Souldnt coral survive under white light?

[Just a Wrasse.]

In nature, coral doesn't have blue light but white light. Yet it still lives, here if I said I have a white light only tank, I would get a lot of hate. Coral lives of photosintesis, and not the colour the light is.

So shouldnt coral be fine under white light? Correct me if I Am wrong.

I have a white only tank I set up as an experiment, see photo below. Mushroom coral

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'm sorry but that is incorrect. The sun does naturally give red, blue, green colors. Different colors penetrate different depths of water, and the different colors affect photosynthesis differently. Our eyes can;t see them, but they are there.

 

[t5Nitro]

White light is full spectrum. Actually some of the best tanks were the corals grown under 10K halides years back. Its not the most pleasing color to what you see most people using today, but it worked, really well.

 

[ZoWhat]

The ah-ha moment is when you realize white light / sunlight is made up of all visible colors (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red). The deeper the water, the more the ocean filters out the reds, then oranges, then yellows... and so on....

SPS corals mostly thrive in 3-20 ft

LPS corals mostly thrive deeper in 10-30 ft

Best to research a particular coral and see at what deep range they live at in the wild and try to match thst spectrum with color and intensity

 

[sde1500]

I don't think you would get any hate, just get corrected. Since white light is just full spectrum light. Heavy white as noted, makes most any corals look pretty drab. Blue/UV makes corals look more pleasing to the eye. It is also argued that corals utilize mostly blue due to its ability to penetrate deeper, thus mostly blue light reaching them, see below illustration.

 

[mrlavalamp]

Most folks select blue lights for their display because that range of wavelengths favors coral growth over algae growth.

Red wavelengths favor plant and algae growth. This is why we use them on fuges and in greenhousess to grow plants.

A "good" white light will include some of both of those but also many other wavelengths too. A "bad" white light will have very little power in the blue range of the spectrum.

Corals will not grow well under basic "white" incandescent or flourescent bulbs because they do not have much power in the correct wavelengths to support photosynthesis.

Aside from the aesthetics that blue lights provide that many of us enjoy, it is a matter of selecting against algae growth and in favor of coral growth.

Frankly I miss the good ol' metal halides, but my electricity bill would be huge considering the added heat makes a chiller a neccessity where I live.

 

[MaxTremors]

In nature, coral doesn't have blue light but white light. Yet it still lives, here if I said I have a white light only tank, I would get a lot of hate. Coral lives of photosintesis, and not the colour the light is.

So shouldnt coral be fine under white light? Correct me if I Am wrong.

I have a white only tank I set up as an experiment, see photo below. Mushroom coral

The reason blue light is most useful for corals is that it is that the blue spectrum of light from the sun penetrates deeper into water than red and yellow light do, so corals have evolved to utilize that spectrum of light. Also, that is not a mushroom coral, and do you own seahorseaquariums.coṃ?

 

[Just a Wrasse.]

The reason blue light is most useful for corals is that it is that the blue spectrum of light from the sun penetrates deeper into water than red and yellow light do, so corals have evolved to utilize that spectrum of light. Also, that is not a mushroom coral, and do you own seahorseaquariums.coṃ?

Nope but I work there, galway