Difference between Actinic 03 or Blue 7,100K?

[Anonymous]

What is the difference between Actinic 03 or Blue 7,100K?

Is one more blue?

I need to replace my bulbs on my JBJ light gor my nano.

The bulbs are 65W 10K and 65W Actinic 03 or Blue 7,100K.
_________________
Mercedes SSK

 

[Anonymous]

... You will be a little bit disappointed when you find out that bulb manufacturer can pretty much name their bulb anyway they want....

Your best bet is to ask people that see both bulb side-by-side. The PC is more consistant than MH, so that's good news.

 

[MattM]

The difference is marketing. There are slight differences in the phosphors used by different manufacturers, so I won't say that all blue bulbs are the same, but here are the details:

7100K Several years ago Coralife started labelling their blue bulbs with this meaningless designator. Not to be outdone, Custom Sea Life put the same on their blue bulbs. Later both manufacturers removed it because they came out with 8800K and 10,000K bulbs that were white making the 7100K label on a blue bulb look stupid.

Actinic The definition of Actinic is the property of radiant energy especially in the visible and ultraviolet spectral regions by which chemical changes are produced. By this definition all light is actinic, but the name got stamped onto blue bulbs because Philips started producing a bulb specifically for the chemical industry where the light is used as a catalyst for some polymerization reaction. The term has nothing to do with aquariums or the life in them.

03 This is a color code from the Philips lighting catalog. Nothing more. Philips labels all their bulbs with a two-digit color code, you can buy an "11", a "03", a "05", etc. The "03" designator happens to be blue. So what's the difference between Actinic and Actinic 03? Well, if the latter is made by Philips, then it conforms to their specs for color code 03, if not, neither designator means anything.

Remember, the blue color is only the make the tank more pleasing to your eye. Get what looks good to you and don't be fooled by anyone's marketing.

By the way, before everyone went with Chinese OEMs for their bulbs, the Custom Sea Life and some Coralife PCs were made by Panasonic. These companies labelled the bulbs "Actinic", "7100K", "Ultra-Actinic" or "Actinic 03". But we have a copy of the spec sheet from Panasonic. What high-tech specification does the original manufacturer put on their bulb? They call it blue.

 

[Anonymous]

Do they call it "blue," or "true blue?"

 

[ChrisRD]

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[grav]

Good GRAVY~!!@~!!!

My whole world is spinning. Just when I thought I had a klew!@!!!

I about to buy new 65w bulbs for my tank and now I don't know what to do. Was planning 50/50 bulbs.

Is Blue, 03, 7100, Antinic, 50/50 (10,000k / blah blah blah) all irrevelant?

 

[Anonymous]

Just don't read too much into the term. Think of it as trademarks.

 

[Anonymous]

As David said but I'll give you the cheat sheet.

As far as just about ANY aquarium bulb on the market goes you can make these assumptions:

The higher the color temp listed the bluer the bulb will be and you will see a corresponding drop in both PAR and Lumen Intensity.

A 6500K is brighter but yellower than an 8000K bulb which is brighter but yellower than a 10,000K bulb which is brighter but yellower than a Blue (actinic etc) bulb.

So how do you choose? Most people want the most intensity so pick a combo that will give you the brightest tank with the color/look thats pleasing to you.

 

[grav]

But doesn't the color matter to the corals?

If I just used 10,000k, nothing in the blue range, it would look nice untill everything died.

Right?

 

[Anonymous]

The 10000k uses all light ranges, just not as intense in the blue range. I think the corals would still survive with just 10000k though

 

[Anonymous]

It is another myth that you need to have nothing but blue light to keep coral. They may not look very nice, but I don't know if any coral die due to the lack of blue light.

Besides, 10,000K has pretty of blue. The reason it is not that noticeable is because other color overwhelms the blue portion of the spectrum.

 

[brandon4291]

I believe this thread also has implications to the current LED emergence we see on the reef aquarium market. Many people wonder if the long-life, low-heat, light emitting diode approach is the future trend of reefkeeping. Blue emission LEDS of many sorts (whether you have luxeons or radioshackers) put out a wavelength nearly identical to actinic lighting, at least as far as your eye can tell. Ive tested with a PAR meter (at one foot) the outputs of VHO actinics vs the 1-watt luxeons and they are indeed identical. The LEDS make my zoanthids flouresce and so do the actinics, the meter says they are the same, so when the cost of these LEDS are more efficient actinic arrays of them will move to the forefront of the market IMO.

Trying to get an LED to grow your coral is another thing though, the daylight LEDS do say on the package (Luxeons anyway) that they emit a 5500K spectrum. This had me jumping for joy until I talked with an engineer friend of mine, and he reminded me that this is a one wave measurement of 5500k kelvin color temperature and not a cumulative measure of 5500K, also incorporating other spectrums as well like David has mentioned. Photosynthetic organisms in our reefs typically are adapted to a full-spectrum output and the varying frequencies that come along for the ride, a single band of 5500K robs them of the "package deal" they are used to living under, whether the light is coming from the sun or from our current drivers (MH, VHO, NO, PC etc) Just thought this would be some neat tag-along info for this spectrum related thread. Who else has input on this issue?

Brandon M.

 

[Anonymous]

LED's are a totally different thing than our regular lightign ie PC NO VHO MH...And i agree Brandon.. i wouldnt even consider that as an option...Im not the greatest reefer out there, actually im pretty green in the hobby but i do know electronics and things of that nature...so Stick with our regular lights


8)

 

[brandon4291]

Right now I think it may be hard with the current design of LEDs to stimulate photosystems. Definately don't give up on the technology though, soon they'll just use another form of radiation to give out tiny point-source light--->same chassis as the common LED, but different driver elements that will achieve the desired growth spectrum.


On a more practical note to your question Rob, I have seen this as an observable difference between 'blue' bulbs and those that were listed as true actinic: the blue is literally brighter, lights up more of the aquarium when on. The true actinic brings our flourescence much better in the corals, IMO enough to justify its use over the 'blue' type bulbs when available.

Brandon M.

 

[Anonymous]

I used blue '03' actinic for awhile and noticed no difference with my corals... I would use a combo of both if you can... That seems to be pretty standard...