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Old 05/12/2007, 07:54 PM
ATJ ATJ is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia
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I'm not aware of any benefits of UV radiation to marine organisms. There may be some sterilisation benefits but that's going to be about it. UVR can't be used (directly) for photosynthesis as it is beyond the reach of photosynthetic pigments which have a limit of around 400 nm, but can extend down to 380 nm.

The dangers of UVR on marine organisms are quite well known with damage to photosynthetic structures by UVB probably being the worst. What is interesting, however, is the adaptations of corals to high amounts of UVR, for example intertidal corals that are exposed to full Sun for many hours at a time, something that would be extremely damaging to many humans.

Of the published data on coral fluorescent pigments, the vast majority have excitation peak wavelengths greater than 400 nm (i.e. in the visible range). The few pigments with excitation peaks below 400 nm are still above 380 nm.

Just because an organism is exposed to something in nature does not mean it requires that thing to survive or be healthy.

The bottom line is that a blacklight will not stimulate growth.
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