Blue lights or full spectrum?

[spedly]

I saw something interesting on Twitter the other day. It was a poll question asking whether reefers use blue lights only or whether they use white lights as well.

I have a Evergrow 2080 and run the lights up to 100% blue and 85% white. But that got me to thinking. How do you run your lights?

[Aquattro]

I use a 20k MH bulb, fairly blue. When I ran LED, I ran them at 100% all colors.

In the past though, reefers used anywhere from 6.5k -10k bulbs, supp'ed with actinic for color, and results were always good. I think the real issue is hwat habbyists like to look at. The corals don't care as much. To some degree, color can be affected, but again, to the hobbyist's preferences

[Wheelman76]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I use a 20k MH bulb, fairly blue. When I ran LED, I ran them at 100% all colors.



In the past though, reefers used anywhere from 6.5k -10k bulbs, supp'ed with actinic for color, and results were always good. I think the real issue is hwat habbyists like to look at. The corals don't care as much. To some degree, color can be affected, but again, to the hobbyist's preferences

I think corals DO care , and very much so which spectrum of light they receive. It's been proven that red LEDs can cause damage to coral tissue if they are turned up to high , as well as many people have reported stressed out corals when running the white channel on their LEDs too high.

Also growth and colour are affected by the spectrums we choose , especially with acropora.

[Aquattro]

I don't agree, mostly. LED too high IMO is too high, too quickly from lesser light. Going from 400w MH to 6 LED units at 100% caused no issues for me.

Coral color is affected, but not sure the coral cares about that, simply adjusting pigments to compensate for spectrum. We choose to go for various colors, based on our preferences.
As for growth, typically I see more growth in SPS with whiter light, but simply due to the fact that whiter is generally more PAR.

[Wheelman76]

I don't have much experience when it comes to LEDs but I've never read of someone running all colours at 100% unless it was just white/blue/royal blues and even then I would think that might be a little hard on Acros with the whites on at 100%. If the LEDs have other colours like reds and cyan or uv LEDs I can't imagine running those at 100% and certainly no manufacturer making LEDs would recommend doing so.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by Wheelman76

I don't have much experience when it comes to LEDs but I've never read of someone running all colours at 100% unless it was just white/blue/royal blues and even then I would think that might be a little hard on Acros with the whites on at 100%. If the LEDs have other colours like reds and cyan or uv LEDs I can't imagine running those at 100% and certainly no manufacturer making LEDs would recommend doing so.

What about such bulbs as the PAR38's that have UV, Reds, etc? They don't have adjustable spectrums yet companies such as Fragbox use them with great success.

[Wheelman76]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

What about such bulbs as the PAR38's that have UV, Reds, etc? They don't have adjustable spectrums yet companies such as Fragbox use them with great success.

That's a good point , I'm not too familiar with the par 38 bulbs but maybe they only have one or two of the different colours so it's not as intense and blends better.

[bowkry]

i run the par 38s from fragbox and supplement with 2 blue led strips. for about 6 months i only ran the par 38s and i didn't love the color, there was no pop in my corals but since i added the blue strips my colors are amazing. I run my par38s at %100 only 5 hours a day.

[Animal-Chin]

I've taped cardboard over my red LED's on my lights. Not cause my coral hate them, because I hate them! I can't stand the pink hew it would cast in my tank. Taped them up and the tank looked WAY better...

[smokinreefer]

with LEDs, I think its a mixture of colors that are needed...
each led omits a different color
and newer fixtures are now including a wider variety of colors to help simulate full spectrum lighting

I believe we are mostly past the days of LED users just using blue and white.

if you have experience with MH, its like back in the day the question was;
6500k vs 10,000k vs 20,000k etc
and for the most part it was just aesthetics
MH was a more well rounded light source, in that a 20,000k bulb wasn't just a blue bulb, it provided a variety of different spectrums, but was "bluer" in appearance.

so, with LED, I'd use both blue and white and some of whatever else is included in whichever set up you choose or build!