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

[SMSREEF]

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, whites will just fill it all up with GHA totally, each surface reflecting all directions/growth potency

Is it really gone or is it that the lack of whites make us not see it?
I write this because blues hide my algae.

@brandon429 i totally respect your work so please don’t take this as argumentative. It’s a real question.

 

[brandon429]

legit insight! we r always fighting growback challenges in one way or another. having to hone the sustain approach for the clean condition/enduring challenge.

 

[Mark]

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.

I have a theory related to that. Back in the iwasaki days, nobody really ever talked about Dino's. They were rare. I think our tanks were more nutrient rich then for sure, but I also think our tanks were more hospitable to green algae. Dino's, like Diatoms, were a pioneer species eventually to be succeeded by turf algae. I feel like blue windex tanks with zero nitrates get in the way of that succession.

The only way I've ever managed turf algae is through herbivores. It's better to battle an algae that critters like to eat versus one nobody touches. I haven't found any good consumers of Cyano/Dino's. I'll take the green stuff.

As far as my settings, I'll try to download them and upload the aip file. But my recommendation is to go into "manual" mode, set the blues and purple to 75% or more, then add in enough red/green/white till it looks good to you. Then have that be 8-9hrs and add some dawn dusk before and after. The dawn dusk periods can be the fun glow in the dark time... Similar to what we did with actinics.

 

[scavdog]

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.

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%?

I think I've found a home in the this thread ..tagging along here. I took some time off in the hobby and came back to an obnoxious amount of drowned out blue tanks. Iwasaki's always showed great growth, but the Ushios looked better. When Aquamedic was a thing, I found the DE Phoenix 10k and Geisseman 10k options to be the most aesthetically appealing.

I have G4 Pro ready to go on my new 60 cube and will not be abusing the blues.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Put one of these over your fuge/sump with some chaeto and ulva, and won't have any gha in your display

 

[Petesreef]

I think this is exactly what the new Philips CoralCare Gen2 is going to offer, we'll see

 

[SMSREEF]

Put one of these over your fuge/sump with some chaeto and ulva, and won't have any gha in your display

I tried one of the red lights but I didn’t like it and switched to a whiter light.

I’m setting my sump up as a second display. I just didn’t like the red light. I like the white in fuge.

but certainly what I like, and what is best for the tank may be way way different. I don’t claim to know the answer...

First sump light

 

[Crustaceon]

People worry too much what their tank will look like to other people. I say make it look good to you before anything else.

 

[Shaka_Reefer]

How did you attach this video?

 

[BullyBee]

I kinda like the blue look, compared to the violet look. Now that looks dumb to me. Might as well use a black light

 

[Andy Macro]

I enjoy my daylight look which you mention. I know its unusual but it makes the tank more natural and relaxing.

 

[kevin_e]

I just bought a Giesman 6500 K to add to my 8-bulb T-5. 6 ATI Blue+, 1 Giesman Super Actinic and 1 6500 K give me a 14000 K look, which I like.

 

[Mark]

I think I've found a home in the this thread ..tagging along here. I took some time off in the hobby and came back to an obnoxious amount of drowned out blue tanks. Iwasaki's always showed great growth, but the Ushios looked better. When Aquamedic was a thing, I found the DE Phoenix 10k and Geisseman 10k options to be the most aesthetically appealing.

I have G4 Pro ready to go on my new 60 cube and will not be abusing the blues.

I think my absolute favorite were the Acqualine Bushke DE 10K's. I ran those in an Aquamedic Fixture for years, but they were hard to source so I switched to Ushio. Here's an old 180g I used to run with Ushio bulbs:

I enjoy my daylight look which you mention. I know its unusual but it makes the tank more natural and relaxing.

Awesome tank! I love planted marine tanks.

 

[fish farmer]

I like a blend, whiter during the peak of the day with blues toward the evening.

I don't have settings on my LED's, just a 14000K Build my LED fixture. I used to prefer 6500K to 10000K range. I've added a couple of T5's recently for dawn/dusk, ATI bulbs blue plus and coral plus. The T5's make my ugly green palys look somewhat presentable.

 

[Mr.Z]

I have a preference to lean a bit white, but don’t think it’s cool to yuck other people’s yum.

 

[Mark]

I have a preference to lean a bit white, but don’t think it’s cool to yuck other people’s yum.

To each his own man. Nowhere did I imply blue tanks are wrong. Sure I was poking a little fun with the windex reference, but it's all in good spirit. I'm just curious if there are people out there who still dig more of daylight spectrum. My lighting schedule still affords me the glow in the dark look in the evenings as the lights go into a dusk phase.

I worry there'll be a bit of generational amnesia. If I was a new reefer and set up a tank with LED's, I might be led to think that white light is undesirable or creates algae problems. If that new reefkeeper goes and downloads other people's LED settings, all they would run into is blue configurations. It normalizes the trend. People may forget that there were decades of successful reefs with a healthy white light complementing the blue spectrum. The SPS growth king for a long time was the Iwasaki 6500K bulb. Not the prettiest, but it turned SPS into weeds. I think the greatest thing about LED's is that we can enjoy the tank under multiple spectrums. The blue LED's certainly bring out amazing colors in the corals, and it's nice to throw in some high noon daylight as well to enjoy the fish and coral under more natural light.

Here's an old 600 gallon tank that belonged to a friend no longer in the hobby. I love the marginally small blue power compact trying to complement the 10K 400 watt DE MH. Still the biggest tabling Acro I've seen in a tank:

 

[a4edwin]

Kessil?

 

[littlefishy]

I have to say I like the natural daylight colored tanks. The blue/black ones remind me of freshwater dyed glofish compared to say, wild caught angels.
Having said that, my phone pics don't reflect my tank color accurately either.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Kessil?

Yes, three A360WEs

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

How did you attach this video?

I turned it into a GIF