Debate on LED's and natural lighting

[scottyitsk]

So, I have recently upgraded to a custom 250 gallon mixed reef tank... and I have been on a debate about corals and what type of light they actually thrive from!

I was at a local frag swap.. and almost every single seller I talked to had the very same answer to the question "what percentage were you running your LEDs at.. so I can acclimate accordingly?"....

Their answer "No whites... simply 80-100% grow/atintics/blues....."

I am baffled by the fact, that their corals looked so healthy and FULL of color... and I am over here with a 4 year established tank battling color loss with monticaps and acros.... even though all my parameters are perfect...

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 2
p04 - 0
mg - 1400
alk - 9.1
ca - 480

Biweekly water changes.... and dosing Kalkwasser to ro/di top off


So back to the debate...... what is the consensus of running strictly grow lights/BLUES/Atintics vs running atintics and whites/daylights?

I have 2 reef breeder photon series lights on my tank.... 6 inches off water level with 120 degree optics... peak at 30% whites and 75% blues for about 3 hours.. ramp up and down. 30 inch deep tank.

please feel free to shed any ideas.. this is an open discussion

 

[Phishy McGee]

Personally I couldn't leave the whites off. when you run just blue it looks so unnatural. Everything glows like black light. I let my whites turn off an hour before my blues so it looks like this for an hour each day, the dayglo psychedelic reef does look kinda neet but I couldn't have it like that all the time.

 

[diablomaster9045]

I think the lights might not be the problem in this case. It might be something in the chemistry ballpark. The key to good coral color and health is stable conditions. I personally use a calcium reactor and my alk sits at about 7.9 all the time. So I would try striving to keep your levels as stable as possible.

Also, what salt are you using? And are you mixing the bag/bucket of salt before adding it to water?

 

[Phishy McGee]

Could be the trace elements. If you're dosing cal and alk cause your coral are growing fast they are also consuming all trace elements and bi weekly water changes is probably not enought to replace. I started using Red Sea "coral color" which is the esential trace elements. I'm blown away by how bright and vibrant my acro and monti's have become over the last couple of months. Everything is back to it's deep colored self again. With my system having so much growing coral under bright LEDs I think the coral just strip the water faster than we realize...

This is what it looks like now.

 

[scottyitsk]

thanks for all the replies!

As stated above, I am dosing Kalkwasser... this keeps my alk at 9.1 constant and Ca at 480 constant. my PH barely fluctuates at all.


As far as the RED SEA CORAL COLORS trace elements go.... how much mL are you dosing of what per day?

 

[kidtango]

Beautiful tank phishy.

I am dosing triton elementz and feed a lot. I think the more intense the light source, the more nutrients we need keep in the tank.

I say experiment with feeding more and dosing trace elements and watch. Every tank is different. I am still figuring out feeding and balancing nutrients in the tank.

 

[ReefLEDLights]

There is a lot of debate on LED Lighting

I've personally grown Birdsnest Frage for a frag swap using only Cree 450nm Royal Blue

I prefer Cree over other White LEDs I know the spectrum and for the most part its full spectrum by itself. Generic Fixtures use Generic LEDs and I have yet to find a spectrum graph on them other than an artist interpetation.

Here is a chart of the Cree Spectrum and a couple grow spectrum charts.

Yes you can grow coral with great water quality and only blues but I prefer a more natural lighting spectrum. The Amount or intensity of the Bule would depend on the Depth in nature that you want to replicate.

Bill