Is it true that real sunlight is bad for LPS?

Dule T&T

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Hi everyone.
I've been building my little coral farm recently.
So, the idea was to use a real sunlight inside of the farm, therefore I built a glass roof above the coral pools.
Problem is that here where I live I couldn't find any kind of nice blue shading material to get more of blue colors in the coral pools (in order to imitate ocean depth for LPS section), so I am currently using a white shading fabric in entire object, which means that I am getting the full sunlight spectrum.

Now, I know that SPS and clams will be VERY happy in that environment, but what about LPS?

Info about this seems very scarce - some say real sunlight is the best for any kind of corals, some say that LPS might turn brown under the sunlight....
Of course, thanks to shading fabric PAR won't be over 200 during the part of the day when the sunlight is the strongest in LPS section of the farm, but what about full spectrum?
Can full spectrum really be bad for LPS as some say?
I will probably supplement blue light with some "XR30 Blue" LED later, but what in the meantime?

What does everyone think about this?

Is it the only way to know for sure to try and see? Or someone already have some experience with this?
 
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ZoWhat

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Most LPS live 10-30 ft of water

You better start digging 15-20ft down into the ground with a shovel

shovel digging GIF by Hunter Gatherer
 

zuri

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I know Pacific East grows alot of Acros outside in a greenhouse an they use shades
 

Isopod80

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As long as your PAR readings are appropriate I wouldn't think it would be harmful. However, using natural sunlight as your only means of lighting will make it impossible to control the intensity. No 2 days are the same when it comes to natural light. You'd have to take overcast days/weeks into consideration as well.
 

mdb_talon

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I have no experience myself with natural lit, but I would be on the side of thinking it will be far from ideal for lps even if you limit the par. That light will just be so different than what the majority of lps naturally receive. Let us know hoe it turns out though
 

Isopod80

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You could possibly try a light coating of blue cellophane on the underside of the glass roof to limit some of the spectrum as well. There are many varieties available online. You'd still have the issue with intensity being unregulated though. While the lps may not mind a week or so of rather cloudy weather, your sps and clams may begin to suffer in that situation if it becomes excessive.
 

rhostam

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My LPS like pectinia, euphyllia, lobophyllia, and cynarina get hit directly over a few hours daily. They seem to love it, or at least I don’t see any negative side effects. Granted, the Sun light comes from windows on the fourth floor and the tank it self is in the second floor so it’s not immediately in front of a window.

Given the variety of harvest locations and depths and the ability of these corals to adapt with time, short of placing the tank out side directly in the sun and with a depth of 6” or something not sure why it would be bad.

Don’t mind the uglies, though this is a transferred tank I was still working in tuning the feeding schedule when I took these pictures.

5BA399D7-3C19-4390-84AD-987DD9696A20.jpeg

881FE1EF-F5A0-496D-A0E6-BB685D25286D.jpeg

72764527-2B95-4995-8465-5D637BFF01BD.jpeg


These pictures are several weeks old. Here are ones from today.

3D948448-FAB0-4E3C-91B4-987E6847FF74.jpeg

3C5D8FAE-39D6-45E9-9A4A-2E8AE5641378.jpeg

D84783A3-5D0A-4A5F-9CF8-C22FE90E7CF5.jpeg

51BA752C-EB79-4C1B-8AAC-780EE4D1E5F6.jpeg


Also, I clean the glass maybe about once a week.
 

AdamD76

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Hi everyone.
I've been building my little coral farm recently.
So, the idea was to use a real sunlight inside of the farm, therefore I built a glass roof above the coral pools.
Problem is that here where I live I couldn't find any kind of nice blue shading material to get more of blue colors in the coral pools (in order to imitate ocean depth for LPS section), so I am currently using a white shading fabric in entire object, which means that I am getting the full sunlight spectrum.

Now, I know that SPS and clams will be VERY happy in that environment, but what about LPS?

