Black Light for Moon Light

[Mouse]

Just read a thread about some peeps who have black lights for moonlights, i have allways been under the impression that U.V. was bad for corals, e.g. U.V. filters on halides.

So whats the score, are these people radiating their livestock to death, or are we all missing out on teknoflurodiscotanks.

Please advise

 

[ramgod]

Most of these creatures come from the area of the world that gets blasted with the most UV (equator) at least best place for uv till we squashed the ozone. common sense should tell you that these animals have evolved to not just tolerate the uv but to thrive in it. a good example would be GFP (green flourescent protien)the bright green areas you see in allot of corals, GFP converts the lower uv band to a more usable spectrum (green). this is how the GFP bacteria are able to be symbiotic with corals, gfp bacteria convert the uv band to green so the coral can use it more efficiantly while the gfp bacteria gain protection. backed with this info my opinion is that a blacklight would be benificial, if it is not benificial then rest assured that thousands of years of equatorial exposure have made our reef creatures able to live in a uv blasted environment unharmed.

 

[Anonymous]

Mouse

You are correct in that the spectrum of U.V. is incorrect. Just as incondescent and some Flood lights are bright enough but the wrong spectrum. Usually the end result is you grow a lot of algea and give very little benificial light to the inhabitants of the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I was told at the LFS once that black lights will cause your fish to go blind. With regards to the UV comment earlier, I think much of the UV light is reflected back from the water surface. (Hence we can get sunburns from being in the shade near the water.)

 

[ramgod]

Supercow actually suggests a theory that makes this point for me. Since most sunlight is reflected off of the surface of the water, creatures have adapted to live with whatever stray sunlight UV rays filter down the water column. Therefore, a UV light should not be harmful to the aquarium since most of the UV will reflect off the surface anyway. The stray rays that are left behind are benefical to bacteria that contain the lux or GFP gene. It should be noted that on our tank we have black lights that run with other lights for 2.5hrs and 3.5hrs with only black lights running. This has not caused any noticable stress to our reef tank; which includes sea apple, sea stars, sea cucumbers, hawk fish, Marine Betta, and tangs. Our puffer tank has the same black light schedule and fixture types with no adverse reaction from the puffers toward the black light. This set up has been working rather well for almost a year now.

 

[Anonymous]

Ramgod

What your not saying wih regard to "No adverse reaction from the puffer" is whether it is benificial or not.

Blue light penetrates better than any other light in the spectrum. That is why when I dive once I am past 30 feet I need to have a flash that adds the other spectrum back in.

Only certain colors of UV are reflected off the surface at a higher rate than others.

Once you get to the blue spectrum only certain types of blue are benificial and only at the proper intensity.

A black light may LOOK good to a human but from everything I have read it does nothing for your inhabitants and many have asserted that it is harmfull not because the spectrum or intensity but because most ballasts that Black lights are sold in fluctuate the light intentionaly to give a better effect when they are used with bright paints.

 

[Mouse]

Thought so, cheers guys just wanted to be sure about this one. Hopefully the guys on the Moonlight thread have read this, ill post on there to be sure though.

Astalareefa baby