Led lighting minimum

[The green reefer]

I just recently got into the saltwater reef hobby and I just purchased a better led for my 10gal tank. It has 80 (.5) watt leds. It has 72 10,000k daylight and 8 460 mm blue. The two modes switch between both blue and white and just blue. I'm just wondering will this be enough for general coral growth and or thriving?

 

[GoVols]

I just recently got into the saltwater reef hobby and I just purchased a better led for my 10gal tank. It has 80 (.5) watt leds. It has 72 10,000k daylight and 8 460 mm blue. The two modes switch between both blue and white and just blue. I'm just wondering will this be enough for general coral growth and or thriving?

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef.

I have no clue about your new lighting.
If it does not cut it.

The Kessil a80 will do the job and the Kessil controller is very nice too.

 

[The green reefer]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01693P1GY?psc=1 This is it. Thank you for the quick response!

 

[The green reefer]

Regardless it lights up the tank great for now!

 

[fort wenty]

Don't think your light will be able to sustain coral growth. Would be good for just fish imo.

I bought a Current USA marine light and had good growth on softies and lps. Could probably find yourself a used one in the marketplace.

 

[Orm Embar]

While I certainly don't know for sure, you are running 40 watts of LEDs in what seems to be a reasonable spectrum (close to 10K as you have many more 10K whites than 460 nm blues). By way of comparison, my AI Hydra HD runs at around 80 watts using my current settings, and that's over a 34 gallon Red Sea Reefer 170 that's over 6" off of the water surface (and I get coral growth even on the sandbed). I have more problems with accidentally bleaching Ricordea (possibly due to UV LED's being on without gradually acclimating new corals) than too low light.

I'd think that it's worth a try - once the tank is stable, I'd pick up a small zoanthid colony that you like and maybe an LPS (Euphyllia) and see how they respond. If they are on the tank bottom and growing, then you have your answer.

Good luck!

 

[mcarroll]

I'm not sure that company manes one, but it sounds like you'd really want to have a second strip that's almost all 455nm Blue to compliment this one.

Like this...but I'm not sure what length you want:

Current USA TrueLumen Pro Deepwater Blue 453nm Actinic ...

From $39.99

• View Options

Both strips could then probably be dimmed to below 40 watts which would make the fixtures last longer too.

 

[nashvillian]

The 40 watts are spread out over very small diodes, so the light that those produce aren't strong enough to penetrate depth. You can grow some low light softies if you have high rock structure.

For comparison, I have a Kessil that is the same wattage (40w) but much stronger output because of the packed diodes.

 

[mcarroll]

depth

Looks like a pretty shallow tank, but haven't seen what it is yet.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01693P1GY?psc=1 This is it. Thank you for the quick response!

Yep. That's a fine led for coral. Def a good starter light.

I looked at them quite a bit before I was lucky enough for an upgrade.

Stick with lower light corals for the time being and defiantly do a bit of research on par. See if you can find the specs on the unit as well.
The only other affordable way to gauge the amount of light and par on the unit is with a lux meter.

Fwiw. Watts mean little when dealing with LED. Some have lenses and some use smaller wattage leds. Plus white and blue and other colored will please effect output.
The old watts per gallon rule was also quite silly for the same reason.

 

[nashvillian]

The light says FOWLR in the description. Caveat emptor.

 

[The green reefer]

The 40 watts are spread out over very small diodes, so the light that those produce aren't strong enough to penetrate depth. You can grow some low light softies if you have high rock structure.

For comparison, I have a Kessil that is the same wattage (40w) but much stronger output because of the packed diodes.

That makes so much more sense now

 

[The green reefer]

While I certainly don't know for sure, you are running 40 watts of LEDs in what seems to be a reasonable spectrum (close to 10K as you have many more 10K whites than 460 nm blues). By way of comparison, my AI Hydra HD runs at around 80 watts using my current settings, and that's over a 34 gallon Red Sea Reefer 170 that's over 6" off of the water surface (and I get coral growth even on the sandbed). I have more problems with accidentally bleaching Ricordea (possibly due to UV LED's being on without gradually acclimating new corals) than too low light.

