Making tank look less eerily blue

[TWYOUNG]

Is there a way I can customize the spectrum of my G5 Radion XR 30 Blue's to make the tank more visually appealing to human eyes. I'm just returning to reefing after 25 years away and I think I still have the vision of my old Metal Halide lights in my distant memory. Obviously I don't want to negatively affect the tank in any way but thought some tweaking may be possible. I'm using the AB+ setting at 60% and don't actually plan on adding corals for several months. Thanks in advance.

 

[blaxsun]

You can override/customize the color settings. Try playing around with a bit less blue and more white.

 

[TWYOUNG]

You can override/customize the color settings. Try playing around with a bit less blue and more white.

I'm putting up a screenshot of my current settings if you or anyone following could suggest some changes.

 

[Bpb]

AB+ is a very blue setting. Just because it is conventional to run heavy blue doesn’t mean it is necessary. Plenty of people run all channels at equal percentages for a brighter white appearance. I’m one of them, just not with radions

 

[oreo54]

Is there a way I can customize the spectrum of my G5 Radion XR 30 Blue's to make the tank more visually appealing to human eyes. I'm just returning to reefing after 25 years away and I think I still have the vision of my old Metal Halide lights in my distant memory. Obviously I don't want to negatively affect the tank in any way but thought some tweaking may be possible. I'm using the AB+ setting at 60% and don't actually plan on adding corals for several months. Thanks in advance.

There are a ton of ways to "color up" the tank..

I'm putting up a screenshot of my current settings if you or anyone following could suggest some changes.

Well you are running everything at 100% huh.
Start by cutting cool white and photo red down quite a bit.
Matter of fact cool white can be off..You can fill some "yellow" later if you must..
Just save it for the end..

After that what kind of "blue" do you want.
Lumping cyan in w/ blue. The full "blue" wavelength is important.
Tweaking everything from "uv" to cyan will change the blue tinting..
From "aqua" to "deep ocean" blue and any shade (inc windex ) in-between.

Keep in mind any adjustment will cut down on PAR since you have overall and channel intensities at 100%.

Cut RB and blue by 50% to see if you are approaching something "better" for you.
Matter of fact also shut all the "violets" off for the time being..(405,415,"violet" (420/30?)

So rb/blue 50%, photo red 50%, cool white 0%, "violets" and related 0%
This is a major hit to PAR values though.

You'll fill them in to taste..You should be able to add all back but you need to see what the impact is.

Matching LED to MH for looks is a bit difficult due to the "in-between" (between red and blue) color differences in the technology.
Your lime has a wide green spread and is a very "eye bright' diode.

Keep in mind you have an infinite amount of color tweaks though.
This is only a "bare bones" start.
I can't guarantee you will like it but it's sort of an ABC "as I think of it" start on color management.
Theer will be a lot of back and forth here though if you want

Again you will be reducing PAR and I can't tell you how that will affect your tank.

You can get "honest" K values (like real 20000K) at the cost of major par losses and, unfortunately, using the cool whites. Cool whites are rb with a yellow phosphor (sometimes yellow green) They provide little color in the red/orange region and yellow.. dulls color in general.
MH's on the other hand are usually rich in amber/orange w/ little red/deep red.
Blues and rbs need to be practically at like 10% and cyan dimmed as well.

Sw "looks" are new to me so feedback would be helpful and calculations don't take into account eye sensitivity
This was all done on crude estimates.

 

[TWYOUNG]

There are a ton of ways to "color up" the tank..

Well you are running everything at 100% huh.
Start by cutting cool white and photo red down quite a bit.
Matter of fact cool white can be off..You can fill some "yellow" later if you must..
Just save it for the end..

After that what kind of "blue" do you want.
Lumping cyan in w/ blue. The full "blue" wavelength is important.
Tweaking everything from "uv" to cyan will change the blue tinting..
From "aqua" to "deep ocean" blue and any shade (inc windex ) in-between.

Keep in mind any adjustment will cut down on PAR since you have overall and channel intensities at 100%.

Cut RB and blue by 50% to see if you are approaching something "better" for you.
Matter of fact also shut all the "violets" off for the time being..(405,415,"violet" (420/30?)

So rb/blue 50%, photo red 50%, cool white 0%, "violets" and related 0%
This is a major hit to PAR values though.

You'll fill them in to taste..You should be able to add all back but you need to see what the impact is.

Matching LED to MH for looks is a bit difficult due to the "in-between" (between red and blue) color differences in the technology.
Your lime has a wide green spread and is a very "eye bright' diode.

