Aquarium lighting

[demirefed]

Hi,

First my friend is electronic engineer and he is built a lighting for me but ı cant decide the colour ratio. how am ı going to decide that

The lighting is 70 cm. For example, maybe 3:1:1 blue:red:white like that

how am ı going to do?

thanks for everthing.

there is a picture for before his made

 

[Ron Reefman]

There is red in the white, IMHO you don't need red leds. What wattage leds is he using? Has he (or you) done a PAR test?

If it were my build, I'd do 65% to 75% blue and the rest white. My commercial made fixture is 50/50 and I run blue at 90% and I've run white at both 30% and 40% during the 6 hours of midday light. Not much difference either way.

 

[demirefed]

There is red in the white, IMHO you don't need red leds. What wattage leds is he using? Has he (or you) done a PAR test?

If it were my build, I'd do 65% to 75% blue and the rest white. My commercial made fixture is 50/50 and I run blue at 90% and I've run white at both 30% and 40% during the 6 hours of midday light. Not much difference either way.

Thank u for feedback. We did not decide the colours and we can not meet him because of virus. I am begginer of salt water. what is the PAR test? and if u made a light, would u prefer fluorescent or led?

to master
sincerely

 

[Dana Riddle]

The whites will have a lot of blue, supplemented by the blues. As stated above by @Ron Reefman , the whites will also have red in them, so no need to supplement with red. Red light is known to regulate zooxanthellae densities/chlorophyll content. The question is at what point does red light becoming a negative? I've got the lights and chlorophyll meter, but haven't got around to getting the experiment conducted.

 

[demirefed]

The whites will have a lot of blue, supplemented by the blues. As stated above by @Ron Reefman , the whites will also have red in them, so no need to supplement with red. Red light is known to regulate zooxanthellae densities/chlorophyll content. The question is at what point does red light becoming a negative? I've got the lights and chlorophyll meter, but haven't got around to getting the experiment conducted.

okey red light useless for aquarium. Blue light is a superman. am ı right?
ı want to help u to this experiment but ı am too far to u.

thanks for your message. ı am greatful

 

[Dana Riddle]

okey red light useless for aquarium. Blue light is a superman. am ı right?
ı want to help u to this experiment but ı am too far to u.

thanks for your message. ı am greatful

Red light is useful in photosynthesis but we don't want to over do it with corals. I've got a lot of light here or coming to test. Once I get done with those, I'll setup an experiment with same PAR but different varying degrees of red and measure chlorophyll content with my chlorophyll meter. Been meaning to do this for years.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thank u for feedback. We did not decide the colors and we can not meet him because of virus. I am beginner of salt water. what is the PAR test? and if u made a light, would u prefer fluorescent or led?

Both are very good and they each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I like leds because with 6 channels of color control I can make the tank the color I want and I can dim them to make a sunrise/sunset. Neither of those points is of any importance at all to the fish or coral. They are 99.99% for human enjoyment. Basic led fixtures with blue and white leds and dimmers without timers work just as good as crazy expensive led fixtures.

PAR is Photosynthetic Active Radiation. It's all the spectrum that algae (including the zooxanthellae that live inside corals) use to do photosynthesis. There are a couple of meters out there to measure PAR, but they are quite expensive and you really don't need one.

And the other issue is how far light penetrates into the water. It's not so important in our tanks, but you can see most light doesn't get very deep in the ocean, so blue becomes very important!