Black lights? Well, to tell you the truth, I have only heard of them used for crime scenes. Within a tank a I have no idea but it sounds like the kind of light spectrum it emmits can be bad.
I think blacklights would probably cause more harm then help. Although I don't think they would be really harmful. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the nifty ''accenting effects' a blacklight would create on fish (such as glofish) or neon decor is from the UV light it emits? I think actinics are also fine producers of UV light but are more for producing light utilized by corals in saltwater setups. I might note that I have actinics in my 5 gallon and they seem to supplement algae growth more than plant growth. -.-
I've seen blacklights used in some Fish stores but usually only in glofish tanks so that buyers would be more anxious to get a brightly glowing fish. Which is a heated debate among many aquarists. Some sellers claim their glofish (which are actually zebrafish) are genetically mutated to glo, and some will even go as far as to say that the mutation is natural and bred by selection. Others state that their fish are simply injected with dyes and many buyers have no problem with this while others think its the most cruel thing in the world. Either way this isn't a fish I consider supporting the development and sale of if that is the case.
i think they throw 100-300 nm... a UV sterilizer i think throws around 230nm... i think... i don't have my books right now... so don't qoute me on this...
but anyways... the way UV light kills protozoa algae and other crap is by how much time they are exposed to this wave length and what part of the spectrum the light is...
so with that said... yes... it will kill some if not ALL of your biological bugs in your aquarium and the good bacteria on your fish...
but i don't know anybody or anywhere that talks about the harms it does... so if you do decide to try it let us know... lol...
oh and glofish are geneticly engineered to glow... they were made for the water treatement plants... the fish naturally clean the water out a bit, and are made to glow brighter when there are high levels of toxic chemicals and amonia...
a glofish wont glow unless the water quality is really bad in the tank...
check out http://www.glofish.com i think it says the reason and such for those poor fish... i think they are mixed with the cuddle fish or some kind of jelly fish... i forgot...
I just put 2 black lights across my new 125 gallon tank, and it looks cool. Makes the water look sort of purple, and some of the decorations glow from it.
well thanks for all the input, but if i where to put blacklights in, it would just be for short periods of time, maybe just to take some pics and get some cool effects, but i wasn't quite sure if it would be ok to leave them on for long periods of time, ya know...
ive used blacklights b 4..... imo they are trouble, fresh and salt. if you look twards the top of the tank when the blacklight is on, its really cloudy. after awhile ur water will seem to be cloudy when regular lighting is on. antic lighting is the best blacklight for the aquarium, it keeps ur water looking natural, and clear imo.
I use black lights sometimes on my tank with glofish in them. They really glow when you put a black light on them and look very cool. I'll try to take a picture of it tonight to show what it looks like.
you can get aqua lights (red, green and blue) from Pet Solutions. they work underwater. I have all three colors, but I found the red light did not collect algae...the green light collected hair algae (I took out the light), the blue light did too but not as bad (still, I took out the light); the red light is in a corner of the tank behind an upside down branch driftwood, I leave it on all the time, it look really cool at night (it is not too bright, so the fish can "sleep" with no problem). black lights probably have no nutritional level, I would stay away from the black lights unless you have cool pictures of Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd
