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Currently I only have the standard hood lights for my tanks. I recently changed the light bulbs on both since they were kind of old. I installed 50/50 light bulbs that are 50% daylight and 50% actinic blue. The tanks aren't as bright as they used to be, but they still definitly are lit up. A thing cool about the bulb is blues in the tank stand out more, though yellows are lighter in color now. So I was wondering, what affect will this have on algae? On the big tank I had 90 gallon, I didn't see any algae at all growing on the glass other than some on rocks and there is a few java fern and anubis in there back with the old light. In the smaller 20 long tank, I've only had it set up since January 2008 and it is strictly an African ciclid tank. Though I added mayalsian trumpet snails for them to burrow through the fiji pink sand. Alage has been growing on the texas holey rock. It is a very dark green color and there is some fuzzy stuff on it. Also brown algae has been growing on the sides of the glass. I do add this powder stuff in the tank that is suppose to make the water cichlid chemistry and the ph 8.0. So I was wondering what effect will these new lights have on the two tanks such as algae and any other things?

On a FW tank those actinics are pretty much absolutely useless as nothing you want actually uses the actinic wavelengths. Those blues aren't doing you a whole lot of good, really. Half of your new bulbs are essentially being wasted. Er, algae do use those wavelengths, though. Get yourself a normal daylight bulb and your lights will better be able to provide the correct wavelengths for your plants. A 6500K light should be what you want.

FRANK is the lighting expert, so if anything I said is wrong he can correct me.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

65-6700 kelvin is what I've always known to be 'daylight' rating which is best for freshwater tanks.

And Iv'e always been told that actinic lights are specifically for growing algae in SW tanks.

I'm with shini on switching your bulbs .

^_^

Well im not too worried about the plants. I used to have silver dollars before brining them to the LFS for store credit, they kind of decimated those plants. So I was wondering if the light would promote or not alage growth, and if it does, if it would be the good or bad kind.

Most FW tanks I've seem with actinic tubes are algae city. I'm not sure which types you prefer, what you would think of as good and bad, but I'd say you have a good chance of growing some algae in your setup.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Hmm. Well the 90 gallon shouldn't be too big of a problem with algae since I do got algae eating fish in there, it has a high water flow in there coming from filitration, air pumps and hyrdo koriala, and the height of the tank is tall with it being a 90 vs a 75. The 20 gallon long might have bigger problems. I have seen the cichlids nible at the algae on the rocks before and seen the mayalsian trumpet snails on the rocks and the side of the glass and on the fiji pink sand at night when the lights are off. The water flow is much less in there due to the only water movement coming from marine land millennium 2000 hang on back filter, though that filter is meant for up to 40 gallon tanks.

So is blue light is much better than for growing allage than full bright daylight?