Do you need white lights?

[Shooter6]

That's interesting on the coating. As for the blue requirement I often ponder if we just increased the intensity of the white would that then provide the required blue. Perhaps aquarium manufacturers just find it cheaper to increase the blues and use less wattage. Similar to how herteculture once used just the blues and the reds to get the required PAR with less wattage versus using wave lengths that would be wasted yet today they are starting to shift back to white. At least one pot grower I know who keeps up with the latest. Might mean a very bright tank however. Not sure how that would look. At the depth most SPS are found I doubt much longer wave lengths than green exist. Red filtered out by 30 feet.

I dont think the increase would work with white leds. To get to the proper levels on blue, the other spectrums would be off the chart.

 

[Brymac1]

“White” or “6500k” do not tell the whole story.

This is the spectrum of a 6500k LED, it has a pretty “full spectrum” in the visible wavelengths

This is the spectrum of a 6500k Giesemann Tropic T5 bulb. Much less smooth, but includes more light north of 700 nm and should have some UV leakage at around 365 nm.

This is the spectrum of a 6500k Iwasaki MH bulb.
Very “full spectrum” from UV all the way to IR, and is the closest of the three to sunlight.

This is the spectrum of typical 6500k daylight:

This spectrum changes of course the deeper into the ocean you go.

 

[Shooter6]

“White” or “6500k” do not tell the whole story.

This is the spectrum of a 6500k LED, it has a pretty “full spectrum” in the visible wavelengths

This is the spectrum of a 6500k Giesemann Tropic T5 bulb. Much less smooth, but includes more light north of 700 nm and should have some UV leakage at around 365 nm.

This is the spectrum of a 6500k Iwasaki MH bulb.
Very “full spectrum” from UV all the way to IR, and is the closest of the three to sunlight.

This is the spectrum of typical 6500k daylight:

This spectrum changes of course the deeper into the ocean you go.

That 65k led is which manufactur? Cree or the others? What wattage? And the measurements are from them or third party source? I AM NOT arguing these with you im asking for the knowledge gain.

 

[GARRIGA]

I dont think the increase would work with white leds. To get to the proper levels on blue, the other spectrums would be off the chart.

Yes but would they be an issue?

 

[Brymac1]

That 65k led is which manufactur? Cree or the others? What wattage? And the measurements are from them or third party source? I AM NOT arguing these with you im asking for the knowledge gain.

It’s from a grow light manufacturer in New Zealand, no real reason I picked it, since they all pretty much look the same from what I see. Here’s the site I got it from: https://ledgrowlights.co.nz/products/40w-growsaber-led-6500k-1200mm

 

[Shooter6]

It’s from a grow light manufacturer in New Zealand, no real reason I picked it, since they all pretty much look the same from what I see. Here’s the site I got it from: https://ledgrowlights.co.nz/products/40w-growsaber-led-6500k-1200mm

Thank you. That is the first I've seen a white led have its spectrum posted. It appears very similar to a aquablue special or coral plus t5 bulb.

 

[GARRIGA]

My experimental tank is running a Kessil 160we Tuna Sun because I wanted to see if it would eventually grow corals. Been running it at full intensity because I don’t currently have a PAR meter and perhaps that along with more than 8 hour run time why I got a bad algae growth. Nitrates mostly under 5 ppm and phosphates under 0.25 ppm and usually closer in color to zero.

Was about to change it for a reef type light such as an Radion or Tuna Blue. Now thinking of just running it at lowest setting and only 8 hours. Might as well spend the cash on the meter. Going to eventually need it. Would be interesting. At a minimum it should grow coralline and perhaps softies and LPS. Can also throw an SPS on top assuming readings show PAR over 200 plus expected plus/minus error on the meter chosen. I’m not spending $3k if $250 to $500 gets me within 5/10%.

Thoughts? Will obviously be a while before confirming this and perhaps others have already tried. That video with Sanjay has reinvigorated my desire to complete this test. The algae outbreak was defeating that appetite.

 

[Midrats]

Yes because it looks like $h1t without it.

 

[Shooter6]

My experimental tank is running a Kessil 160we Tuna Sun because I wanted to see if it would eventually grow corals. Been running it at full intensity because I don’t currently have a PAR meter and perhaps that along with more than 8 hour run time why I got a bad algae growth. Nitrates mostly under 5 ppm and phosphates under 0.25 ppm and usually closer in color to zero.

Was about to change it for a reef type light such as an Radion or Tuna Blue. Now thinking of just running it at lowest setting and only 8 hours. Might as well spend the cash on the meter. Going to eventually need it. Would be interesting. At a minimum it should grow coralline and perhaps softies and LPS. Can also throw an SPS on top assuming readings show PAR over 200 plus expected plus/minus error on the meter chosen. I’m not spending $3k if $250 to $500 gets me within 5/10%.

