Light color question

[pokerfish]

Hi all...new to this forum and really like the idea of local folks (I'm in Quincy MA) sharing ideas and forming a community...I could use an experienced opinion as I am a newbie to salt and want to try my hand at a 55 gallon reef....Heres my first question...I just got a 4 bulb 216 watt t5ho fixture that came with 2 10,000k daylights and 2 actinic blue bulbs. My question is this, I am happy with the color temprature (although very bright) but my wife prefers the tank with just the whites on. For me,just the whites are too yellowy but I see her point about the blues being really bright. My question is...can I change bulbs to trade a little blue for something that will look a little more like the just whites (like replacing a blue for another daylight white perhaps?) without losing actinic benefits (are there actinic benefits or are they just for show?) Is there another temprature bulb option that might tone down the blue and pop up the white? Is there another bulb config that might produce good growth with a less tanning booth glow? I apprecaiate any opinions you guys have...thanks in advance...

 

[Jocko]

A lot of good questions there. The actinic bulbs definitely produce light that is usable by the inhabitants of the tank, but then again the "show" aspect of it is the biggest part. You could certainly swap them out for white bulbs and have happy critters without the bright colors. In fact you would probably get better growth with more white as those bulbs tend to put out a lot more light than the actinic ones.

In terms of bulb options, there are a huge variety across both white and blue that can obviously be combined in endless ways for endless different looks. And this is where things get difficult because it's going to be hard to evaluate all of these options without actually buying different bulbs and trying them out. Maybe there are a couple of local people on here who could lend you a few bulbs so you can experiment?

Oh yeah, and welcome to BRS!