How do the different light spectrums impact corals?

[One Reefing Boi]

For example, why do people usually max out UV/Violet/Blue spectrums but very little on red and green? Besides aesthetics of making the corals pop -- is there a reason not to include the other spectrums as high? If not -- why even include them in the programming of the lights?

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

You seem pretty new.
UV/Blue/violet corals use along with warm and cool white especially sps. Red and green corals use very little of it and it grows algae.

 

[Sallstrom]

You seem pretty new.
UV/Blue/violet corals use along with warm and cool white especially sps. Red and green corals use very little of it and it grows algae.

From lab experiment we’ve done, blue gives a lot of photosynthesis in corals, but red is not far behind. Also under green light the corals produced oxygen, but not as much.
So I’m not sure I agree on your explanation.

To the original question, there’re a lot of red and green in sunlight, so the light setup with lots of blue that you mentioned is because the aquarist in question like that setup.
From what I’ve seen, corals are not that picky. They adapt to many types of light recipes.
For example, I’ve kept corals alive in an experiment only with red lights (they grew, but they didn’t get that good looking colours..).

 

[LRT]

For example, why do people usually max out UV/Violet/Blue spectrums but very little on red and green? Besides aesthetics of making the corals pop -- is there a reason not to include the other spectrums as high? If not -- why even include them in the programming of the lights?

I think this is a great question and one that I've been trying to get answers on as well. I've seen alot of growth, bounces on shrooms and different colors popping on alot of my corals lately and it wasn't until recently.
When I began playing with spectrum, intensity but also nutrients.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

From lab experiment we’ve done, blue gives a lot of photosynthesis in corals, but red is not far behind. Also under green light the corals produced oxygen, but not as much.
So I’m not sure I agree on your explanation.

To the original question, there’re a lot of red and green in sunlight, so the light setup with lots of blue that you mentioned is because the aquarist in question like that setup.
From what I’ve seen, corals are not that picky. They adapt to many types of light recipes.
For example, I’ve kept corals alive in an experiment only with red lights (they grew, but they didn’t get that good looking colours..).

interesting, thanks! Right now I only have a black box led with only blue/white or all blue settings but will be getting AI Primes with the new tank so just curious about why I always see the Reds/Greens at ~10%

 

[One Reefing Boi]

I think this is a great question and one that I've been trying to get answers on as well. I've seen alot of growth, bounces on shrooms and different colors popping on alot of my corals lately and it wasn't until recently.
When I began playing with spectrum, intensity but also nutrients.

what did you change about the lighting spectrum?

 

[LRT]

what did you change about the lighting spectrum?

First I upgraded my Reef Radience black box to a Reef Breeders Photon V2+ and set it real close to brs reccomended softies schedule. Which is heavy on the blue spectrum that they consider best for coral growth and coloration i guess.
Second I realized I was running my par at a much lower intensity than what brs reccomended in the video 75-150.
I was closer to 30-70 with the black box although it appeared to be brighter than the Photon V2+ it wasn't even close to intensity.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

First I upgraded my Reef Radience black box to a Reef Breeders Photon V2+ and set it real close to brs reccomended softies schedule. Which is heavy on the blue spectrum that they consider best for coral growth and coloration i guess.
Second I realized I was running my par at a much lower intensity than what brs reccomended in the video 75-150.
I was closer to 30-70 with the black box although it appeared to be brighter than the Photon V2+ it wasn't even close to intensity.

yeah I bet my par is pretty low in my tank right now, but I am planning on using this as a QT tank so not too worried about it. At least the light is the easiest thing to upgrade lol

 

[LRT]

I believe it made a huge difference getting a proper light and dialing it in. Noticeable results pretty much immediately.
I've only had new lamp set up for 6 weeks now at most.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I’ve got the red on my AI primes up 100%, but that’s only because I got a mangrove and red helps plants grow (why fuge lights are red). Have not seen a significant increase in coral or algae growth rates but I am dosing vibrant at the maximum recommended amount.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Check this link out - BRS Spectrum Breakdown

 

[Lovefish77]

What I read most of light used by corals is in blue spectrum, they called it chlorophyll A range (which is like 420nm to 450nm, which is violet to blue spectrums). This is where corals get most light to photosynthesize, think of specific wavelengths as it is easy to get confused with Kelvin degrees people usually refer to when they describe a certain color they like their tank to look. Experts here can weigh in ..

 

[BradB]

This has been heavily debated for over 20 years.

General consensus seems to be that corals are good enough using light that PAR is good enough, with something around 420nm optimal, near UV (e.g. 380+nm) being useful and greens and yellows less useful than red.

My personal opinion is near UV is useless, 400-500nm being useful with 430 being optimal. Green/Cyan won't help growth but can help with the 'Windex' look and make the tank look much more natural, but also makes it less colorful. Red can make fish and coral look a lot better, but is possibly harmful and definitely not helpful for coral.

I've been DIY-LED for almost 10 years now. When this first became an option, people recommended just using Royal Blues for growth, adding Cool Blue (450+nm) to balance the Windex look, and Cool White to see fish and other colors - as that was pretty much the only choices we had. Now there are tons of choices, and I've experimented with most of them - but I keep coming back to that original mix of 3 as the best (actual, using less warm or neutral white is IMO better looking than more cool white, but not a huge difference).

I personally like the all actinic look, especially in a small tank with the right corals that look good. But this is not for everyone, and I do have closer to a 12k look in my tank now. I will probably go bluer next time I make changes.

IMO corals react the same to MH, VHO and other lights - it is only the amount of photons and spectrum that matter. Of course, some people with very successful tanks will debate this on end, with people who swear only MH can grow the best looking SPS, VHO somehow glows better than LEDs, etc.

