Getting new bulbs (actinic or no?)

[Solarfall]

I bought my new 55g off craigslist and I'm figuring the bulbs are pretty old. I'm going to buy some new ones tomorrow, but I'm not going for corals right away because I want to hold off on the ro/di for a few months.
So would I benefit at all from buying nice expensive bulbs right now when I'm just doing fish and a few inverts? Or should I just get some standard retail bulbs from my workplace (Petco)?
I figure I'm going to do corals in a few months anyway, so if actinic bulbs are going to do me any good now, I may as well just buy them tomorrow.

Thanks :)

 

[dcantucson]

I think you've answered your own question there Solarfall. If they are really cheap (with your discount :lol:) then I'd buy them. But realizing that your going to get some corals in a few months then I'd just get the right blubs now. Why waste your money on something you know your just going to throw away anyway?

 

[Solarfall]

Well really my question is whether or not the actinic bulbs are healthier for my tank for any reason without corals. I guess I kinda danced around it.
Like will it promote coralline algae growth or anything like that?

 

[dcantucson]

I think they are better for all growth, not just corals.

But with that said I don't think it would matter that much for a fish only tank, especially if they are really cheap. The actinic bulbs are very expensive, in my opinion. And if I had no coral and wasn't planning to get any for a long time then I'd go cheaper.

 

[sen5241b]

Corals will fluoresce better under actinics.

 

[daugherty]

the tank will look more yellow without them

 

[project5k]

WOAH WOAH WAIT A MIN... GO BACK AND READ WHAT HE WROTE

I'm not going for corals right away because I want to hold off on the ro/di for a few months.

lets just get this outta the way right now, your gonna wait to do corals cause ur not gonna do ro-di?

shouldnt you use ro-di no matter what u put in the tank?

do you mean buy a filter, or what, cause this could be a much bigger issue than the lights... unless you wanna grow a boatload of algae that is....

oh, and as for the lights, i would suggest you use some actinic, it sure will look better. I'm running 2-65W cf 10k and 2 65W cf 50-50 10k and actinic, so u can see i'm only using 1/4 of my light wattage for actinic, but it sure does make a heck of a diff when your looking at your tank.

 

[daugherty]

dont use tap water there is way to much crap in it. if you dont want to buy a ro unit than buy distilled water from walmart.

 

[project5k]

or get your water from the culligan machine or find a water hut like i have in my little podunk no horse town.

 

[dcantucson]

I think we all just assumed that he was buying RODI water and that that wasn't an issue. Is that right Solarfall?

 

[project5k]

I ASS-U-ME nothing!

 

[winyfrog]

I ASS-U-ME nothing!

LOL :mrgreen:

 

[project5k]

I'm sitting here biting my toung as it is cause of something else that was said in that OP..... so i had to let something out, and this was the least offensive of the 2

 

[Solarfall]

Sorry, havn't been on here in a day or two. No, I wasn't going to buy distilled water or anything, and I'm perfectly aware that the phosphates (spelling?) will make algae grow like crazy. But the thing is, I work at a pet store and it's basically my job to maintain tanks when the real fish guy isn't there. So keeping algae under control with brute force is actually kind of enjoyable to me. When I had my 2 saltwater fish in a 10g tank (cinnamin clown and a sixline wrasse), I was literally scrubbing the tank and live rock every day, but it doesn't bother me. The fish are perfectly healthy now after 4-5 months in that tiny tank.
Yeah, I know the copper and such is just generally not good for my tank, but I'm having trouble affording and finding a place to mount an RO unit right now. I definetly plan on getting one in 2 months or so though.

 

[yote]

I hate to be the one to say it,but having to manually remove algae is not a sign of a healthy system.
If you cant afford an RO system right now,then your better off to either water out of those machines at your local grocery,or distilled water.

 

[Solarfall]

Actually, I just thought of something.
Would the water coming out of an RO be of equal quality to bottled spring water? I imagine it would certainly remove that awful metally taste that tap water has.
I ask because I could probably convince my mom and girlfriend to split the cost of an RO three ways if I promise never having the need to buy spring water again, seeing as between the three of us we consume about $75 in bottled water every month.

And if so, could someone link me to a relatively cheap RO unit that isn't massive and would be easy to mount with very little space?

 

[Bifferwine]

I got mine from P U R E W A T E R C L U B. It goes under my sink, and it cost less than $100.

You can use bottled water. Most bottled water will say on the label "Prepared using reverse osmosis" or something like that. If it says that, it's RO water.

 

[bjohanson1234]

also check to make sure it diesnt have any added salts. Some bottled waters add salts to make them taste better. Not sure what salts they use but I wouldnt trust them.

 

[Solarfall]

The question isn't really if I can use bottled water, it's whether or not RO water is as good as bottled water for human consumtion, because that's how I'd convince my uhh...housemates to pitch in for an RO. They don't really care about my fish, lol but if I tell them we can make our own Poland Spring, they'll probably be all for it.

 

[Bifferwine]

RO water is fine for drinking. Most reef setups have a DI (de-ionized) component too. If you want to use it for drinking water too, you should remove the DI component as that's not good for people to drink. Or just buy a unit that is RO only.