LED lighting requirement for SPS

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

However some people say that just Blue/White LED combo is not enough for corals (especially SPS) as they need full spectrum light available to them.

Really? Mine seem to be "surviving" with blue and white only..

[Proteus]

Blue and white is fine. My tank ran a sol and I've seen plenty of frag tanks with sols

[mrhasan]

Just to add something (since I drooled over and studied full spectrum LEDs vs BW LEDs few months ago):

there's no legitimate proof that full spectrum helps coral growth. For now, people only still to it for aesthetics. Or maybe some study did came up showing full spectrum helps coral growth

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Just to add something (since I drooled over and studied full spectrum LEDs vs BW LEDs few months ago):

there's no legitimate proof that full spectrum helps coral growth. For now, people only still to it for aesthetics. Or maybe some study did came up showing full spectrum helps coral growth

TRANSLATION: There's no proof (but there might be)

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by lastlight

TRANSLATION: There's no proof (but there might be)

Haha. Just tried to elaborate it

It is very much "possible" that full spectrum "might" help; maybe marine biologists haven't published it yet or maybe hobbyist are not aware of it.

Bottom line is: Blue/white LEDs are capable of growing anything given that you got the right fixture instead of relying on marketing terms like "double" and "quad". Those terms are helpful when it comes to T5s but not for LEDs

[sphelps]

Well first of all, white LEDs are full spectrum. The advantage of what is referred to as "Full Spectrum" LED fixtures is the additional color control, just like a running a bunch of T5 bulbs you can tune color quite effectively with different bulb combos or you just run blue and white bulbs. Blue and white LED fixtures are more limited and I personally find running cool white LEDs in particular wash out some colors while fixtures with neutral white LED and/or red and green leds allow for cutting back on the cool white output enhancing certain colors. Debatable topic as it is, "full spectrum" does seem to be the popular trend for new fixtures and what most hobbyists prefer.

Second that fixture is junk, anything with a 48 white to 16 blue ratio is going to look terrible on an SPS tank. You'll spend more in the long run using fixtures like this.

[FragIt Dan]

Originally Posted by Kafudafish

/\ what he said. White light is made up of every color which makes it full spectrum

There aren't red,green, blue, suns in the sky.

Just to clarify, white light CAN be made up of every color, but not to a significant degree. This is why you might choose a cool white vs a warm white light. With respect to keeping corals, white LEDs do not meet a coral's photosynthetic requirements on their own, and thus I would argue are not full spectrum.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Just to add something (since I drooled over and studied full spectrum LEDs vs BW LEDs few months ago):

there's no legitimate proof that full spectrum helps coral growth. For now, people only still to it for aesthetics. Or maybe some study did came up showing full spectrum helps coral growth

The article found here is one that summarizes the need to provide light to corals across a much wider spectrum than most commercially available LED fixtures do.

Figure 4 shows zooxanthellae light absorption... of particular interest (to me) is the area between 400-440nm, which most LED fixtures lack.

Figure 8 shows what you get out of different wavelengths from your corals. Take a look at the spectrum below 440nm and the fluorescent pigments that glow as a result of exposure to this light (you get no purples without UV light).
Figure 23 shows you output from a high quality, commercially available LED fixture. Again, note the absence of support in the UV spectrum.

I have been testing LEDs for the past 6 months or so and have just installed a "full spectrum" DIY fixture on my frag tank. Initial testing of this has shown ridiculous color response from corals exceeding what I am currently getting from 14K Hamilton bulbs with actinic supplementation.

There are many other 'scientific' articles out there supporting the need for full spectrum lighting over corals. Of course you can play with the term 'need' and say that they will 'survive' under something less, but none of us are looking for that . Ask anyone who has moved from good Halides to LEDs what they think of their colors...

Just my $0.02,
Dan

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by FragIt Dan

Of course you can play with the term 'need' and say that they will 'survive' under something less, but none of us are looking for that . Ask anyone who has moved from good Halides to LEDs what they think of their colors...

As I said, mine are surviving just fine, purdy colors and all. Moving from MH, I lost pink in one millipora species. That's it. So I would argue, based on my tank, that you do not need anything other than blue and white. The only other difference might be translucence lacking to some tissue, but over feeding would do the same.