Bring this up next time time you are at a frag swap and you may start a fist fight.

 

[Nano sapiens]

DIY LED user also...

To answer the OP's question, different hues are included because they can perform different functions, both for us and the corals.

The warmer colors (green through red) have two main functions: make the tank look brighter/warmer to our eyes (our eyes are especially sensitive to green) and some of these hues can stimulate pigment production in coral (fluorescent and non-fluorescent).

Corals can also use at least some of these warmer hues for photosynthesis, but in minor amounts compared to the blue spectrum so this is a relatively minor concern.

Red is a special case as it provides 'warmth' to our eyes and is also very efficient in regards to photosynthesis (it provides about 1/3 more efficiency than blue light given the same intensity). However, It looses intensity very quickly in shallow water so it doesn't effect the vast majority of corals that live at deeper depths where red light is minimal or non-existent. Takeaway is that too much red can easily bleach corals, so it's typically used sparingly in arrays (if at all).

 

[lazycouch]

I think this is a great question and one that I've been trying to get answers on as well. I've seen alot of growth, bounces on shrooms and different colors popping on alot of my corals lately and it wasn't until recently.
When I began playing with spectrum, intensity but also nutrients.

can you elaborate a bit for me on the nutrients aspect?

 

[TerraFerma]

This has been heavily debated for over 20 years.

General consensus seems to be that corals are good enough using light that PAR is good enough, with something around 420nm optimal, near UV (e.g. 380+nm) being useful and greens and yellows less useful than red.

My personal opinion is near UV is useless, 400-500nm being useful with 430 being optimal. Green/Cyan won't help growth but can help with the 'Windex' look and make the tank look much more natural, but also makes it less colorful. Red can make fish and coral look a lot better, but is possibly harmful and definitely not helpful for coral.

I've been DIY-LED for almost 10 years now. When this first became an option, people recommended just using Royal Blues for growth, adding Cool Blue (450+nm) to balance the Windex look, and Cool White to see fish and other colors - as that was pretty much the only choices we had. Now there are tons of choices, and I've experimented with most of them - but I keep coming back to that original mix of 3 as the best (actual, using less warm or neutral white is IMO better looking than more cool white, but not a huge difference).

I personally like the all actinic look, especially in a small tank with the right corals that look good. But this is not for everyone, and I do have closer to a 12k look in my tank now. I will probably go bluer next time I make changes.

IMO corals react the same to MH, VHO and other lights - it is only the amount of photons and spectrum that matter. Of course, some people with very successful tanks will debate this on end, with people who swear only MH can grow the best looking SPS, VHO somehow glows better than LEDs, etc.

Bring this up next time time you are at a frag swap and you may start a fist fight.

You nailed it

 

[LRT]

can you elaborate a bit for me on the nutrients aspect?

Specifically in my system I went from non 0 registerable Nitrates on API. Yes I know and learned the hard way with this kit.
Started dosing Nitrates until they achieved unregisterable astronomical high number off the charts amounts of Nitrates as per red sea kit. Flourescent purple When i figured out i had a problem about 2 weeks into N overdose with API kit

In the unterim of overdosing Nitrates I bottomed out Phosphates to 0.
Now I have things stable around 10-20 ppm Nitrates that once I started carbon dosing.
Phosphates somewhere around .15-2 depending how it wants to creep with feeding.
Nothing fancy

I just want to add.

I've been playing with lamp settings just a little bit outside of brs reccomendations here and there.
I'm finding brs pretty much kinda nailed it
And any kind deviations from softy reccomended settings and spectrum is causing noticeable issues with my mushroom corals in particular.
On the more blue to less intense white side.
I feel maybe those guys at brs pretty much got spectrum and intensity dialed 100% right now at this point and thats a hard feat no matter what your trying to build or reverse engineer..
Hats off too them

 

[Doctorgori]

I’ve repeated this before: you can indeed grow corals under “natural/daylight” spectrums. I was reefing before the Blue light/Radium revolution. Back then I used 5500 - 6500K MH bulbs, no problem.
Could bet MH bulbs also contained ample amounts of blue spectrum but I also suspect the corals respond somewhat to “reddish” wavelengths.
Anyway the spectrum issue has many pertinent variables: coral grow, coral appearance and appearance preference of the observer. I like the look at 10K

 

[Sallstrom]

If you take a coral from the ocean it'll be adapted to sunlight from that region and that time a year. So at that time the "best light" would be something like a plasma or a MH (around 6500K) which looks pretty yellow for the human eye. Or some kind of white LED diods with lower K.

But if you place a coral under super blue light for a couple of month, it'll adapt to that light. It can change the amount of algae inside and probably many other things too to adapt to the light spectrum and intesity.

So I guess "the best light" for a coral is the light it has been under for the last months or more, to which it has adapted

Of course using something too far from natural sunlight might not give the coral health we are looking for (as my example with only red in my other post), but how far too far is I do not know. So we just have to try and see.

Did I have a point? Oh, yes, I think it's hard to say what is the best light nowaday when most reef lights are pretty good. You could even use some green house LEDs if you don't like the blue light...

 

[Jase4224]

This graph shows what spectrum zooxanthellae (therefore corals) actually use. As you can see they utilise UV, Violet, Blue and even Cyan the most. There is a spike at 660nm red but it’s not needed for growth.

If you look at the next graph you will see what light actually penetrates the water and you will see it’s not too deep before corals cannot even receive red light.

My conclusion is that corals have adapted to use a wide band of UV through to blue light because this is what is always available to them. Clearly other colours are not necessary but they serve the purpose of looking good to the human eye.

My advice is provide as much of the full spectrum of UV and blues as you can, then add white/green/red to suite your desired taste. Use a par meter if you can.