Blue light vs White light?

[Philipgonzales3]

I currently have a FOWLR and have 3 fish in my SC aquariun 50 gallon. I am mostly interested in fish but I do find some of the other aspects of reefing interesting.

This is probably going to sound dumb but I don't want my tank to look blue. Can I have a reef tank that mostly looks white? I see a lot of pics posted that are blue.

I see some cool looking pictures when I Google reef tanks. Are these ran with white lights or are the lights only for the pic?

 

[Coralreefer1]

You can have a tank that is mostly white lights (10000k), however the coral colors will be more subdued and not as vibrant in many of them. Often times coral growth will excelerate under kelvin temperatures closer to the warm end of the spectrum. You will probably want to acclimate corals to varying lighting schemes and intensities to avoid stressing corals causing bleaching or reduced polyp extension.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Many hobbyists including myself go heavy on Blue. SPS has to have a good percentage of white during day. I run 85% blue and 24% whites

 

[Flippers4pups]

Blue spectrums are highly beneficial for coral growth. White spectrums tend to inable pest algaes growth depending on available nutrients.

 

[DangerDave]

I like only all blue on my LEDs, and run two each of actinic and super actinic T5s. It looks like I put some whites on with those bulbs running.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

So is the light blue in the ocean? Maybe because of the water tints the water blue?

 

[DangerDave]

Why, I don’t know. You may have better luck posting in the lighting forums.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/aquarium-lighting-by-dana-riddle.956/