Anyone still prefer the 10K look, or even 6.5K? What's with all the windex colored tanks?

[Mark]

Before LED's became the preferred lighting solution, you had two camps of reefers. Folks that preferred the white(6.5K,10K) look with some blue actinic at dawn dusk, and those that were in the 20K camp. 20K was popular with SPS keepers. I was a daylight look reefer, and preferred the appearance that mimicked what I would see snorkeling a shallow reef.

I used to run Iwasaki's back in the day, and eventually graduated to Ushio metal halides. Then I went to T5's and still focused on a whiter look during the day.
Now I'm 100% LED, and I find I run my whites much higher than the settings shared by others. I've downloaded settings to my AI Hydras that others promote on forums/facebook out of curiousity, and they are all very blue in spectrum. I feel like I'm out of touch. Whenever folks post full tank shots, they look like windex or a blacklight poster from some kid's dorm room. I recognize LED tanks are harder to photograph true to color and I'm sure these tanks are not that blue in person. Hell, my white tank looks more blue in photos than in person.

I'd love to hear from folks that still crank up the white LED's on their systems. Let's see some shallow water reefs with nice sunshine glimmer lines. Here's mine, and yes it looks bluer due to the iphone camera(no filter), but it's around a 12K spectrum on the AI Hydras. I'm tempted to crank up the whites further and get more towards a 10K spectrum. Anyone have issues with the white LED's set to 100%?

 

[Grangersreef]

this was my 30 shallow lagoon, it got about an hour and a half of direct sunlight a day, and that was always my favorite time to enjoy my reef.

 

[nickkohrn]

I prefer daylight. I currently have a frag system that contains SPS, LPS, and soft corals, and I really enjoy my bulb combination, which is surprising because it's whiter than I have ever ran. It has three Coral Plus bulbs, two Blue Plus bulbs, and one Actinic bulb. The Actinic bulb pulls out the fluorescence from some corals, which my wife loves as she enjoys the deep blues. I like to run those in the evening for her. However, I enjoy more whites, so I may trade out a Blue Plus for another Coral Plus or Aquablue Special. Even having an LPS-dominant tank, I like the whites best because the pinks and purples get washed out by the blues.

 

[User]

I buy colorful fish because i want to see colorful fish. I bakance my lights to give a 5000-6500k daylight look between 9am-6pm. 2 hours either side of that i have blues come on, so i have windex sunrise avd sunset.

i hate seeing a tank with fish that are always in blue light. It cant be good for them

 

[cvrle1]

100% agree! I am really annoyed by the windex look. Some people say they do it because that is precisely what it looks like when you dive at deeper depths and corals only get blue light. A lot of folks do it because it makes some corals pop and gives them that neon, glow in the dark look, which again to me looks really unnatural. Its like someone put neon dye inside the coral to make it glow in the dark. It may be ok to have an hour or 2 a day of this blue overload, but not all the time, for me at least

 

[User]

100% agree! I am really annoyed by the windex look. Some people say they do it because that is precisely what it looks like when you dive at deeper depths and corals only get blue light. A lot of folks do it because it makes some corals pop and gives them that neon, glow in the dark look, which again to me looks really unnatural. Its like someone put neon dye inside the coral to make it glow in the dark. It may be ok to have an hour or 2 a day of this blue overload, but not all the time, for me at least

Those people havent dove on many coral reefs then.

 

[jschultzbass]

Yeah

Those people havent dove on many coral reefs then.

I agree, with all the diving I've done, only to about 120 ft though, it really isn't that blue. But, to each there own. I used to the blue look but now I'm more into the whiter (than most) look. Can't wait to see more tanks!

 

[fishface NJ]

I ran LEDs for 2 years but went back to T5. I run T5s and prefer the white look with a little blue at dawn/dusk.

 

[jsvand5]

My preference is about 15k

 

[brandon429]

using LED's for that effect, the 10K effect, is fueling hundreds and hundreds of GHA challenge reefs, though 10K metal halides might not be as bad it was still common to see gha tufting under nonblue light

for running my kessils are 100% blue.

for pics, 10%

in every case of GHA rework we do, after killing algae and cleaning out detritus, last step is bluing the lights and lowering whites.

 

[Victor_C3]

I generally never liked anything more blue than 14k.

