Percentage of blue vs. white using LED

[Waters]

Is there such thing as too much white light? My LED fixtures have separate dimmers for the blue and white lights. Does it hurt anything (or cause unnecessary nuisance algae growth) to have both at 100% or should the blue percentage be higher than the whites?

 

[glb]

Following. I just got LEDs and wondered the same thing. Great question!

 

[definitionofreal]

If you just got the leds, you need to slowly acclimate your coral. Start with blues about 30%, whites at 10% and slowly bring them up over the next couple of weeks. Blues 100%, white from 40 to 60%. Leds are way more powerful than t5's and mh.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Depends on what your ratio white to blue is. Mine is 4:1 blue to white, so I run all mine at 100%
If its a FOWLR then go ahead and run em at 100%, thats not going to bother anyone
Corals tend to need more of the blue spectrum light, so run your blues higher than your whites, or both at 100% again. Here its what color do you want your tank also, because LEDs are so strong you are able to set the whites down from the blues and still get fantastic growth from them.

 

[Waters]

Mine are 1 : 1 so I have been running them both at 100%. I just wanted to make sure that running that much white light wasn't going to cause me issues with algae. The reason I ask is because it appears I am just starting to see some stringy dinoflagellates. The tank is only roughly 4 months old. I have never had any recordable nitrates or phosphates (I run both a GFO reactor and ChemPure Elite) and I have plenty of flow so I was wondering if it was the white light. It sounds like as long as you have the blues that the whites are more for personal preference on how the tank looks?

 

[definitionofreal]

If the whites are to bright it can bleach your coral and cause algae

 

[Reefing Madness]

If you just put on the LEDs then your tank has to acclimate to them, you will probably see a diatom bloom again, and some algae growth until the system restabilizes itself.

 

[WhoKnew]

Brat question? I have LEDs and just learned on my own when I first got them. Mine has all sorts of timers. Blue white and purple liters. I can even put in a Thunderstorm.

 

[WhoKnew]

That should say great question. My bad

 

[cdness]

Mine is a 2:1 ration blue to white. I had issues with my T-5s and decided to just run the actinics when working on the LEDs. Then when I got the LEDs installed I started low but over the course of a few weeks I am up to 80% blue and 20% white and I like the bluer look. However I think I will do a high-noon style and bump the whites up to 60% for an hour or so just to get the high intensity on the tank. The whites are WAY more powerful than the blues.

** Apollo Solar Blast 5000 **
** APEX Dimmed **

 

[Neptunes Bane]

I learned on my own as well and would recommend that you pay close attention to your system during this transition. I'm currently at 100B 70W.

 

[Waters]

If you just put on the LEDs then your tank has to acclimate to them, you will probably see a diatom bloom again, and some algae growth until the system restabilizes itself.

Mine aren't new (have been on for about 4 months) and I have only had one diatom bloom which lasted about 3 days. Just wasn't sure about these dinoflagellates that seem to have come out of nowhere. I am actually running 2 120W LEDs over a 60 gallon.

 

[Reefing Madness]

If youve got Dinos, thats another story altogether.

 

[LPSGUY]

Mine are 3:1 I keep blue at 80% and white at 30%. Tanks look like 20K as I did a custom led layout with more blue in it.

 

[Ron Reefman]

If the whites are to bright it can bleach your coral and cause algae

I think having the blues to high can bleach your corals as well. Remember, coral doesn't use eyes like ours, so the white is a mix of spectrum and the blue is a single or narrow range of spectrum. But either can damage coral if it's too intense.

 

[TJ's Reef]

I think having the blues to high can bleach your corals as well. Remember, coral doesn't use eyes like ours, so the white is a mix of spectrum and the blue is a single or narrow range of spectrum. But either can damage coral if it's too intense.

+1 to Rons comments above, I would say that most of the posters above have their LED's cranked up to high. The narrow spectrum of LED's especially blue can do more harm then good at those high outputs. With 2:1 and 3:1 ratios at 100% with each fixture you're inputting quite a bit more Blue spectrum than a quality 250w HQI lamp and probably more than a 400w. For example over my 60x24x20 Display I run 96 3w emitters (mixed lot full spectrum 2:1 ratio or so) at approximately 40% without any optics and 6.5" off water surface and have great PAR/PUR all the way to bottom enough for Clams with great color and growth on a SPS heavy Mixed Reef. I have a seperate string of (12) XM-L 6500K's that come on daily for two hours. The biggest issue I still see in running LED's is over powering them. I would highly suggest only running most of these 120-160 watt fixtures to 50-60% Blues and 25-35% Whites for the duration, with use of a controller maybe adding a High-Noon Par blast kicking up the Whites to 50% or so for an hour or two.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Waters]

I am way too high if I follow your suggestions.....I reduced my whites to 75% but left my blues at %100. I guess I better reduce some more.......

 

[Ron Reefman]

+1 to Rons comments above, I would say that most of the posters above have their LED's cranked up to high. The narrow spectrum of LED's especially blue can do more harm then good at those high outputs. With 2:1 and 3:1 ratios at 100% with each fixture you're inputting quite a bit more Blue spectrum than a quality 250w HQI lamp and probably more than a 400w. For example over my 60x24x20 Display I run 96 3w emitters (mixed lot full spectrum 2:1 ratio or so) at approximately 40% without any optics and 6.5" off water surface and have great PAR/PUR all the way to bottom enough for Clams with great color and growth on a SPS heavy Mixed Reef. I have a seperate string of (12) XM-L 6500K's that come on daily for two hours. The biggest issue I still see in running LED's is over powering them. I would highly suggest only running most of these 120-160 watt fixtures to 50-60% Blues and 25-35% Whites for the duration, with use of a controller maybe adding a High-Noon Par blast kicking up the Whites to 50% or so for an hour or two.

Cheers, Todd

Which is why a PAR meter can be so helpful. I know they are expensive, but if you play with a good size tank and good led fixtures, the PAR meter isn't that far out of line. And you can 'loan' it out to fellow reefers in exchange for a frag of some coral they have that you want! :wink: