actinic lights

[Covenant]

What exactly makes an actinic light actinic? Is it just the wavelength? Does an actinic light peak ONLY in the 420nm range, or is it something else that makes a light actinic? For instance, I've got an old marine glo by hagen, is this actinic? And a 10000K light, is this actinic? I'm confused...:confused:

[reefburnaby]

Hi,


Actinic lights are fluroescent tubes with special phosphors inside the tube that glow approximately at 420nm. While other white lights (say cool white) have several different phosphors that glow at different wavelengths. The combination of different wavelengths, makes the tube glow white. So, a 10000K vs a 4000K light....the 10000K would have more actinic or more blueish phosphors than 4000K.

I recall that marine glow is a blue light...right ? If it is...then it is mainly actinic. LFSes have a spectrum chart for the Hagen tubes...you can see if it only glows at 420nm or is it someting else.

Hope that helps.

- Victor.