HELP WITH LIGHTING understanding

[rocknurworld]

So I really find the whole lighting par lumens and kelvin and what these scales mean etc. So was wondering if someone could look at this light for me .
what I want to know please is if this light here would be alot better for grown corals than the fluval evo 52litre stock light that comes with it.

 

[MrGisonni]

In really simple terms, Kelvin is temperature of the different light spectrums and par is the intensity. The light is limited but will probably be better than stock. It depends on your goals. Keep researching there are tons of lighting options out there.

 

[Bpb]

Grossly over generalized here. But this will help

Kelvin = how “blue” does it look visually? Higher numbers = more blue. Lower numbers = more red/yellow. Kelvin ratings are only given to white light or full spectrum light. Solid colors do not have kelvin ratings

Nanometers = wavelength of a color of light. Higher numbers trend toward the red end, lower numbers tend toward the blue end. Lower numbers are shorter wavelengths and contain much more energy.

Lumens/Lux = how bright does it look? Our eyes are most sensitive to green and yellow light. If a light is balanced heavier in those colors, the appearance will be brighter.

Par = quantitative measurement of light between 400-700 nanometers. Actual numerical value of light particles striking a given point over a period of time.

The eye is less sensitive to blue and violet light. You can have two separate lights of equal power and equal PAR. One is higher kelvin, heavy on blue. The other is lower kelvin, heavy on yellow. The yellow light will appear visually brighter, but it is in fact no more powerful and would actually grow photosynthetic life worse than an equal par blue light. Yellow is far less photosynthetically active.

Of course the more power you throw at a full spectrum light, it can still appear yellow but contain a ton of blue in it (like the sun), but the yellow wavelengths dominate your visual perception.

Lumens or lux are largely unimportant for coral growing.

 

[jda]

Tullio has a video from a MACNA a number of years back that is called "The Facts of Light" or something like that. It can get slow and while he does other things that were weird, this video should help you understand a lot of things. It will help with questions that you might not even have yet.

I recommend an hour... it is worth it.

Then, you can just be amazed that K rating is pretty much just a guess anyway.

 

[rocknurworld]

Grossly over generalized here. But this will help

Kelvin = how “blue” does it look visually? Higher numbers = more blue. Lower numbers = more red/yellow. Kelvin ratings are only given to white light or full spectrum light. Solid colors do not have kelvin ratings

Nanometers = wavelength of a color of light. Higher numbers trend toward the red end, lower numbers tend toward the blue end. Lower numbers are shorter wavelengths and contain much more energy.

Lumens/Lux = how bright does it look? Our eyes are most sensitive to green and yellow light. If a light is balanced heavier in those colors, the appearance will be brighter.

Par = quantitative measurement of light between 400-700 nanometers. Actual numerical value of light particles striking a given point over a period of time.

The eye is less sensitive to blue and violet light. You can have two separate lights of equal power and equal PAR. One is higher kelvin, heavy on blue. The other is lower kelvin, heavy on yellow. The yellow light will appear visually brighter, but it is in fact no more powerful and would actually grow photosynthetic life worse than an equal par blue light. Yellow is far less photosynthetically active.

Of course the more power you throw at a full spectrum light, it can still appear yellow but contain a ton of blue in it (like the sun), but the yellow wavelengths dominate your visual perception.

Lumens or lux are largely unimportant for coral growing.

thanks alot for the advice do you think the light details i posted will be better than the fluval evo sea light that comes with the tank standard?

 

[Bpb]

thanks alot for the advice do you think the light details i posted will be better than the fluval evo sea light that comes with the tank standard?

More powerful. Doesn’t always translate to better. I think with lighting “better is the enemy of good” applies very well in many instances. The upgrade light has adequate spectrum. The stock fluval light draws just over 7 watts, the proposed upgrade is rated at 30 (doesn’t necessarily draw that much, but rated for it). So it’s going to put out 4x as much power give or take. More power can be good if the livestock is correctly acclimated to it. Light shock is the easiest way to kill photosynthetic organisms. Take it slow.