My LED's

[mucky1957]

hi guys,

I have had my aquarium for a few years now and I think we all agree that we are all learning all the time.
With that in mind I was watching the video for the ULTRA lights when the commentator said something that I had to rewind and watch/listen to again.
I always thought the WHITE light allowed for coral growth and that the BLUE lights were for 'looks' alone.....but I'm wrong ?? .. aren't I ??
If I am wrong and the white's are there for looks alone what is the shortest amount of time I should have my white lights running for. Atm they start to ramp up at about 8.30am and get to 75% by 11am and then start to ramp down from 5.30pm till the whites are at zero by 7pm. Is this ok ?? should it be more..could it be less.
I love my tank but it always looks so much better under the blues.

Any thoughts....

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

As it turns out, white and blue are relative.
A white light may not actually be white. A two channel led may be 8000 to 14000 kelvin. That's is my nonmeans white.
Daylight is 5600k.

So in short it's a common misuse.

Bluer lights are for color and growth
Because the ocean is quite blue. And corals evolved to use those colors more. Not so much red or orange in a more true white light.

 

[cracker]

That makes good sense ! The ocean waters are blue,corals have evolved for this spectrum. I always thought they were just for looks.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That makes good sense ! The ocean waters are blue,corals have evolved for this spectrum. I always thought they were just for looks.

A bit of that is in there too.
A lot of the reds oranges will mask many of the colors.
Ever lol at corals under 56k? Not always pretty.

 

[jda]

It takes many meters to get to where the coral only live on blue light alone - most of what is available in this hobby does not come from that deep. Most of the shallower stuff can easily handle the visible spectrum, UV and IR from about 350 to 750, or so. At 50 feet of depth, yellow to UV is still getting through. The miles and miles of Acropora that you see out of the water at low tide will get most all of the spectrum that the sun has. You have to get well below 100 feet before corals are only using blue.

The light serves three purposes, beyond feeding the dinos in the coral. 1). Develop pigments in the coral, 2). Show those pigments off, and 3). Allow the coral to build pigments that act as sunscreen against spectrum that they might not want. Every coral will take in light at a certain spectrum and spit it back out at lower energy (higher nm) after it has used some of the spectrum for energy. That same coral might reflect the light the way that it received it. There are a high number of pigments/proteins that start to excite well below 400nm, so if you have noticed that there is more color in lights that have true UV (not LED UV, but true UV), then this is why.

Even a 5.5K lamp has a LOT of blue in it... just other colors too to make it look more yellow, so the pigments are usually very nice, but not shown off very well - if you take a coral from a 5.5K lit tank and put it directly under a 14-20K source, they usually look amazing. A all-blue tank (black light look) will usually show off pretty well, but the actual pigments might be lacking - if you put these corals under 14-20K tank, they usually look dull. It takes a special light to do all of this in one package.

 

[mucky1957]

thanks for the replies.
call me stupid but I am not much the wiser..sorry. Do I run my whites for shorter or longer times if I am looking for more growth.
I looked up my lights on line...http://www.ledaquagrow.com/LEDAquariumLight/i-Galaxy.html..but I can't find anything about the white light output so I have no idea as to the brightness. My tank looks great so of course the old saying of 'don't change anything if it works' comes into play....I was just interestedto know if I should change my timings.
Thanks

 

[Donovan Joannes]

Scientifically blue spectrum might be the most used spectrum, but a blast of warmer spectrum for a few hours daily will produce more colour pigmentation. I am living near a public beach where acros, plate coral, montipora and loads of other LPS and SPS are commonly found under 2 feet deep during lowest tide, I swear they grow like weed and colourful too. How nature did it, I don't know. For deeper water coral species, more blue suits them better for sure.

I blasted my tank with warmer lights (85% intensity) for a few hours daily and corals loves it.

Another reason why reefers don't really like warmer spectrum is simply because it will encourage unwanted algae growth. But the same goes to coral, they do have algae in them to help with food production. I cannot give a better answer other than yes, a warmer or whiter light do have a role in a reef tank.

 

[jda]

Other sources of light have plenty of red, yellow and green in them and they don't just grow stray algae out of nowhere with no nutrients. Don't sweat the extra algae growth - it is mostly bunk/misunderstood and if it happens, it is because of your husbandry, not the panels.

If you increase your white, do it slowly. People think that the quantity of light from these diodes are too strong, but there is something about them that hurts coral - hotspots, or whatever - that does not happen with other light sources of the same "spectrum." Go slow and watch for changes. People who do run lots of white usually have them up quite high. This is not death-by-electronics or anything, but just know that the white didoes have limitations and go slowly.

 

[Deniss]

I'm in the same "boat" learning more about the lighting, and trying to offer my corals the "most" suitable lighting.

I'm running now 2 hours blue, 6 hours white and blue and then 2 hours blue only. I have my chaeto reactor on reverse, and i noticed it boosts up the PH, due photosynthesis.
Now when my reactor goes off, the blue light comes on...my ph would drop slowly from 8.25 to 8.18 during the 2 hours blue. When the white light comes on too, the PH actually rises up again.
I'm wondering why, we could say it is algae in the tank that is flourishing in the warmer spectrum. But it is for 90 % algae free, so it must come from the corals?
When the white light goes off, my ph goes down again slowly. I'm a beginner, but somewhere it must tell something.

