Moving away from blue light, white light looks better

[WVNed]

I have both. Leds can be made to do what you want. So can MH/T5
Bulb changes become expensive over time.

 

[vlangel]

Many of us ran halides for years. All light sources have negatives. It's up to you to decide if the negatives are worth it.

I've found halides and T5 easier to use than LED. They're basically plug-and-play. No channels to adjust, no intensity settings, no spotlighting, etc. Just pick your bulb(s) and go.

I also liked the plug and play of choosing bulbs and was very intimidated by LEDs. Unfortunately it became very very difficult to get 30" bulbs for my Coralife T5 fixture so I was forced to find another option. I seriously considered switching to metal halide and going down to a 24" T5 fixture. I watched so many BRS videos on LEDs that I decided to give it a try. It has worked out but it did have a learning curve. At one point the fixture seem to have a glitch 3Xs a day where it flashed white light then turned off momentarily. I was upset because it was only 3 weeks old so I contacted the manufacture. They got back to me in a few hours and here I accidently activated the lightening feature! That's is what happens when you give a grandma technology!!! LOL

 

[madlos123]

Heres my 90 gallon reef tank. 250 W 10,000K metal halide with t5 actinic.

T5 are on for 7 hours
Metal Halide are on for 5 hours.
Might increase to a longer duration someday.

If i really feel like im snorkling, I turn off my T5 actinic, then its really yellow light.


If I want to taste the windex blue color.

I also have one of those actinic led strip light thats really thin, squeezed in between the Metal Halide and T5. I only use it manually at the end of the day when my MH and T5 are off.

 

[Karen00]

Tank starts blue, gradually changes to 10-14k at high noon, then fades back to blue.

I enjoy blue in small doses, but I hate how it washes everything out. 24/7 blue is too much.

This is the type of schedule I have for mine. Out of curiosity do your lights allow you to dial in your settings based on Kelvin or do you have another way of knowing this? I have a Prime light and can only set the spectrum based on %. I haven't seen anything in their app that shows Kelvin unless they have a conversion guide chart on their website somewhere.

 

[gbru316]

This is the type of schedule I have for mine. Out of curiosity do your lights allow you to dial in your settings based on Kelvin or do you have another way of knowing this? I have a Prime light and can only set the spectrum based on %. I haven't seen anything in their app that shows Kelvin unless they have a conversion guide chart on their website somewhere.

I can adjust color temp throughout the day with the Neptune Sky -- either by selecting a color temp, creating a custom preset, or using a built-in preset.

Spectrum and intensity can be adjusted independently.

I've attached a sample schedule -- I'm running 100% blue at the moment because I'm battling dinos. But I adjusted it to show the ability to change spectrum.

 

[Karen00]

I can adjust color temp throughout the day with the Neptune Sky -- either by selecting a color temp, creating a custom preset, or using a built-in preset.

Spectrum and intensity can be adjusted independently.

I've attached a sample schedule -- I'm running 100% blue at the moment because I'm battling dinos. But I adjusted it to show the ability to change spectrum.

Oh wow, very cool! Thanks for sharing this. I feel like it's a trial and error situation with mine trying to achieve the proper spectrum.

 

[Phlynamjax]

I like the look of white light. However, I can't keep sand clean enough to run white light. So I run blue light

 

[vlangel]

I like the look of white light. However, I can't keep sand clean enough to run white light. So I run blue light

It's a balancing act for sure. I only run my whites at peak for 2 hours and at a higher percentage for no more than 5 hours. Then I have them ramp back down steeply. I also have a fighting conch which helps with keeping the sand clean.

 

[Falc!]

Thanks everyone for replying.

Its interesting to see how many people do like white/white-ish lights. Though most still prefer the blues. Still a lit more than i thought prefer white