Thoughts? Will obviously be a while before confirming this and perhaps others have already tried. That video with Sanjay has reinvigorated my desire to complete this test. The algae outbreak was defeating that appetite.

Does look awfully bright in the pic but also looks like most shallow reefs as far as lighting.
Funny thing when you dive on most sps reefs ( first 20 meters) the light is white not blue. When you look at vids and pics of reefs, the blue is only the water as you look out I to the distance.
If you need a lower cost option for a reef light check out ledzeal.com mirage x200 superblue. I run 4 over an 8x3x2 400g at a peak of 45% and get 300 par on the bottom.

 

[Brymac1]

My experimental tank is running a Kessil 160we Tuna Sun because I wanted to see if it would eventually grow corals. Been running it at full intensity because I don’t currently have a PAR meter and perhaps that along with more than 8 hour run time why I got a bad algae growth. Nitrates mostly under 5 ppm and phosphates under 0.25 ppm and usually closer in color to zero.

Was about to change it for a reef type light such as an Radion or Tuna Blue. Now thinking of just running it at lowest setting and only 8 hours. Might as well spend the cash on the meter. Going to eventually need it. Would be interesting. At a minimum it should grow coralline and perhaps softies and LPS. Can also throw an SPS on top assuming readings show PAR over 200 plus expected plus/minus error on the meter chosen. I’m not spending $3k if $250 to $500 gets me within 5/10%.

Thoughts? Will obviously be a while before confirming this and perhaps others have already tried. That video with Sanjay has reinvigorated my desire to complete this test. The algae outbreak was defeating that appetite.

I think you should see success eventually, I run my tuna blues at 100% color which is as white as they go, and I sometimes wish they went whiter lol.

 

[GARRIGA]

Does look awfully bright in the pic but also looks like most shallow reefs as far as lighting.
Funny thing when you dive on most sps reefs ( first 20 meters) the light is white not blue. When you look at vids and pics of reefs, the blue is only the water as you look out I to the distance.
If you need a lower cost option for a reef light check out ledzeal.com mirage x200 superblue. I run 4 over an 8x3x2 400g at a peak of 45% and get 300 par on the bottom.

Budget isn’t an issue. Purpose of the Tuna Sun was too experiment with white light.

As you already know, reason reefs get bluer as you dive deeper is because wave lengths such as red disappear. The exact order being red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet. As far as the visible spectrum.

That Tuna Sun is on the lowest setting. It gets much brighter and what I was using and likely the reason it was covered in algae. Below is a pic before the four day blackout and me turning the rocks over from being impatient waiting to start with a clean slate. The only white rock was a new addition. Nightmare

 

[GARRIGA]

I think you should see success eventually, I run my tuna blues at 100% color which is as white as they go, and I sometimes wish they went whiter lol.

I’m undecided between the Tuna Blue and XR15 Pro. Already excluded the XR15 Blue. Unless I see one in person and it changes my mind. Don’t care about losing green but I want my reds. Not a fan of swap meet all blue and don’t care for the black light affect.

 

[Shooter6]

Budget isn’t an issue. Purpose of the Tuna Sun was too experiment with white light.

As you already know, reason reefs get bluer as you dive deeper is because wave lengths such as red disappear. The exact order being red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and violet. As far as the visible spectrum.

That Tuna Sun is on the lowest setting. It gets much brighter and what I was using and likely the reason it was covered in algae. Below is a pic before the four day blackout and me turning the rocks over from being impatient waiting to start with a clean slate. The only white rock was a new addition. Nightmare

I understand, you made the comment about the cost of running the two different lights is why I added the option. You may need to increase your clean up crew, and run a competing refugeum, algae turf scrubber ect. To deal with the algae growth. I've seen plenty of nano reefs mostly in the aio style that were high in the white spectrum that looked fantastic. Also there's the youtuber I think inappropriate reef, who ran the same Tuna sun over a reef with mangroves, you may want to check out his vids and see how it works out for him. I seen someone post a vid of his either on a fb group or on here a while back, with him talking about using the Tuna sun

 

[GARRIGA]

I understand, you made the comment about the cost of running the two different lights is why I added the option. You may need to increase your clean up crew, and run a competing refugeum, algae turf scrubber ect. To deal with the algae growth. I've seen plenty of nano reefs mostly in the aio style that were high in the white spectrum that looked fantastic. Also there's the youtuber I think inappropriate reef, who ran the same Tuna sun over a reef with mangroves, you may want to check out his vids and see how it works out for him. I seen someone post a vid of his either on a fb group or on here a while back, with him talking about using the Tuna sun

I do t recall commenting on cost of running two lights. I’m trying to decide which best suits my aesthetic needs. I’m sure both get the job done.

