Ultraviolet Stunner strips

akabryanhall · Dec 28, 2010

Has anyone used this type? If you have, hows the color for your corals. The blue give me incredible florescence, but wondering about the ultraviolet..

ruppertb · Dec 28, 2010

i have a blue, love it, never tried a uv. i have read about fish going blind from them thou

seth&angelle · Dec 28, 2010

They are amazing!!! You can't really tell they are on when your main light is on, but when they are the only light on, they look spectacular.

akabryanhall · Dec 28, 2010

ruppertb said:
i have a blue, love it, never tried a uv. i have read about fish going blind from them thou

Hmm wonder if there anything to that.

akabryanhall · Dec 28, 2010

seth&angelle said:
They are amazing!!! You can't really tell they are on when your main light is on, but when they are the only light on, they look spectacular.

so you have uv stunners?

seth&angelle · Dec 28, 2010

ruppertb · Dec 28, 2010

i read that the uv messes with the fishes eyes when they try to sleep, expecially with ones that sleep upright

akabryanhall · Feb 28, 2011

So I went ahead and put the uv stunner strip in my canopy. Side by sie with teh actinic blue, there is no comparison, the actinics are MUCH brighter!

thewackyreefer · Feb 28, 2011

I don't think the UV's are meant to provide light rather to help with coloration. I'm purchasing a UV bulb for my Sunbrite fixture after talking with Dave at Vivid, he said once he added the UV bulb to his systems SPS colored up noticeably.

akabryanhall · Feb 28, 2011

That might be what I need to have happen lol. I was just really going for the make your colors fluoresce disco mode that I get with actinic blue led's.

thewackyreefer · Feb 28, 2011

akabryanhall said:
That might be what I need to have happen lol. I was just really going for the make your colors fluoresce disco mode that I get with actinic blue led's.

I went to check out someones system before I purchased mine and when he turned on only his UV the greens fluoresce like crazy!

akabryanhall · Feb 28, 2011

I may just need to add a few more lol! Thanks for the advice man!

Reefer831 · Feb 28, 2011

I hate the fact that my LED's don't produce UV's....I might have to try these things out.

akabryanhall · Feb 28, 2011

They are a pretty color, just dark as far as supplementation goes< i'm hoping what Luvmyacans said is true and it helps my acro coloration.

thewackyreefer · Feb 28, 2011

I don't think there are many companies that actually produce true UV LED's which is the main reason that I went with the Sunbrite fixture and LED tubes. When I was talking to Dave at Vivid he said plain and simple it's the light spectrum that gives us sun tans and SPS need it to for their coloration. Made sense to me, and their tanks look sweet so I went with it.

Hopefully they work out for you, I'd be curious to see some progression shots!

wld1783 · Mar 1, 2011

Reefer831 said:
I hate the fact that my LED's don't produce UV's....I might have to try these things out.

UV will break down most plastics and acrylic over time....My coral wholesaler would have skin cancer by now if this was necessary for growth and looks.

All MH Bulbs have UV shielding. SE built in, DE part of the fixture.

Spectrum is key and the necessity of having UV in a home reef has yet to be proved.

Bill

Billgax · Mar 1, 2011

What wavelength are these "UV" lights? UVA, UVB, etc? I'm not totally convinced either. Is this just a "far blue"? The photo-inhibiting pigments responding to UV makes sense on paper... but intentionally putting UV emitters over an aquarium? Really? Minimizing nutrient load (and therefore lessening the appearance of the chlorophyll a and b), in addition to adequately high output lighting I would think hard to beat. Hmmm...

akabryanhall · Mar 3, 2011

wld1783 said:
UV will break down most plastics and acrylic over time....My coral wholesaler would have skin cancer by now if this was necessary for growth and looks.

All MH Bulbs have UV shielding. SE built in, DE part of the fixture.

Spectrum is key and the necessity of having UV in a home reef has yet to be proved.

Bill

Hmm interesting point! I wasn't even thinking necessity, just looks lol.

stoneroller · Mar 3, 2011

I wonder if they are truly putting out UV radiation (<400) or if the purps are running between 400-440. 440-490 is blue.

drainbamage · Mar 4, 2011

akabryanhall said:
So I went ahead and put the uv stunner strip in my canopy. Side by sie with teh actinic blue, there is no comparison, the actinics are MUCH brighter!

Remember what the U stands for-just like the Infra in infrared, the ultra in ultraviolet means "beyond" the violet spectrum. If it was visibly bright, it would be caused by the light reaction with your eye-it's failure to be bright (failure to react with your eye) is because your eye cannot see it-hence the "beyond" the visible spectrum.

The idea of UV in a tank is to simulate some of the UV that good ol' Sol kicks out, which causes things like the algae within the coral cells to respond to the UV.

So yea, don't suppliment UV for brightness purposes, but I run a UV T5 on all my tanks, and believe it's helpful for color and growth, but don't have any proof on it.

Cheers!