Corals Under Only White Lights

[Reefkeeper14]

I was thinking today about how different corals of the same species/color variations can look under various types of lighting. I remember reading somewhere that some of these differences, might be caused by differences in the amount of fluorescent proteins in corals under various lighting types. Since most fluorescent proteins absorb light in the blue/UV wavelengths, to confirm/deny this idea I thought it would be useful/fun if everyone could post pictures of their tanks under just white channels of light.

Thank You!

 

[jda]

I do not know that anybody has ever kept coral under only white lights. This would only be really possible with LEDs.

The whiter looking T5, T12 and MH lighting still has a bunch of blue spectrum in them, they just look whiter to our eyes.

If your question is if corals can look better with white light, the answer is yes, but probably not how you are thinking with just white for illumination. Full spectrum is good to render really good color and then you can blue-it-up for your viewing pleasure when you want to gaze. There are colors that will not come out under heavy-blues only. So, white is good to render color in corals, but it needs to be run every day and will take some time to get to the pigments developed.

Some stuff looks good under 6500k lighting, but again, this has blue in it too and is just whiter to our eyes. Most clams really shine under this light as well as lots of pink, green and blue corals.

 

[Reefkeeper14]

I do not know that anybody has ever kept coral under only white lights. This would only be really possible with LEDs.

The whiter looking T5, T12 and MH lighting still has a bunch of blue spectrum in them, they just look whiter to our eyes.

If your question is if corals can look better with white light, the answer is yes, but probably not how you are thinking with just white for illumination. Full spectrum is good to render really good color and then you can blue-it-up for your viewing pleasure when you want to gaze. There are colors that will not come out under heavy-blues only. So, white is good to render color in corals, but it needs to be run every day and will take some time to get to the pigments developed.

Some stuff looks good under 6500k lighting, but again, this has blue in it too and is just whiter to our eyes. Most clams really shine under this light as well as lots of pink, green and blue corals.

Thanks for the response, I am more just looking for pictures of corals under just white channels of lights. As you said I am sure this is probably only an option for people with LEDs. Its fine if the corals are kept under blue lights usually but I want to see how similar corals look under lights which excludes the wavelengths blue and ultraviolet. Essentially I am just looking for pictures of peoples tanks under warm white light, even if that's not the lighting configuration they typically use on their tanks.
Sorry for the miscommunication!

 

[oreo54]

Thanks for the response, I am more just looking for pictures of corals under just white channels of lights. As you said I am sure this is probably only an option for people with LEDs. Its fine if the corals are kept under blue lights usually but I want to see how similar corals look under lights which excludes the wavelengths blue and ultraviolet. Essentially I am just looking for pictures of peoples tanks under warm white light, even if that's not the lighting configuration they typically use on their tanks.
Sorry for the miscommunication!

Hmm from a thought exercise that's a bit difficult because most "white" light is derived nowadays (barring horribly inefficient incandescents) using RGB phosphors (tubes ) or blue pump w/ yellow/green/red phosphors (LED).
Leaving out "white" MH's such as the Iwasaki 6500k because I'm not sure exactly what salts they use nor their ind. spectrums but def has blue/UV.
IF I remember correctly at one time using HPS bulbs were used to grow corals..but appears sort of "pre-internet" due to the fact that the amount of photons needed was easier to achieve w/ those type of bulbs.

NOW to "test" (short of low k lights which really just look bad overall) this there is a modern "workaround" using "circadian friendly" LEDs..

SORRA makes them.
Though it substitutes violet (not UV) for blue..
I'm sure nobodys used them for coral growing

ZEROBLUE :: SORAA

www.soraa.com

Just a small vid of light sources, look and spectrum


Not sure what one would gain by sort of "going against the blue grain" here.
I can understand the "what if" but don't see it surpassing the why of using blue in your "white" as is normal.

How much "blue" (really everything from blue to violet) is forever arguable it seems and some is more err form than function..

This is a composite chart of a "white" MH and a violet enhanced 6500K WHITE Led. So 2 diodes.
Go down to one type of diode and you can picture the spectrum w/ out the purple spike..