Info about this seems very scarce - some say real sunlight is the best for any kind of corals, some say that LPS might turn brown under the sunlight....
Of course, thanks to shading fabric PAR won't be over 200 during the part of the day when the sunlight is the strongest in LPS section of the farm, but what about full spectrum?
Can full spectrum really be bad for LPS as some say?
I will probably supplement blue light with some "XR30 Blue" LED later, but what in the meantime?

What does everyone think about this?

Is it the only way to know for sure to try and see? Or someone already have some experience with this?
Tidal Gardens greenhouse video
 

Timfish

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Seems like we're forgetting the terms "SPS" and "LPS" are just colloquial terms and have no relevance to the environmental or nutrional requirements of corals. No matter what lighting conditions you have there will be corals that like it and corals that don't. Many of the so called "LPS" can be found in shallow water and even exposed at low tide. Fluorescing and chromo proteins are made by corals to deal with less than ideal lighting for their zooxantheallae. Seems to me the primary consideration should be finding the ideal PAR level for a coral to minimize the need for making coloring proteins and changing lighting conditions to color them up just for sale.
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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I have no experience myself with natural lit, but I would be on the side of thinking it will be far from ideal for lps even if you limit the par. That light will just be so different than what the majority of lps naturally receive. Let us know hoe it turns out though
Are you saying that LPS get a different natural sunlight than....natural sunlight? ;Writing
 

tehmadreefer

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I wonder how lps in the actual ocean get light?
 

Jmp998

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Tampico Coral Farms seems to grow a fair amount of 'LPS' under natural sunlight. Reefbuilders did a visit there a while back. As I recall they slowly add layers of shade cloth all spring, and remove it in the fall. The video is still on Youtube.

 

mdb_talon

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Are you saying that LPS get a different natural sunlight than....natural sunlight? ;Writing

Either you are just being obtuse or you have no idea how sunlight filters spectrum otherwise you would know what I meant. Sure some LPS can be found in somewhat shallower water. The vast majority are collected from much deeper where it is primarily blue spectrum. So yes that light is significantly different than that of sunlight only filtered by a few inches of water.
 

LiveFreeAndReef

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Either you are just being obtuse or you have no idea how sunlight filters spectrum otherwise you would know what I meant. Sure some LPS can be found in somewhat shallower water. The vast majority are collected from much deeper where it is primarily blue spectrum. So yes that light is significantly different than that of sunlight only filtered by a few inches of water.
Just being acute, don't be grumpy it's almost Friday!
 

Rmckoy

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Natural light is nature .
but magnified through windows , doors and glass boxes we keep corals in is what’s not good .
 

Big Smelly fish

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I once had a friend from years ago that has a saltwater pond in a greenhouse that was amazing. It wasn't glass but the regular stuff they use on greenhouses. Glass may act as a magnifier , you could get greenhouse material and put Under the glass to defuse the light.
 

mdb_talon

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Tampico Coral Farms seems to grow a fair amount of 'LPS' under natural sunlight. Reefbuilders did a visit there a while back. As I recall they slowly add layers of shade cloth all spring, and remove it in the fall. The video is still on Youtube.



Love the video, but did you notice the part where they talked about use of supplemental LED lighting where they crank up the blues?
 
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Dule T&T

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As long as your PAR readings are appropriate I wouldn't think it would be harmful. However, using natural sunlight as your only means of lighting will make it impossible to control the intensity. No 2 days are the same when it comes to natural light. You'd have to take overcast days/weeks into consideration as well.
Thanks.
Yes, you are right about light intensity.
But isn't exactly the same in the ocean?
I forgot to mention that I actually live in the Caribbean, so there's an actual reef in the ocean close to me.
My thinking was - if they can survive in the ocean with this exact same weather pattern, why not in my "farm" few miles from the reef?
If I am not wrong Pacific corals that we all keep also come from the region that has rainy season... and corals seems ok with it.

But, I am worried if deep water LPS would change color after being exposed to more colors of spectrum besides blues that they are adapted to.
Also, later, as I already mentioned in the original post I will supplement blue with LED, especially during the cloudy days.
 
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