Question about importance of white light spectrum.

[EpisodeMnH]

I have a Fluval Flex AIO, so my lighting is a Fluval Marine 3.0. It’s Bluetooth controlled and has 5 spectrums: Blue, Cyan, Pink, Purple, and White. You can control the percentages via app.

For a while now, I have been running 100% Blue, Cyan, and Purple, 50% White, and 5% Pink for daytime settings, then 30% Blue, Cyan, and Purple, 0% Pink and White at night.

However, everything is much more visually appealing if I run White at only 10-20% for daytime settings, other 4 spectrums staying the same.

My question is, would running the white spectrum this low be detrimental in any way to overall coral health and growth. It’s to my understanding that the blue spectrums are the most important, which is why I run those at 100%, but I’m not sure how essential the white is.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Spare time]

You will lose some par, but running low amounts of white isn't bad.

 

[FEED ME ZOAS]

What corals are you working with? That might affect the answers you get. I know @Legendary Corals grows at least there zoas under only blues. Not sure about their other stuff, but they crank out wild corals

 

[Subsea]

Coral can & will adjust.to different spectrum. I like
10-12K as visually appealing. For me, 20K blue is too much blue. Coral on a shallow reef that are subjected to intense 5000 kelvin are all brown as they use pigments to protect zooanthellia from excess light intensity. @Dana Riddle and I have had this conversation before. Intensity is more important for coral growth than spectrum. Reefkeepers favor blue as most macro favors spectrum in the red and 4 reds to 1 blue seems to be the magic ratio for growing macro & ATS.

 

[Legendary Corals]

What corals are you working with? That might affect the answers you get. I know @Legendary Corals grows at least there zoas under only blues. Not sure about their other stuff, but they crank out wild corals

Thanks for the shout-out! I run 100% blues on the frag tanks for propagation/ farming purposes. I've found that Zoanthids don't need white spectrum lighting as much and do fine under 100% blue.

In a display tank, running whites is completely acceptable and my preferred look as well (it just looks so much more natural). As long as the health of the system is doing well, I wouldn't be too concerned about the lighting spectrum. Choose an intensity that keeps the corals happy and a spectrum that you enjoy viewing. Try not to tinker with your lights too much or else your corals will have to constantly adapt.

 

[Subsea]

Kudos to @Legendary Corals for this

[As long as the health of the system is doing well, I wouldn't be too concerned about the lighting spectrum. Choose an intensity that keeps the corals happy and a spectrum that you enjoy viewing. Try not to tinker with your lights too much or else your corals will have to constantly adapt.]