If you want to try a warm light just get a HPS unit and try it.
HPS will look yellow white. Green line is warm white LED.

Anyone use sodium lights

I was talking on the phone with an online coral retailer a while back who told me they use sodium (hps) lighting over their tanks. One of my favorite sps frags came from these people so I have to believe they know what they are doing. Does anybody else use these?

www.reef2reef.com

Like I said, "warm" HPS's were used at one time..

I was talking on the phone with an online coral retailer a while back who told me they use sodium (hps) lighting over their tanks. One of my favorite sps frags came from these people so I have to believe they know what they are doing. Does anybody else use these?

Warm White LEd's may, or may not work better .. but you need the # of photons..

 

[Reefkeeper14]

I believe there have been studies which show that corals grow better under lights including the blue spectrum, but that's not my concern. I am not looking to grow corals under white lights. I just recently read a couple article about where the different colors of coral come from and why many corals in the wild appear more brown than in our tanks.

According to some of the articles I read a lot of the brown/red coloration is the result of chlorophyll A in the coral. In contrast many of the bright colors which look so good in reef tanks are really florescent. These florescent colors come from proteins in the coral which absorb light in the blue spectrum and remit this light at a different spectrum (red, green, blue etc).

With this knowledge in mind I wanted to see how similar our corals looked under lighting which excludes the blue/ultraviolet spectrum (and in doing so limits florescence). This could begin to tell us if the bulk of the differences in our corals appearance under different lighting is due to differences in the quantity of the proteins in our coral. Knowing this could be helpful because it might allow us to understand which types of lighting are more likely to enhance the growth of these florescent proteins. This could help us to create tanks with more colorful corals. Additionally, it could help us to see if there are certain types of lighting which encourage chlorophyll production.

What I was looking to achieve with this post was to have members with the capability to photograph their tanks under just white lights (probably only LED users) to take such a photograph. Then it would be possible to see how similar corals look when they are not fluorescing. From there it might be possible to start answering some of the questions I asked in the last paragraph.

Thank You!

 

[oreo54]

excitationvsemission

 

[Bpb]

Omitting blue and violet are different from including the entire range of green, yellow, and Red spectrums. There is a ton of blue in sunlight but corals are brown because they are expressing all pigments. Mixing every color together yields brown. Just about all white leds you will find in the hobby have a ton of blue in them (because they’re actually blue at the base). Corals just don’t fluoresce because they’re also reflecting all of their chromoproteins at the same time.

 

[Reefkeeper14]

excitationvsemission

This is super useful. Is there an article that went along with this image you could possibly point me too?

 

[oreo54]

Feature Article: Light in the Reef Aquaria

Light is one of the main life-supporting resources on our planet. Being photosynthetic, many marine invertebrates require light to live; Their symbiotic zooxanthellae need light for photosynthesis to produce sufficient nourishment both for their own use and for the host coral.

www.advancedaquarist.com

Related..

Coral Coloration: Fluorescence: Part 1 - Reefs.com

Coral Coloration: Fluorescence: Part 1 - While coral coloration is today less likely to be the subject of intense interest (and debate) within the hobby than it was just 5 years ago, the situation is much different in peer-reviewed literature, with researchers producing a staggering amount of...

www.advancedaquarist.com

 

[jeffchapok]

I took some pics of my tank under white only, followed by my normal daytime settings.

 

[Butcher333]

Cool! Clams are beautiful.

 

[itselenababe]

I took some pics of my tank under white only, followed by my normal daytime settings.

what is the bottom one called?

 

[stevenfreeves]

Hi all, as my lighting (Sunbright) has went out of business and I know there are a lot of junk LED systems out there.... I was wondering what the concensus is,if there is one on what are the best LED lights for reef tanks these days. I have been out of reefing for about 5 years just getting back to it. I have a 135 72x18x24 just set back up 4 days ago.
thanks,

 

[jeffchapok]

what is the bottom one called?

Hairy mushrooms