Wasn’t my lack of cleanup crew. Light was at full intensity for 10 plus hours daily. Purposely done to test what happened plus some tinkering raised nitrate levels which resulted in GHA that went away on its own. The 160 is way to powerful for the distance needed on this setup. Now it’s running at minimum. See how that goes.

I’ve seen discussions on Tuna Sun over mangroves but not corals. I’ll keep searching. Seems it should work. However, knowing my impatience I might just move on with this experiment for now as the light to me isn’t aesthetically pleasing and perhaps time to grab the other options. I can return to it once the WB25 is setup.

Doing some research on DLI. Very interesting. Seems logical. Learn something everyday.

 

[Shooter6]

I do t recall commenting on cost of running two lights. I’m trying to decide which best suits my aesthetic needs. I’m sure both get the job done.

Wasn’t my lack of cleanup crew. Light was at full intensity for 10 plus hours daily. Purposely done to test what happened plus some tinkering raised nitrate levels which resulted in GHA that went away on its own. The 160 is way to powerful for the distance needed on this setup. Now it’s running at minimum. See how that goes.

I’ve seen discussions on Tuna Sun over mangroves but not corals. I’ll keep searching. Seems it should work. However, knowing my impatience I might just move on with this experiment for now as the light to me isn’t aesthetically pleasing and perhaps time to grab the other options. I can return to it once the WB25 is setup.

Doing some research on DLI. Very interesting. Seems logical. Learn something everyday.

Line 13 and 14 second paragraph first post.

I understand about the light causing algae growth, but just like the ocean if there's enough cleanup crew, the growth will be kept in check/ minimized is my point in suggesting an increase. Also didn't notice much of a cleanup crew in the accompanying pics.

Definitely not trying to argue with you about the setup, lights or anything else, I'm actually interested in the results, since your going outside the normal crowd with it.

I was only trying to offer suggestions to help your chances of success. Hopefully you can find the video (s) I mentioned and get some helpful info from it. As far as I remember he had mangroves, softy coral, maybe some sps and collector macro algae growing in a shallow cube with those same lights.

 

[ingchr1]

Thank you. That is the first I've seen a white led have its spectrum posted. It appears very similar to a aquablue special or coral plus t5 bulb.

GHL Mitras LX7 white LEDs as shown in GHL Light Composer:

OSRAM-OSLON-SSL-WHITE-7500K

CREE-XLAMP-WHITE-6500K

 

[Shooter6]

GHL Mitras LX7 white LEDs as shown in GHL Light Composer:

OSRAM-OSLON-SSL-WHITE-7500K

CREE-XLAMP-WHITE-6500K

Cool, is that their app that shows this or is it a third party measurement? I ask because I believe some of the companies claim to have uv, but actually do not. This makes me skeptical of any measurements they show on a graph unless it's been third party verified.

If the led producer that they source the leds from have that graph as a lab verified measurement of the leds they are selling then I would fully believe the measurements to be near accurate.

Either way it's great to start seeing actual spectrum measurements for white leds, when I was coming up with a layout I had a heck of a time with choosing the best white option due to the lack of availability spectrum measurements.
In my head, if the white were truly full spectrum like a mh,t5, or even incandescent then they would eliminate the need for green or red leds in the fixture. But if they were not then it made the need of a little red and green leds make more sense.

 

[ingchr1]

Cool, is that their app that shows this or is it a third party measurement?....

Thier app.

 

[ApoIsland]

My one experiment with no whites led to failure.

I had a black box led fixture with the switch to the white lights was not working. I put that fixture on the sump / frag tank and frags from the display that were moved down there were really struggling after a few moths. Some even died. When I replaced that fixture and could get them white light there was vast improvement in the surviving frags.

I suppose it could have been the shock from only getting half as much light in the sump than they had in the display where all the fixtures were working properly. I was not able to turn the blues any higher in the sump as they were previously being run at 100% when on the display.

 

[Shooter6]

My one experiment with no whites led to failure.

I had a black box led fixture with the switch to the white lights was not working. I put that fixture on the sump / frag tank and frags from the display that were moved down there were really struggling after a few moths. Some even died. When I replaced that fixture and could get them white light there was vast improvement in the surviving frags.

I suppose it could have been the shock from only getting half as much light in the sump than they had in the display where all the fixtures were working properly. I was not able to turn the blues any higher in the sump as they were previously being run at 100% when on the display.

I do know a few people run only blues, it could be they are using the blue plus t5, which actually still put out white spectrum as well, but I cannot say either way for sure. Interesting results though.