinic are weighted in the 420 nm range which is responsible for alot of the flourescing effect desired, there really is no color temp that accuratly describes this. The 03 bulb was originally used in blueprint machines. If you have ever seen the URI white actinic, you have a daylight bulb that is also heavy in the 420 nm range as well, I think these are rated at something like 10,000K.
The Iwasaki bulbs are 6500K , so you go from a full spectrum daylight at 6500K to a blue light at 7100K back to a white at 10,000K and up. Notice as you go higher up in the Kelvin scale the white lights get more bluish tint to them. Why the blue none actinic got the 7100K designation is prolly just a marketing thing, an identifier to differentiate them from the 03 bulbs

[Electrobes]

no question go with the actinic 03s

[StellaMN]

Ditto to what Doug and the others have said. I switched from the blue PCs to the actinic 03 PCs and was amazed at the difference in appearance (for the better).

Good to see you Aaron...how are things going with your tank?

Jodi

[aaronpaulpalmer]

Hi Jodi!

My tank is doing really well. All my corals are pretty dang happy, so I can't ask for anything more!!! I need to get some pics on the forum so everyone can see how they are doing... ecspecially since many of the little guys started as frags from Michael. Hope everything is going well in MN.


THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL THE INPUT! From the sounds of it, Actinic 03 is the way to go.

[dustin]

I wanted to throw out another question on this subject. Whats the difference between the 03 bulbs and the Super Actinics. Ive got the Super Actinics from Hello Lights and they look purple?