reef lighting question

[pandinus]

relatively new to the hobby, so forgive me if this is a retarded question.

I have a 48" coralife power compact on my 55gal with two 50/50 bulbs in it. I still have the basic light strip from when the tank was a freshwater tank. It's got lots of rock, a few fish and inverts, and some small coral cuttings in it right now, planning on making it a semi-reef, and what i'm wondering is if i can put an atinic bulb in my old light strip and turn that on at night after my compact is turned off. I'm not sure if it is a spectrum that is visible to the fish and inverts, so i dont know if it would disrupt the night and day cycle.

thanks,
John

 

[Nich]

It will fuel hard algae growth, not corraline (the purple type) but green hard algae. They sell really bright blue leds that dont put off the spectrum of light that produce the hard algae, The actinic flourecent lamp would probably also bother the fish at night. Just goto froogle.com and lsearch for blue led's, about 1/4 the price of what youll find at the LFS.

 

[lucanidae]

My actinic used to turn off 30 minutes after the day bulbs went off at night, and 30 minutes before the lights turned back on in the morning to reduce light shock to the animals and coral. I also would turn it on during the night for a few minutes if I wanted to see what was going on. But I agree, don't leave it on full time at night; not worth it.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

They sell little moon lights you can use on your tank at night. You can even time the moon lights to simulate moon cycles to help induce spawnings in healthy corals. Some people swear by it but it sounds like something to do for fun rather than value.

 

[pandinus]

yeah, i would probably go with lunar lights, i just like the way the atinic makes the corals glow