How long do you run blue LEDS

[Dana Riddle]

Dana, do you have an article on the total light calculation by chance? I remember seeing something about it but I failed to bookmark it.

Yes - see here:
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/9/aafeature
In this article, I incorrectly called DLI "Daily Light Integer" - it is Daily Light Integral.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I guess my main question is, should I try upping my moonlight blue intensity? Right now moonlight it is set with just blues at 10% intensity. I run the moonlight setting for 6 hours. My daylight program, which has white, red, blue, and green all running at 100%, runs for 9.5 hours. I also have 3 hours of sunrise/sunset with whites at 5%, blue at 70%, reds at 45%, and greens at 20%. This gives me 5.5 hours with lights off. Would increasing my blue intensity durning the 6 hour moonlight period be beneficial?

In short , without measurement , no. Probably not.
You run the risk of photo saturation and halting growth.

But.
If you were well under the DLI for most of the corals needs. Then yes it might.

I have a very long and somewhat Low intensity photoperiod. It’s a bit anectdotal , but what I observed with higher longer intensities was, several mushrooms would shrink up Twards the end of the day (with white and blue still on ) and greening in some acropora, and a Leptoseris that stalled completely in growth, and translucence, (zooox expulsion I assume ) in frogspawn.

 

[Ahbaloch]

So i have the coral life four t5 and 2 lunar led light.


Are the small lunar my moon lights?

And i have 2 10k and 2 atinic,

 

[Dana Riddle]

I guess my main question is, should I try upping my moonlight blue intensity? Right now moonlight it is set with just blues at 10% intensity. I run the moonlight setting for 6 hours. My daylight program, which has white, red, blue, and green all running at 100%, runs for 9.5 hours. I also have 3 hours of sunrise/sunset with whites at 5%, blue at 70%, reds at 45%, and greens at 20%. This gives me 5.5 hours with lights off. Would increasing my blue intensity durning the 6 hour moonlight period be beneficial?

Moonlight has taken on almost mythical importance in reef aquaria, probably related to the belief that lunar cycles control timing of coral spawning. There's just one problem - it is the varying length of photoperiod that dictates timing of coral spawning, at least in many cases. However, temperature is also important. We had a chilly spring in Hawaii (relatively speaking!) one year and corals did not spawn that month. Apparently, some corals spawn whenever they please.
If you can measure moonlight intensity in your tank, the light intensity is too high. See here:
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/7/lighting

 

[rosshamsandwich]

can i run a reef tank with daylight only ??? say 10000k daylight bulbs ??

 

[Ahbaloch]

can i run a reef tank with daylight only ??? say 10000k daylight bulbs ??

yes and no, i have been doing a lot of research lately, and i have came to found out, if you have corals, some corals are only filter feeders or feed from photosynthesis, so you you have to have full spectrum led fixture or actinic and 10k or whatever appropriate light, but with only 10k, you will get a lot of algae growth and very slow coral growth

 

[Ahbaloch]

any one and everyone correct me if i am wrong. as i am still learning

 

[rosshamsandwich]

yes and no, i have been doing a lot of research lately, and i have came to found out, if you have corals, some corals are only filter feeders or feed from photosynthesis, so you you have to have full spectrum led fixture or actinic and 10k or whatever appropriate light, but with only 10k, you will get a lot of algae growth and very slow coral growth

okay so corals grow slow with daylight only?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

okay so corals grow slow with daylight only?

Yes they do.
In fact , daylight is 5600 degrees kelvin. Outside in a valley with no direct sunlight can be as high as 20,000 kelvin.

yes and no, i have been doing a lot of research lately, and i have came to found out, if you have corals, some corals are only filter feeders or feed from photosynthesis, so you you have to have full spectrum led fixture or actinic and 10k or whatever appropriate light, but with only 10k, you will get a lot of algae growth and very slow coral growth

It depends on the bulb. You can mix colors a number of ways to get 10,000. If one uses little yellow read and orange , it’s not a problem.
The needs of algaes and coral are pretty close. One can grow really great algae with a Radion or kessil.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

Yes - see here:
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/9/aafeature
In this article, I incorrectly called DLI "Daily Light Integer" - it is Daily Light Integral.

Dana, I don't run blues... I run ALL 10k daylight lighting... Is that going to be okay long term for the health of my corals?

 

[stevieduk]

I guess my main question is, should I try upping my moonlight blue intensity? Right now moonlight it is set with just blues at 10% intensity. I run the moonlight setting for 6 hours. My daylight program, which has white, red, blue, and green all running at 100%, runs for 9.5 hours. I also have 3 hours of sunrise/sunset with whites at 5%, blue at 70%, reds at 45%, and greens at 20%. This gives me 5.5 hours with lights off. Would increasing my blue intensity durning the 6 hour moonlight period be beneficial?

you need a few hours of total dark to let some corals do there thing. my maze brain coral really swells up in the darkness, it will not do it with any kind of lights on

 

[Forsaken77]

Actually unless it's royal blue, white and red spectrums provide better growth.. Doesn't that fixture have .5W LEDs? Half watts don't penetrate nearly as much water as full watts, so you should program accordingly.

Blue is mainly used as a contrasting color

Isn't blue also used because it penetrates further down than the red or white spectrums? I think I read that red gets mostly filtered out after roughly 6 inches of water for photosynthetic purposes.

I'm not a coral expert, but I believe one of my books says that, but they are very dated. I don't know if that's still true and with led's.

 

[Gamma]

No, I have an old school reef controller....a ReefKeeper 2.

Love my reefkeeper...so easy to control just about every aspect of my reef.

 

[van7271]

Daylight cycle for 8 hours moonlight for 4 hours.

 

[nano24Clownfish]

I have a AI Prime HD. I run Blues as high as they’ll go. Same with UV and Violet. Red and Green at about 5% and white just under 50%. Everything is happy. It’s a 30 gallon.

 

[GOSKN5]

Mine may be a little unique.. I have a standard 120. I run two black box LEDS and 2 T5 retro in my canopy.

I ONLY run the blues on the LEDS. And run them around 45% from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. The two T5s kick on at 3 p.m. and run until 7 p.m.

I am a firm believer that we often use too much light. Especially in a mixed reef. All SPS I would obviously run my T5s longer and my LEDS higher, however I have several SPS that are doing well.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

why not just run the whites on the LEDS?
and forego the t5s?

 

[GOSKN5]

T5 just seems to fill in the gaps and really color up coral. The whites on LED is often so strong. The T5 and LED combo is the best that I have used.

 

[rosshamsandwich]

what bulbs on the t5? TIA

 

[GOSKN5]

I use two Giesemann Aqua Blue Coral. They are similar to ATI Coral Plus. I have also done one Aqua Blue Coral and One Blue Plus (or Giesemann equivalent). I prefer the whiter look when the T5s are on, especially with the blue LEDS