Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Tang  Bobby
Do you run two types of actinics? I did'nt think you needed to? What is the difference between 420 and 460 and how do they effect/affect corals???? |
You don't need to run any
actinic bulbs at all, but they can sure make things look prettier.
The difference between 420 and 460 is... um...
(grabs calculator) the difference is 40!
... but seriously, the 420nm bulb is simply outputting a shorter wavelength of light and will appear more "violet" than the 460nm, which will be in the "blue" range (see chart at the bottom of this post).
The effect of running multiple
actinics will vary depending on the species of corals in your tank. For instance, adding both a 420nm and a 460nm
actinic bulbs to a tank containing a
Montipora caliculata specimen can trigger multiple fluorescing pigments and make the colony look absolutely surreal (assuming it is situated near the surface of the water) but a
Montipora digitata colony in the same tank (and at the same depth) might not look much different.
Dana Riddle wrote a wonderful 8-part article series on fluorescing pigments for
Advanced Aquarist that delves much deeper into this subject:
Link:
Coral Coloration: Fluorescence, Part 1
PS. For the curious, here's a rough chart of colors in the visible light spectrum and the wavelength range for each:
violet 380–450 nm
blue 450–495 nm
green 495–570 nm
yellow 570–590 nm
orange 590–620 nm
red 620–750 nm
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V-series Productions 
to TR! Could you share a picture of your tank?