Keep in mind you have an infinite amount of color tweaks though.
This is only a "bare bones" start.
I can't guarantee you will like it but it's sort of an ABC "as I think of it" start on color management.
Theer will be a lot of back and forth here though if you want

Again you will be reducing PAR and I can't tell you how that will affect your tank.

You can get "honest" K values (like real 20000K) at the cost of major par losses and, unfortunately, using the cool whites. Cool whites are rb with a yellow phosphor (sometimes yellow green) They provide little color in the red/orange region and yellow.. dulls color in general.
MH's on the other hand are usually rich in amber/orange w/ little red/deep red.
Blues and rbs need to be practically at like 10% and cyan dimmed as well.

Sw "looks" are new to me so feedback would be helpful and calculations don't take into account eye sensitivity
This was all done on crude estimates.

Thanks for all the time you took putting this together for me and I’ll certainly play with it. As far as “everything running at 100%”, I guess that’s just what AB+ does bc the only thing I customized was setting the output to 60%. As far as par losses go I haven’t even begun to worry about that as I don’t intend to add corals until the tank has had several months to mature and work through whatever algae issues I’m bound to experience. At that point I’ll get some PAR readings. I’m running lights now just so the system can become accustomed to them and I thought coralline algae may become established, (although I don’t know if coralline requires such lighting).

 

[oreo54]

Thanks for all the time you took putting this together for me and I’ll certainly play with it. As far as “everything running at 100%”, I guess that’s just what AB+ does bc the only thing I customized was setting the output to 60%. As far as par losses go I haven’t even begun to worry about that as I don’t intend to add corals until the tank has had several months to mature and work through whatever algae issues I’m bound to experience. At that point I’ll get some PAR readings. I’m running lights now just so the system can become accustomed to them and I thought coralline algae may become established, (although I don’t know if coralline requires such lighting).

Hmmm your " point intensity" which I assumed was a global limit shows 100%
In my mind it should show 60% but what do I know.
Yea I guess they were designed around ab+

Good thing..at 60% you have room to tweak the color w/ no loss.

 

[oreo54]

Found this interesting..

It’s because it’s hard to truly capture it video as you see to the eye. You can get a similar look with either but the blue will get the Ab+ look with more par and the pro will be more of a14k look with the most par

 

[TWYOUNG]

Hmmm your " point intensity" which I assumed was a global limit shows 100%
In my mind it should show 60% but what do I know.
Yea I guess they were designed around ab+

Good thing..at 60% you have room to tweak the color w/ no loss.

I really don't understand what point intensity is. Attached are screenshots of the 60% settings I referred to.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I really don't understand what point intensity is. Attached are screenshots of the 60% settings I referred to.

And here is what things looked like with the settings you provided. Tank seemed still very blue.

 

[oreo54]

And here is what things looked like with the settings you provided. Tank seemed still very blue.

OK, you have no choice atm.. Bring in the cool whites.. Better yet as you add white bring the rb down a bit more.

Whites have rb in them, you won't be losing as much of the spectrum as you think.

Add 25% white.. Then see if bringing the rb down has the desired effect.
Keep increasing white and decreasing rb to taste...hopefully.

 

[blaxsun]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - here's my G5 Blue lighting schedule (a variation on the Radiance template).

 

[TWYOUNG]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - here's my G5 Blue lighting schedule (a variation on the Radiance template).

Thanks so much for the detailed chart. Now I’ll go about figuring out how to program that. If I run into problems you may be hearing from me again

 

[TWYOUNG]

Thanks so much for the detailed chart. Now I’ll go about figuring out how to program that. If I run into problems you may be hearing from me again

I think I did it correctly. Does this look right?

 

[TWYOUNG]

Forget that. How about this? Alright, a minor tweak and I've got it. Thank you so much. I've been putting off learning how to do any customizing of my lighting bc it seemed overwhelming and I didn't have a clue. Using the chart you sent me as a guide I've been able to work it through. What a relief! Today I'm moving forward and finally figuring out how to sync my MP 40's lol.

 

[blaxsun]

Forget that. How about this? Alright, a minor tweak and I've got it. Thank you so much. I've been putting off learning how to do any customizing of my lighting bc it seemed overwhelming and I didn't have a clue. Using the chart you sent me as a guide I've been able to work it through. What a relief! Today I'm moving forward and finally figuring out how to sync my MP 40's lol.

Looks pretty close (if not exact!) Hopefully it gives you a few ideas on what you may like (or dislike) in terms of coloration.