Does "UV" lighting do anything?

[snowballs99 12]

Talking about like adding a small specialty "uv" light bar.

I know in stuff like mint leaves and stuff it causes a protective stuff to be built which gives the leaves more flavor. And yeah its also used to stuff, but does a small amount of it contribute to anything positively in plant growth or color?

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco 8]

Maybe, maybe not. If 99% of the most beautiful aquascaping galleries around the world don't use UV lights, I don't think it's too important for our purposes.

 

[Pepere]

I have uv lights on my Week Aquas.

I cant discern any visual difference with them on or off.

I have not been able to discern any growth difference either whether they are on or off.

I have them all shut off. I know UV can degrade plastics, and since i dont see any benefit to them on, I figure, why chance plastic degradation from uv…

YMMV.

 

[JayP 427]

My observations are the same as @Pepere's. Since Week Aqua's app limits power, with UV LEDs on, they cut into the percentage you can turn up the other colors. I prefer to crank up red, green, and blue for what, to my eyes, is brighter.

 

[renesis 120]

I have uv lights on my Week Aquas.

I cant discern any visual difference with them on or off.

I have not been able to discern any growth difference either whether they are on or off.

I have them all shut off. I know UV can degrade plastics, and since i dont see any benefit to them on, I figure, why chance plastic degradation from uv…

YMMV.

It's not going to do much if anything for growth. It also won't do much to degrade your plastics as it's visible uv-a, which isn't high energy like uv-b and uv-c.

What it does do, is fill in some of the missing spectrum in rgb/white leds. It's purely visual and can make some colours pop on livestock. If you don't see any difference with it on or off, then no loss keeping it off.

I did add a uv channel on my diy led in my journal at a decent power level, so I will be curious to see if it was worth it once my tank is set up.