How important are white lights?

[Bpb]

Haha come on buddy, you literally just described what he’s trying to convey to you. It is a coral sale you are describing where people are trying to show the most crazy colors possible to encourage people to buy them, nothing else. It goes hand in hand with the ridiculous names people put on corals these days. You got one thing right though, it is for the children. The windex tanks these days are less about recreating the ocean in your living room and more about turning your tank into neon light show for friends.

Took the words right out of my Mouth. Don’t get me wrong. I like to view my corals under blue glow…briefly. For 8 hours of my photoperiod, my kessils are set to 100% color (as white as they go) with reds and greens cranked as well. I like my tank to look like the ocean at 10 feet

 

[Acroporaguy]

Some shallow water species will "only" look their best under white lighting, a key example would be a yellow Fiji leather. If you ever want to see it this vividly yellow. You will need a period in the day with full spectrum.

Absolutely. They tend to turn green under blues

 

[Spare time]

Running a tank on solid blue light is doable, but it is a incomplete photosynthetic diet. There are accessory pigments that are able to use just about everything in the visual spectrum. Eliminate that from what is available and you will limit what color production is possible. The blue craze is motivated more by selling based on photos than anything. Ecotech didn’t remove most of their white diodes because it’s better for the corals. They did it because it’s what their customers prefer visually, without causing harm to the corals in the process.

I don't think incomplete diet would be the right term. There is not dietary ecology going on with lighting lol. Its just a way to produce glucose. It appears to be more of an optional "add on" rather than something the zooxanthellae are missing for proper function (albeit I know that a wider spectrum reaching far reds may alleviate some stress off of other photosystems).

 

[djf91]

They adapt...............

The spectral quality of light is a key driver of photosynthesis and photoadaptation in Stylophora pistillata colonies from different depths.

The spectral quality of light is a key driver of photosynthesis and photoadaptation in Stylophora pistillata colonies from different depths.

www.academia.edu

Yes, the same way your dog might “adapt” to being walked once per day for 5 minutes.

 

[oreo54]

Yes, the same way your dog might “adapt” to being walked once per day for 5 minutes.

There is an advantage to adaptation
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...au-Weh-following-the-bleaching_fig1_307719222