BLUE LIGHT REEFING: So you like to look at your reef under blues?

[becon776]

I've got a Reef Breeder Photon V2+ light setup. I prefer a more blue look. I'm about to use the WWC method to see how it goes. This is what I'll be ramping up to, although it not ramping up much from what I have got in place today.

	Red	Green	Royal Blue	White	Cool Blue	Violet
10:00	5%	3%	30%	7%	30%	12%
11:00	10%	10%	50%	20%	50%	25%
12:00	10%	25%	70%	25%	70%	70%
13:00	10%	25%	70%	25%	70%	70%
14:00	10%	25%	70%	25%	70%	70%
15:00	10%	25%	70%	25%	70%	70%
16:00	10%	25%	70%	25%	70%	70%
17:00	5%	10%	70%	20%	70%	70%
18:00			70%		70%	70%
19:00			70%		70%	70%
20:00			70%		70%	70%
21:00			70%		70%	70%
22:00			10%		10%	10%

what tank do you have? how high off tank is the light? how high is your stack? i.e. water depth to highest coral?

 

[miyags]

Corals look better with blues.But every fish in my tank looks better with whites.I run blues all day.9am till 3 pm. Then I turn on the whites.Whites on until 7 then off.blues till 10,lights out.

 

[Drewbacca]

[QUOTE="revhtree, post:
The Color setting on my kessils has never gone above 40% ...currently maxed at 35% from 11am to 6pm. (0%= all blue, 100%= majority white)

 

[Ron Reefman]

I buy corals specifically because they fluoresce under blue leds. At night (so it's dark at the windows) and the lights in the house are off, and the tank is under good blue leds, the tank looks amazing! I tell people it looks like the rain forest on Pandora at night in the movie Avatar!

 

[trio91]

I'm not a fan of that "windex" look. My tank is mostly white.

 

[WDLV]

I think it's a matter of personal preference and the dogmatic dissemination of data interpretation.

There are conditions under which an organism can thrive that may be somewhat unnatural. I've heard arguments for hyper-blue lighting, which include:

• As water depth increases, the colors that penetrate water fade out pretty quickly in the order of IR, R, O, Y, G, B, I, V, UV and when you're diving, your eyes will compensate for the loss of less powerful wavelength.
• Corals fluoresce more after being bombarded by higher spectrums of light than lower spectrums of light, which is an indication of photosynthesis.
  
  These are useful bits of information for understanding how light works under water, why your dive photos look more blue when you’re not using a flash and also a reasonable target spectral range for factory growing corals in lab-like conditions.
  Still, the spectrums available to us in the hobby will have spectral peaks that may not be consistent with what we find in nature. I think the light we have access too is likely less intense in spectrums like Green, orange violet and yellow. That in itself makes for a tough argument for either school of thought being “natural.”
  
  But we’re not talking about any of that when we’re talking about our displays. Our displays are… or at least they should be based around what works and what we find aesthetically pleasing.
  
  While I’m generally an advocate of super daylight (around 12,000K for me) I understand that there are people who prefer bluer spectrums.
  I have ramped up and ramped down my lights for decades using blue/actinic spectrums and I have enjoyed these times for viewing… but I don’t care for it as a primary lighting spectrum. If you do, please forgive me if I root for my chosen spectral preference.
  
  I feel it is telling that if you go to a public aquarium that houses a reef tank, the probability that the display will look like a blacklight poster is pretty much zero. Yet if you go to the home or business of a coral farmer, you’re likely to see just that. It’s simply a matter of their objectives being different.

 

[BryanD]

The intense blues just do not look realistic to me.

 

[Zoe’s Reef]

I have a Fluval Evo 13.5g with stock lighting, so that means that the lights are either on or off, white or blue---no ramping. When talking to someone at my LFS, they said they keep the same tank on blue all the time and that it's not necessary to ever turn on the whites. Is this true? Both my tank and the lfs evo tank have fish and corals, but I currently do an hour of blues before and after whites. What about the health/happiness of my corals and fish? I tried all blue for a few days but they seemed lethargic.

 

[Oldsalt]

I was up at my LFS 2 days ago. They have enormous square footage of coral on display. Oceanreefs in Wangara Western Australia. I looked at their lights and they are simply 50 units of blue and white LED units with hoods to retain spill. Nothing flash or expensive. But all their corals and anemones really pop and sell fast. They'd have to because their power bill must be enormous! I use lots of blue mixed with whites and violets. When I want to dazzle my friends I turn the blue up to 100%. Otherwise I let it peak to 60% Max. Whites and violets ramp up to 40% Max but I'm still playing around for best growth without algal blooms. If I turn up the 10k white and the red spectrum past 25% I can almost guarantee a GHA outbreak.

