Can sps/acros flourish and grow under 50/50 lighting?

[CyberGuy]

On my 20 gallon sps/acro dominant tank, I am now using 5 ReefBrite fixtures. I use two 8 inch Lumi Lite PRO Actinic, two 18 inch Lumi Lite PRO, and one 18 inch Lumi Lite Pro 50/50. I replaced the Radion XR30 4th Gen with the 50/50 Lumi Lite PRO strip and placed it in the middle of the tank. The other 4 Actinic strips are placed on the four outside edges.

Anyway, would these 5 ReefBrite strips be good enough to grow and produce great color? They do not have various colored LEDs like the Radion that I replaced. I think I have decent par since the lights are 2 inches above the surface of the water.

When I used the Radion, I turned it way down to 35% intensity.

 

[bobnicaragua]

I'm guessing with the 50/50 mixed in, you are going to be okay. You have great coverage for sure.

 

[homer1475]

I'm guessing here, but without a par meter, it's a guessing game anyways.

Only thing that would worry me is the lack of spectrum. You know that big burning ball in the sky puts out full spectrum light, not just one color. Par is probably fine, but par is not everything in lighting.

Personally I think you would have been better off keeping the radion.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Is that 5 plugs? Or do those link together?
Give er a try. As said u will have great coverage.
Sorry i dont know those lights myself.
D

 

[Hermie]

I think so. Do you know the PAR that each one puts out? Somewhere it should be reported by a hobbyist or the company.

 

[Big E]

I'm going to say no..........some corals will be ok but many won't color under just blue & white diodes.

You are going back to the future when the first LED lights were just blue and white. They basically sucked for coloring acros. The major part you're lacking is 400-420nm. There are also coral pigments that only get excited in the far range 580-600 that isn't covered and that was also a major issue as red and some pink corals would not color good at all.

If you can add some pure actinic light strips in that 400-420 range that would help a lot.

 

[Softhammer]

I agree with above. Corals will grow but color will suck. 50/50 was all we had for many years but why would you do it now? For less cash than that overly complicated setup you could get one killer fixture that does it all.