I'm on the edge of trying just 10 hours white and blue. Is the blue only period, usefull for the corals, or for the looks, i don't know. I don't really care about going blue and white, as the tank too mee looks nice with it.
My mate recently came in, and asked why i did blue only periods and not just one spectrum but going up and down in intensity just like in the ocean.
He was wondering if the corals were not wasting time on adapting all the time, and too be honest i'm too.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

thanks for the replies.
call me stupid but I am not much the wiser..sorry. Do I run my whites for shorter or longer times if I am looking for more growth.
I looked up my lights on line...http://www.ledaquagrow.com/LEDAquariumLight/i-Galaxy.html..but I can't find anything about the white light output so I have no idea as to the brightness. My tank looks great so of course the old saying of 'don't change anything if it works' comes into play....I was just interestedto know if I should change my timings.
Thanks

Your fine. It gets a bit complicated.
Look up DLI or daily light interval.

Basically a cumulative par or how much a coral gets in a day. Its the intesnity the coral gets right this second (par meter) by the length. It's not a needed by helps to understand.

It's kinda why when acclimating you can use less intensity or a shorter time.

I run long. So I have a long ramp up and ramp down under quite low but visibly enjoyable levels.
My peak is six hours and I can add or subtract to that. In color , time , or intensity. And usually leave the ramp colors and time alone cuz I think they are cool.

 

[mucky1957]

Scientifically blue spectrum might be the most used spectrum, but a blast of warmer spectrum for a few hours daily will produce more colour pigmentation. I am living near a public beach where acros, plate coral, montipora and loads of other LPS and SPS are commonly found under 2 feet deep during lowest tide, I swear they grow like weed and colourful too. How nature did it, I don't know. For deeper water coral species, more blue suits them better for sure.

I blasted my tank with warmer lights (85% intensity) for a few hours daily and corals loves it.

Another reason why reefers don't really like warmer spectrum is simply because it will encourage unwanted algae growth. But the same goes to coral, they do have algae in them to help with food production. I cannot give a better answer other than yes, a warmer or whiter light do have a role in a reef tank.

can you tell me when your whites are on and what percentage at each stage pls.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

can you tell me when your whites are on and what percentage at each stage pls.

I can't tell you the percentage, my light is custom made by myself and the driver is non dimmable. My first blue channel (30 x 3W) came on from 5am till 2pm. Another deeper blue channel (30 x 3W) turned on at 8am till 5pm. My warm channels (33 x 3W red/green/pink/3
.5k/6.5k/amber) fired up at 12pm till 8pm. That make up my light schedule.

 

[Deniss]

Donovan, do you think the blue only periods are needed? Or, do you have them for the "looks"?

I have changed today my lighting, with blue's and white sametime on, and off. Simply because my PH kept dropping in my blue only periods, and rising up again with the whites on.
My tank is almost complete algae free, so i doubt these could actually rise a tanks ph back up. The only thing left is corals i guess?

The chaeto rises ph up, due photosynthesis. Which makes me wonder if my corals are even doing anything under full blue as my ph keeps dropping.
Maybe my theory is complete crap, and the ph rising with whites comes from anything else then the corals. I guess i will have to test how corals react with the new schedule, intensity stayed the same.

I have my PH stable at 8.25 now.

 

[mucky1957]

I can't tell you the percentage, my light is custom made by myself and the driver is non dimmable. My first blue channel (30 x 3W) came on from 5am till 2pm. Another deeper blue channel (30 x 3W) turned on at 8am till 5pm. My warm channels (33 x 3W red/green/pink/3
.5k/6.5k/amber) fired up at 12pm till 8pm. That make up my light schedule.

...so no white light at all ???

 

[mucky1957]

let's see if I can simplify this...forget the blues..I am only talking white lights..I have them starting early morning and they are at full power ( 70%) from 11.30am until 5.30pm and then they ramp down until zero at 7.15pm.
Q....the corals seem fine..so I have to think that 6 hrs of white light ( along with the blue/darkblue/green and red ) is working..but does anyone think that 6hrs is too much or not enough. ??

fyi....the reds and green work with the whites so are also never more than 70%. From about 11am until 8pm I have the day and night blues at 100%. They ramp up from zero at 7.30am and back to zero by 11pm.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

...so no white light at all ???

I am calling white lights as warmer spectrum lights. To obtain white light, I combined red/green/pink/amber/cool daylight/warm whites instead of "white LED" alone.

Here how it looks when fired individually...

 

[RyanCSGO]

as a reference, my whites only max out at 25%
while both my blue channels max out as well as my violet.

my whites kick on at the same time as the blue however since the max are so far apart for each, the whites aren't real noticeable for the first hour or so

 

[mucky1957]

I am calling white lights as warmer spectrum lights. To obtain white light, I combined red/green/pink/amber/cool daylight/warm whites instead of "white LED" alone.

Here how it looks when fired individually...

wow...looks fantastic

 

[mucky1957]

I think i need to reduce my whites drastically....