One of my he reasons I stayed away from LED’s on my current build is because of the excessive blue/black light look.

I just received my ATI Sunpower T5 fixture and the first bulbs I loaded into it were four 10k, two14k, and two actinic bulbs. The actinic might get yanked, I bought them to give me some different bulb options and to try something different.

From what I remember, 10k generally got you the best growth for your SPS and the further up in kelvin you went, the more blue and slower your growth got. I don’t recall seeing much use of 6,500k, but it’s been a while since I was really following the hobby closely.

As far as algae growth, I usually did everything wrong and other than the initial cycle hair algae was never an issue.

 

[Greybeard]

I'm running ATI Blue+ and Actinics through the morning and evening hours, so it's pretty blue during these periods. My Kessel's are running quite white when they're on... probably close to 12,000k.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

 

[SMSREEF]

Before LED's became the preferred lighting solution, you had two camps of reefers. Folks that preferred the white(6.5K,10K) look with some blue actinic at dawn dusk, and those that were in the 20K camp. 20K was popular with SPS keepers. I was a daylight look reefer, and preferred the appearance that mimicked what I would see snorkeling a shallow reef.

I used to run Iwasaki's back in the day, and eventually graduated to Ushio metal halides. Then I went to T5's and still focused on a whiter look during the day.
Now I'm 100% LED, and I find I run my whites much higher than the settings shared by others. I've downloaded settings to my AI Hydras that others promote on forums/facebook out of curiousity, and they are all very blue in spectrum. I feel like I'm out of touch. Whenever folks post full tank shots, they look like windex or a blacklight poster from some kid's dorm room. I recognize LED tanks are harder to photograph true to color and I'm sure these tanks are not that blue in person. Hell, my white tank looks more blue in photos than in person.

I'd love to hear from folks that still crank up the white LED's on their systems. Let's see some shallow water reefs with nice sunshine glimmer lines. Here's mine, and yes it looks bluer due to the iphone camera(no filter), but it's around a 12K spectrum on the AI Hydras. I'm tempted to crank up the whites further and get more towards a 10K spectrum. Anyone have issues with the white LED's set to 100%?

Your reef is beautiful. I’m setting up a 60 cube and want something not too blue for lighting. I like the daylight look also.
Would you be willing to share your hydra settings.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Yeah, I don't understand the windex look either. Then the absolute worst is when someone posts a picture of their sick fish and all you can see is a dark shadow in the midst of the blue.

 

[User]

using LED's for that effect, the 10K effect, is fueling hundreds and hundreds of GHA challenge reefs, though 10K metal halides might not be as bad it was still common to see gha tufting under nonblue light

for running my kessils are 100% blue.

for pics, 10%

in every case of GHA rework we do, after killing algae and cleaning out detritus, last step is bluing the lights and lowering whites.

You prefer the windex look as a method of algae control?

Id much rather use my lights to see the yellows and reds on my magjificent foxface or the yellow on my purple tangs tail, or the delicate pinks in the crown of my coco worm than to lose all that to combat algae.

 

[brandon429]

work threads are different. when you have 20 GHA tanks given to you in one place to work, methods that reduce growback are quickly found.
I can cause gha in otherwise controlled tanks if I just twist the kessil dial the opposite way.

I can grow algae in any reef tank in the world by shining a 6K HPS light meant for growing vegetation on it.

much like how old vho bulbs tended to cause cyano, and abate when updated.
that doesnt mean many home tanks arent tuned to run just fine on 10K, yours is agreed.


blue balance is a core aspect of work thread management and getting compliance in a high degree of worked systems but only in algae challenge or cyano threads, for a normal tank if its not expressing those invaders/white is np

we specifically start all dry start reefs with heavy blues in my work threads, whites will just fill it all up with GHA totally, each surface reflecting all directions/growth potency

 

[Waynerock]

Most of my corals look like poop under anything whiter. I am so used to it now it doesn’t bother me. I was in the 10-12 camp for years but now I like my corals to look alien and glowing

 

[JoshO]

I personally LOVE the whiter versions people run! @Mark can you share your settings for your hydra please?

 

[AZMSGT]

Love my Black light and Lava lamp tank. Brings me back to the early 70s when I had the black light posters on the wall.