I'd think that it's worth a try - once the tank is stable, I'd pick up a small zoanthid colony that you like and maybe an LPS (Euphyllia) and see how they respond. If they are on the tank bottom and growing, then you have your answer.

Good luck!

I actually picked a zoa up today and within 5 hours I have almost full expansion and awesome color. My gsp is a little slow to start but it's getting a feel for things. It seemed like it had quite the translation from store to tank lol

 

[The green reefer]

I'm not sure that company manes one, but it sounds like you'd really want to have a second strip that's almost all 455nm Blue to compliment this one.

Like this...but I'm not sure what length you want:

Current USA TrueLumen Pro Deepwater Blue 453nm Actinic ...

From $39.99

• View Options

Both strips could then probably be dimmed to below 40 watts which would make the fixtures last longer too.

This is going to be a definite thank you. Part of the problem with the leds is that there is always so many options just because of the technology.

 

[mcarroll]

This is going to be a definite thank you. Part of the problem with the leds is that there is always so many options just because of the technology.

10,000K is nice light, but adding the second strip that's all-blue will really bring out florescent colors more.

BTW, adding two all-blue strips wouldn't be too many. Some folks like a little blue and some like a lot. They also make 50/50 blue/white strips if you're somewhere in the middle of the blue spectrum.

Also, third and even fourth strips (however many will fit over the tank, really) are also perfectly legitimate options if you'd want a brighter tank for some reason down the road. Clams are one of the main reasons you'd want to consider more light, but not the only reason – I'd probably want at least three or four strips total for clams. Most corals should be happy with just two or three strips though.

Some measurements with an inexpensive lux meter ($10-$20) along the way will make guessing about these things obsolete.

 

[nashvillian]

i had a very similar light, the fluval marine led. It seemed very bright, but I couldn't keep the corals I wanted healthy, or anemones. It also had a red shift that grew unwanted algaele growth. Just my experience, and my tank was in its honeymoon phase, but I'm glad I upgraded sooner than later. It also failed after two years, you have to take in account the component quality as well. Just my personal experience, but the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds very true in this hobby

 

[The green reefer]

i had a very similar light, the fluval marine led. It seemed very bright, but I couldn't keep the corals I wanted healthy, or anemones. It also had a red shift that grew unwanted algaele growth. Just my experience, and my tank was in its honeymoon phase, but I'm glad I upgraded sooner than later. It also failed after two years, you have to take in account the component quality as well. Just my personal experience, but the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds very true in this hobby

Under 8 hours both the zoanthid and GSP I bought are fully open and have great colors. I was worried about the daylight setting when I went to work. I thought it might shock them or something, but I think its well within PAR range just do to the immediate acclimation. It almost seems the the zoa polyps are fighting each other to see who can look better.

 

[The green reefer]

10,000K is nice light, but adding the second strip that's all-blue will really bring out florescent colors more.

BTW, adding two all-blue strips wouldn't be too many. Some folks like a little blue and some like a lot. They also make 50/50 blue/white strips if you're somewhere in the middle of the blue spectrum.

Also, third and even fourth strips (however many will fit over the tank, really) are also perfectly legitimate options if you'd want a brighter tank for some reason down the road. Clams are one of the main reasons you'd want to consider more light, but not the only reason – I'd probably want at least three or four strips total for clams. Most corals should be happy with just two or three strips though.

Some measurements with an inexpensive lux meter ($10-$20) along the way will make guessing about these things obsolete.

It's already incredibly bright but I really would like some more blue to accent the colors of my corals for the daytime setting. They look great don't get me wrong, but they need a little more for my taste.

 

[The green reefer]

i had a very similar light, the fluval marine led. It seemed very bright, but I couldn't keep the corals I wanted healthy, or anemones. It also had a red shift that grew unwanted algaele growth. Just my experience, and my tank was in its honeymoon phase, but I'm glad I upgraded sooner than later. It also failed after two years, you have to take in account the component quality as well. Just my personal experience, but the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds very true in this hobby

I heard that anything other than white or blue can cause the unwanted algae growth and a lot of the colors provided in the fluval led's are more aesthetic than anything. A lot of the corals you might have could be deeper water corals with a strictly actinic range light intensity reaching them.