By cheating I mean that blue lighting increases the
look of the coral's color. If you remove the coral from the water or put it under 10K lighting it will not be as colorful as it was under the blue lighting. Just as actinic shots are more intense than MH shots, but actinic photos are like
double cheating.
Some people are able to achieve such impressive success with SPS that the corals are the same brightness under 10K lighting or out of the water as other people achieve by using blue lights. For those of us who aren't quite that talented, we cheat and use blue lights.
T5 users are notorious cheaters in this aspect.
I wish I had the patience to dose 13 different additives to my tank daily, plus kneading the carbon, and stirring the rocks!!
For now I will just stick to a few additives. I have also noticed marked improvement in coral color and much increased growth just by using a couple additives (PCV, and SP). I need to place an order and get a few more (CS, AALPS, and PX). I'm excited to get going on these new ones.