 

[ozborn99]

Certain corals just pop and look best under actinics. I know it's artificial but dangit it looks good.

What I don't understand is people that only use actinics and then only look at their corals with those orange glasses on. That's taking it to a whole other level.

I think we're in the hobby for aesthetics, definitely not natural lighting. Some of these corals are pretty awesome in real life (Maui), but they definitely don't seem to have that same pop and vibrancy in the open ocean. But i could be mistaken. I don't think I traveled far enough in Indonesia to find good coral reefs.

 

[flsalty]

With Chlorophyll A and B..... why would you run anything but 400 to 500nm blue light??? Science backs the 400 to 500nm spectrum

It would certainly be foolish to not include those spectra, but nobody is arguing in favor of that. The question is how to balance that with other spectra to create something pleasing to the eye. "Pleasing to the eye" is highly subjective though. Some people like the heavy blue look and some don't.

 

[glendale789]

To limit algae growth in the main display, I run my Kessils at around 95% blue to start the day and 85% (15% white) at midday for a few hours before ramping back to 95% blue over the last hour. Note that this also slows the coral growth too, but I don't mind - and the corals don't seem to mind either.

 

[Aquaman102]

what tank do you have? how high off tank is the light? how high is your stack? i.e. water depth to highest coral?

I have a standard 120 gallon. The lights are mounted with the legs that come with it. It is not hanging. That makes it 11 inches off the water, the top rock is about 12 inches below the water line. So the highest coral is about 24 inches from the LEDs. I rented a par meter from BRS and get about 350 par on the top of the rock. 150ish on the sandbed and 250ish in the middle of the rock. It was around 420 par right under the waterline at the very top.

 

[thatbamaguy]

This is my light schedule. The larger trapezoid is the blues, UV, and Royal blues. The smaller are warm whites. Ignore the times because it shrinks and stretches this pattern to sunrise-sunset.

I like the blues but I want intensity and growth for now.

 

[Nanaue]

Like many others, I do not mind people running their tanks with whatever lighting they personally enjoy. In my experience, both blue and natural lighting look wonderful depending on the tank.

There’s a full blue light tank at one of my LFS stores that is absolutely beautiful. I personally run mine with natural lighting for, being a noob, I don’t have any acros that would pop under blue lighting. If anything, only my rock flower anemones really fluoresce. Besides, I enjoy my NPS corals and sponges, and none of them glow under blue! But some of these all-blue light tanks are really pretty.

 

[bam123]

Diving in about 40 t0 80 feet of water is around 20K. I prefer 14K at noon and transition to more blues dawn and dusk.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I'm a fan of 20k lighting for most of my "daylight" time.

 

[Beth Villmow]

Boy do blue lights sure make those corals fluorescence (POP)! But why is it frowned upon? If the whole purpose of a reef tank is for our viewing pleasure then why not use whatever colored light, tank props or whatever to enjoy it? With that is mind let's talk about it today!

1. Do you use blue lighting to make your coral colors pop?

2. What are your thoughts on using blue (actinic) lighting for your reef tank?

image via @Orphek

I have blue lighting but not as much as the photos here show. I have T5 lighting and only a timer to turn on and off. I have a "cheap" led strip that I just use the blue on.

 

[that Reef Guy]

Boy do blue lights sure make those corals fluorescence (POP)! But why is it frowned upon? If the whole purpose of a reef tank is for our viewing pleasure then why not use whatever colored light, tank props or whatever to enjoy it? With that is mind let's talk about it today!

1. Do you use blue lighting to make your coral colors pop?

2. What are your thoughts on using blue (actinic) lighting for your reef tank?

image via @Orphek

Who says it is Frowned Upon?

It is Natural. Many people think white light is natural but its not.

I do not Dive but every diver I tells me it is Blue Down there and the Deeper you go the Bluer it gets.

And many of the Nice sought after Corals are found in Deep Waters.

So why would you say it is "Frowned Upon"

I Frown Upon White Light.

I don't want to look at Ugly Corals.

I stopped using White Lights Many Many Years Ago and I will NEVER go back to using them.

 

[that Reef Guy]

I don’t care what color anyone decides to run their tank at. I think the windex blue looks ridiculous but that’s for everyone to decide on their own. My only issue is on sale ads/threads. They should be under realistic lighting IMO.

If you made pictures under white light then that would not be "Realistic" to all of us that use Only Blue.