Do lights really matter?

[Shaddow_wolf169]

So my tank has been up and running for 5 months I have LPS SPS and softies my current setup that I have had all along is a LED .5 watt per 180 led aquaneat full spectrum. My corals seem to grow just fine make heads and getting bigger color is still the same on all of them. Would it benefit to get better lighting? Would I get faster growth with higher output lighting?


Coral were added 1.5 months in and posted a video of current.

 

[Joshua Hurst]

well if something in the tank isn't happy; or your not happy with the lighting, by all means id buy some new lights. It cant hurt (except for the corals getting used to them ) I thought everything except for that one nem looked great. Keep it up!!!

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

That nem is weird he likes it up top for a bit then the bottom back an forth every couple of days.

 

[cjd]

To answer the initial question.....Absolutely , Lights are what I feel the most important piece of a reef tank. It's what our coral relies on for life. Through the years of reef keeping I found that it is way easier and faster to kill coral with too much than not enough. A coral can go a lot longer usually with not enough light as long as water parameters are kept. They may not color up as nice or grow as fast , but they hang in there.
Depending on the specimens you chose to keep will define the light requirements . I cannot watch the video right now , but from the posted picture it looks like more lower light corals are in the tank , so you can get away with your lighting choice . My only concern would be over time. Im curious to even have a LUX reading at the surface of the water via a simple smart phone app. reading . Just to see if over time the less expensive led system degrades and dulls , starving your corals of light as they may be getting just enough now.
If things are growing , fat and happy ....keep rocking it and laugh at the joker that just spent over $1,000 bucks for that new led system with no better results !

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

To answer the initial question.....Absolutely , Light are what I feel the most important piece of a reef tank. It's what our coral relies on for life. Through the years of reef keeping I found that it is way easier and faster to kill coral with too much than not enough. A coral can go a lot longer usually with not enough light as long as water parameters are kept. They may not color up as nice or grow as fast , but they hang in there.
Depending on the specimens you chose to keep will define the light requirements . I cannot watch the video right now , but from the posted picture it looks like more lower light corals are in the tank , so you can get away with your lighting choice . My only concern would be over time. Im curious to even have a LUX reading at the service of the water via a simple smart phone app. reading . Just to see if over time the less expensive led system degrades and dulls , starving your corals of light as they may be getting just enough now.
If things are growing , fat and happy ....keep rocking it and laugh at the joker that just spent over $1,000 bucks for that new led system with no better results !

I would never laugh at another reefer for wanting the best for his coral hahaha. I'm just wondering if I could get more growth and better color?

 

[Joshua Hurst]

I would never laugh at another reefer for wanting the best for his coral hahaha. I'm just wondering if I could get more growth and better color?

Absolutely! but dosing is also key for this^

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

I have yet to have to dose. My system is 150 total gallons and I have basically 30 stoney frags

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

No big colonies yet

 

[Joshua Hurst]

nice dunkans man! their beautiful!

 

[Joshua Hurst]

i may be wrong, but does this tank look a little overstocked to anyone else considering its amount of rock?

 

[TitansFan32]

Lights matter a lot. You need to research the lighting needs for your corals and see if your light needs meet the needs of your corals. If they get the right amount of light it can really help coral growth, color, and over all health.

 

[TitansFan32]

i may be wrong, but does this tank look a little overstocked to anyone else considering its amount of rock?

I do think he needs to start looking at adding a few more pounds of rock to the tank.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

I have 5 fish total And 120lbs of rock.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

nice dunkans man! their beautiful!

Thanks there kinda of small in the picture lights were only on for 30 min when I took these.

 

[Peanut]

Light is light. Unless you are concerned that the unit is not putting out the wavelength that its advertised to do, or not bright enough (par/pur) you shouldn't have a problem.

IMHO there is nothing more important that water quality. My coral growth is a function of available chemicals in the water and not the amount or quality of light. Spending a week or two to dial in my dosing has paid off more than anything I have ever done

I'm not saying you can light your tank with a 60w incandescent bulb, but I can say as someone who for years swore by metal halide lighting as the only way to go, and now has cheap led units over a tank with growth like I have never had before....I dont think it matters that much.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

In short, yes lights and colors do have a lot of impact on corals and growth and color. MAny folks I've been talking to here on r2r and myself have seen color changes with different spectrums at close to the same intensities. This goes for t5 mh and Led

Would I get faster growth with higher output lighting?

Higher output, Im not convinced of that. Different spectrum yes maybe so. A165w Mars and Sbreeflight have about the same intensity, yet many report much better results with the SB.


One of the thing I get flames for is the lux par work. if a light has a lux par conversion of 50 its got better spectrum than a light with a lux/par of 75.
That being said many folks ave also used MH with a par meter and matched the numbers exactly with high end LED's and hated the results and went right back to MH.
SO the question is why is that. I have theories but its long winded. In short, they may be wrong or it does lack a spectral component the MH has.

The next question on intensity is, how much is too much for a particular coral. I have coral growing under way more than most would recommend and are amazing, and also some that don't seem to like that at all. That a frogspawn btw. the top heads are a bit pale, and the lower heads not so much. Is it intensity or spectrum, dunno. In that same tank, many corals that used to fluoresce, now dont.

If its affordable, yea, Do an upgrade if nothing else just to see what happens. I have 2 DT's with different lights and yes, the colors change as does the growth with the same approximate intensities or less.
Both were noted before I started automated dosing BTW.

IMO, IME, for most, simple two part or kalk dosing and water chances are enough for trace minerals and the big 3. Good light at an intensity that matches the ALK and nutrints is next. Exploring better spectrum is not always needed but definitely something to look into.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Light is light. Unless you are concerned that the unit is not putting out the wavelength that its advertised to do, or not bright enough (par/pur) you shouldn't have a problem.

IMHO there is nothing more important that water quality. My coral growth is a function of available chemicals in the water and not the amount or quality of light. Spending a week or two to dial in my dosing has paid off more than anything I have ever done

I'm not saying you can light your tank with a 60w incandescent bulb, but I can say as someone who for years swore by metal halide lighting as the only way to go, and now has cheap led units over a tank with growth like I have never had before....I dont think it matters that much.

I 100% definitely agree on dosing.
I gotta say, the difference between my 2 current tanks lights is pretty surprising. In the last 3 years I've had the pleasure of about 8 different lights and the there were and are currently definite differences.

 

[McMullen]

Does light matter? Yes! Where it comes from probably doesn't. Mike Paletta just posted on light and what "the masters," use. To no surprise they all have different combos and sources. This likely means we place far too much emphasis on lighting. Well done marketing people!

Need more rocks.......pffft!

 

[alfani]

as people above says it well.. need more rocks. as for lights, don't think it's matters more than water parameters. as long as you have the water, you can throw in cheap lights and your tank would still flourish. a friend of mine had the same MH light bulb for over 3+ years and tanks still rocks

 

[McMullen]

I disagree 100% about the rock. I love the Japanese style Bonsai-like scape! If I could hit the redo button I would do something similar. Well done! There is no true rule for how much rock is required.