Brew12
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My Tank Thread
I really agree with your concept, but the execution wouldn't be very easy. LED lights are all single spectrum. White LED's are similar to florescent lights in that they use a phosphorus coating to get a broader spectrum. Different bandwidth LED's give the light from this coating slightly different characteristics. This still wouldn't be conducive to coral growth so you would need to add the blues and reds separately.I think if you guys saw sunlight on your aquariums you would change your minds about the blue halloween lighting we are using now. I'm not so sure about the full lighting spectrum of some of the led light out now. Do they have the lower blue in them as sunlight does?
At certain times of the year the sunlight hits my tank and the fish and coral colors are amazing. I mean really amazing colors.
To best replicate sunlight you would need at least 3 different white LED's, 2 blues, a green, a purple, and a red. That is a lot of LED's to blend together to get uniform light distribution. Hence my earlier comment about the cost.
I agree with you that aquariums look great with more natural lighting. I run my blues much lower during non sunrise/sunset periods than most. I am content to just let them glow under actinic lights for an hour or two a day.