My Wife hates my Blues, Can’t be the Only one???

[jda]

Seems so. You should be able to ask them. If they don't get back to you then this is a problem, too. Edit: ReefBum knows how to reef and does not need to trick-light his corals to make them look good or sell them.

If anybody thinks that this just works with acropora, here are some shots of my Z&P under just 14k without any editing.

The point is that full spectrum light is critical to getting the best colors out of coral. You can add in a bit of blue to look at them if you want, but make sure that you keep that full spectrum in there too. Seems that only LED manufacturers, fools and the misinformed think that full spectrum is a problem.

 

[ESABOE]

ReefBum's spectrum is a great balance



@Viking_Reefing is another great one.

I love everything about @Viking_Reefing tanks! The fish, the aquascape, and the lighting choice makes everything magical, but realistic. I visit his videos often. I wonder if I could get my Red Sea Reef 90’s to mirror that since they’re fairly restrictive. Any Red Sea 90 people know how i could do that?

 

[jda]

For LED folks, read through this thread. Tim is/was at/near 100% on all channels on his Photons. He will let you know when a photo is not "good." Lots of full spectrum and blue here:

therman's 12 year old SPS system...top down shot, starting to enjoy this tank again

I am not good at sharing images of my tanks. I'm terrible at keeping glass clean. I really enjoy seeing corals grow out into healthy colonies from small frags. On that note, this 36x36x18 tank was set up first in 2010, moved to a new house in 2012, and nearly crashed (due entirely to my...

www.reef2reef.com

For the T5 people, you likely don't need any help, but Big E has great results from B+ and C+, IIRC. Find his threads and posts too.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Something I'm noticing in these replies is a misunderstanding between "white light" and "full spectrum".
White light, like a lightbulb, has very little blue or UV in it. This is the kind of light used in freshwater aquaria, and it does in fact promote some plant growth and hinder some coral growth due to a near lack of blue/UV. Nobody uses these on their reef tanks.
full spectrum lighting like halides, or the sun, has the same amount and intensity of blue, UV, and violet as LEDs with only those channels. But it balances that out with equal portions of other light colors, leading to more efficient photosynthesis and full color reflection via all fluorescent proteins.

White lighting is bad. Full spectrum is how the coral is supposed to look under natural conditions, expressing all proteins in harmony.

 

[jda]

Even a typical white light bulb for a home has a massive amount of blue in it - if Oreo was here, he would love to show you a million graphs. It just has the other colors too. It just doesn't look blue to our eyes. A incandescent light bulb usually will have some true UV whereas much LED panels do not.

A white bulb or diode does not grow algae any differently than a more blue one of the same out - they just have more output. It is not cutting back on the white light that changed anything, it was the lowering of the output.

Here is an example below. People think that the spectrum might be why a more blue bulb grows less algae, but it is the output. Radium 20k is 45% of the output of a 6500k on the same ballast - look at the PPFD numbers. IT IS THE OUTPUT, NOT THE SPECTRUM. If you put 2x Radium 20k over that same area, the algae would grow faster too. You can see the blue spike on the Radium 20k which is why a lot of people love it, but there is plenty of blue in the Iwasaki too.

 

[Digimes]

I'm running (2) light strips. The first is blue from 7am to 8pm and the other runs full spectrum from noon to 5pm.

 

[Alexraptor]

Something I'm noticing in these replies is a misunderstanding between "white light" and "full spectrum".
White light, like a lightbulb, has very little blue or UV in it. This is the kind of light used in freshwater aquaria, and it does in fact promote some plant growth and hinder some coral growth due to a near lack of blue/UV. Nobody uses these on their reef tanks.
full spectrum lighting like halides, or the sun, has the same amount and intensity of blue, UV, and violet as LEDs with only those channels. But it balances that out with equal portions of other light colors, leading to more efficient photosynthesis and full color reflection via all fluorescent proteins.

White lighting is bad. Full spectrum is how the coral is supposed to look under natural conditions, expressing all proteins in harmony.

It's my impression that as pure blue lit tanks have become very common, "white lights" is a parlance that has become synonymous with "full spectrum lights".

 

[0ttr]

Embrace the white light. Your tank doesn’t need to look like windex all the time

Yeah, that's what I think. Happy wife, happy life! It will build on her and she'll start viewing the tank as a liability and you don't want that.

 

[jda]

Technically speaking, white light has all colors in the visible range. Full spectrum includes spectrum out of the range of human eyesight that also has benefit - so white light and true UV and IR. I am probably super guilt of mixing the terms white and full... sorry about that.

No LEDs are technically full spectrum since few that I know of have IR an true UV (not just violet sold as UV by shady LED company).

 

[chipchipbro]

the mixed reef of kevin is one of the best imo with s really nice lighting.. This spectrum makes everything look awesome.

Kevin’s Reef Tank Is An LPS Masterpiece | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

We're really been enjoying checking out all your aquariums on Instagram including this LPS masterpiece which popped up under #reefbuilders. We reached out to Kevin aka Yaboikevin42 to learn more about…

reefbuilders.com

 

[Miami Reef]

How much blue vs white do you use?

I’m currently using 8 blue plus and 8 coral plus. I’m using 100% T5 lighting.

I’ve tried countless bulb combos, and they all look very good. However, I don’t like my tank any whiter than 1:1 blue plus to coral plus.

I have some aquablue special bulbs, and there’s no easier way to brown out a tank than by using them. I enjoy fluorescence from corals.

 

[PeterErc]

My favorite LED that I have used is the Bridgelux Vero 10 95 CRI 6500k. I don’t have any photos but I found a video of the vero 18 97 CRI.

