Yea I know a little about lights yea.
UV in an led is not uv, its just pretty. Its actually V.
light containing enough of the visible spectrum will grow coral. from 5500 kelvin to 20,000 kelvin. some use higher but I think its useless a point and also is no longer a color temp, as it contains none of the other colors, so its just a narrow band frequency. A night or moonlight is the example. yea folks do try to grow corals like that
the debate rages and has always what color a coral likes, 6500k or 20k plus. IMO and speaking to many many old timers and many light manufactures, it all grows coral(except jbj :mad
so a lot of whats in the light is in fac for our eyes, and many corals under natural conditions are brown(use the flash on a camera and youll see this, its generally 8 to 10k) the higher frequency actinic provide a good bit of pop. def not natural.
for moon, choose your favorite color combo, just reduce the intensity(lux meter) to set a nice ramp. many manufactures have different color preferences, some are a royal blue so its a more violet(higher frequency and the fake UV ) some stay in the more Aqua colors between B&G in the spectrum, and some are pretty dead on the Blue. A really good way to get familir with this is to google the visable light spectrum and become familiar with the numbers, then compare it to the "reef spectrum" and then to a manufacturers spectral charts. ATI is quite good for that from tube to tube. Some led manufacturers also include this spectral info, when they do you can see the peaks and wider pieces of the spectrum to help you choose the lights. A mars aqua is just IMO a blaster. it uses stuff most old schoolers would freak out on and add more blue and Violet to get the coral to fluoresce.
also Im a nut job. My total light cycle is 6am to 10pm. but the very first and very last 30 min of light is less than your phone puts out. but the corals respond to it and "wake up" as do the fish. a couple of my fish only spawn under this 9 to 10 pm light.
