Bulb Changes??
 

Hey guys I bought a used tank and was thinking about changing the bulbs because I really dont know how old they are.

The tank has 2 power compact light fixtures on the top of it, a coral-life 4x65w and a 4x36w.

The 4x65w fixture has a different bulbs in it:
current dual daylight 65w
coral-life actinic 65w
coral-life 10000k 65 w
current dual actinic 65w

Should they be mixed like that?

The 4x36w fixture has, 4- 50/50 36w bulbs.
should I just replace these with 2- 10000k's and 2- antinic's or put 4 new 50/50's in there?

I'm kind of new to this and do not know much about corals yet. What kinds of stuff could I have with this kind of setup? ~400w total light

I have a 72G bowfront with a 10G sump.

Any suggestions/comments?

Sorry for the long post

Thanks guys,
Brandon

bump

Change them, keep the old ones. When your new ones hit life expectancy, swap them out until you buy new ones. As far as the mix, I don't know. I know the 10k and actinic mix is common, but the dual daylight is something I haven't seen. I'd probably put mix actinics and 10k's in the 36, and purely 10k's in the 48".

The dual daylight bulbs are 6700K and 10000K mixed. I only use 6700 K bulbs in my fuge, as they are a bit too yellow for my taste.

Dual actinic bulbs are 420nm (more purple) and 460nm (blueish) mixed.

Since you have two separate fixtures, what I would do is something like this:

4x36w : all actinics, I perfer 420nm but you could go dual actinic.

4x50w: all daylight (10k) or one 10k and one 50/50.


This way you can have them on separate timers. Turn the actinic on a couple of hours before the daylight fixture, and off a couple of hours after. Plus, a lot of corals look quite different under pure actinic lighting.

As far as types of corals under PC lighting: mushrooms, zoanthids, xenia, most LPS, etc. Can not keep SPS, clams.

[IMG]http://www.marinedepot.com/IMD/MD_images/aquarium/powercompact_bulb_colors_small.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11578961#post11578961 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DrBegalke [/i]
[B][IMG]http://www.marinedepot.com/IMD/MD_images/aquarium/powercompact_bulb_colors_small.jpg[/IMG] [/B][/QUOTE]

thanks a good graphic representation DrB--where did you get it from?