 

[Kfactor]

am more of a white light person i dont like the blue look

 

[oreo54]

Technically speaking, white light has all colors in the visible range. Full spectrum includes spectrum out of the range of human eyesight that also has benefit - so white light and true UV and IR. I am probably super guilt of mixing the terms white and full... sorry about that.

No LEDs are technically full spectrum since few that I know of have IR an true UV (not just violet sold as UV by shady LED company).

Well you missed my latest find..Single .4w led.. 2 pumps (370 and 400nm) and a whole bunch of phosphors.

https://cdn.shopifycdn.net/s/files/1/0344/6401/files/P3200016.00-2.0_YJ-VTC-2835-Q-370405_33fbb951-22aa-4bab-bab9-388edb81bc14.pdf?v=1660723917

 

[jda]

I have seen some similar ones over the years, but nobody who wanted to put them into a fixture or over a tank. That is a LOT of 365, but maybe that is good? I dunno. UVL Super Actinic VHO was loved for that spike in the 400-410 range. Imagine that the PAR pop per watt would suck with all of that extra energy outside of the PAR meter range - not that I care, but others might. Can't you just see Radion or Kessil buying ads or BRS videos about how their X wattage panels have Y par and a fixture using these are only 65% of Y?

 

[Reefering1]

That is Adam at BattleCorals.

He are some older photos of my tank under nothing but 14k. Photos not edited one bit. The colors would not be this bright, nor with kind of contrast with blue light only. Then the 14k does a good job of showing these off, I think. That Ice Fire is almost gone from the hobby now for what i feel is a movement towards too much blue light - it also never really loved high levels of waste products either (po4 and no3).

Yes, this is what it's all about. I love how you can see it all, all the colors, the sand is white, nothing hidden in darkness.
And I thought those were from bc. I appreciate how he lets you choose whether the frags are grown under led or halide.. do you know any other sellers that give this option?

 

[oreo54]

I have seen some similar ones over the years, but nobody who wanted to put them into a fixture or over a tank. That is a LOT of 365, but maybe that is good? I dunno. UVL Super Actinic VHO was loved for that spike in the 400-410 range. Imagine that the PAR pop per watt would suck with all of that extra energy outside of the PAR meter range - not that I care, but others might. Can't you just see Radion or Kessil buying ads or BRS videos about how their X wattage panels have Y par and a fixture using these are only 65% of Y?

I didn't say they were practical. Besides $300/50..
And a short lifespan to boot.
For visual they measure 23L/watt. 80CRI, 5300k
For UV at 380 peak: 0.74097 mW/nm at peak

Point was.. never say never..

Decades ago some manuf could have fabbed some leds that are reef better than what there is out there. Never denied the obvious shortfalls, nor actually did light manuf. (eventually, thanks to diy-ers in part) Thus the dozens of colors.
Orphek atlaniks have both real uv and IR . Some others have "some" UV with a tail in the ir from 660,s or ww diodes.

Just think, you now have leds to compare to other leds with the err"missing things".

 

[jda]

Point was.. never say never..

You know that I am always on the lookout. However, I have to play in the game, so I only care about now... kinda. I was one of the folks who said that that the early LEDs with the bad blues and the horrible whites that burnt coral sucked - I was right, but I never said that no LEDS could grow coral well, just not those at the time. Of course some like to build the strawman that people said the LEDs could never grow coral when that never happened that I saw... just that those couldn't. I am saying that right now I don't see a business model for these since the folks that know and care would likely still buy T5s or MH over an expensive panel with this spectrum and then replace diodes with no energy cost. Happy to see that change, of course. Heck, I would be happy if somebody DIY'd one and had some results.

I was kinda sad to see Orphek take a dive in the market for having their UV diodes fail so much. They should have gotten props for innovating, but I guess that people just want their stuff to work in the end.

 

[oreo54]

You know that I am always on the lookout. However, I have to play in the game, so I only care about now... kinda. I was one of the folks who said that that the early LEDs with the bad blues and the horrible whites that burnt coral sucked - I was right, but I never said that no LEDS could grow coral well, just not those at the time. Of course some like to build the strawman that people said the LEDs could never grow coral when that never happened that I saw... just that those couldn't. I am saying that right now I don't see a business model for these since the folks that know and care would likely still buy T5s or MH over an expensive panel with this spectrum and then replace diodes with no energy cost. Happy to see that change, of course. Heck, I would be happy if somebody DIY'd one and had some results.

I was kinda sad to see Orphek take a dive in the market for having their UV diodes fail so much. They should have gotten props for innovating, but I guess that people just want their stuff to work in the end.

Yea but the problem is who buys what.. Not the manuf fault that they build to the gallery..
Historically lots of "full spectrum lite" leds.
Or like Kyocera.. expensive and japanese market only. One diode, 400-ish nm pump
Probably be in the bargain bin at BRS in a matter of months.
"freshwater" version below. Amount of UV/IR present notated.
As to the orig "colors" even in my fw world the "errors" were clearly visible.
And IF one wanted to speculate, if PFO didn't get sued the reef lighting market may have evolved differently.
I look at it as an inflection point I guess.
To be HONEST I actually preferred being a spectator.

July 26, 2018
(The product is only available to the Japanese market)

Kyocera Corporation (President: Hideo Tanimoto) announced that the company developed the world's first*1 full-spectrum LED lighting for aquariums. Kyocera's high-color-rendering LED lighting combines its proprietary violet LEDs and RGB (red, green and blue) phosphors to create lights close to natural sunlight at specific underwater depths.

IF or WHEN a very stable and efficient violet/UV diode comes to fruition the philosophy may change again.
There were always work arounds and again

t5's are pretty light in that full spectrum definition..

.67W/m sq = .067 mW/cm sq

 

[Raul-7]

What spectrum is this aquarium at?