Is white spectrum light needed? Can i just stick to blues?

[alfieh0]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but i'm new to reef lighting as I've only just started keeping coral. I have an AI Prime 16 and want to get a good spectrum of the different lighting.

I understand that blues are important for your corals, but is white necessary? I know a lot of people say they don't like the deep blue so they add white for more of a visual appeal. But in terms of corals, do they need white? I don't want to add it as a quite like the rich blue look, plus I've heard that the white helps grow algae, is this true?

While I'm on the topic of light, red and green colors, what are they for? All i hear is people saying to add theses colors in small amounts as they can help algae grow, but why do i need to add them in the first place. My green and red is set at 3% on my 15 gallon, is this okay?

Thanks for reading my post, sorry again if this is a stupid question, i just haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.

 

[oreo54]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but i'm new to reef lighting as I've only just started keeping coral. I have an AI Prime 16 and want to get a good spectrum of the different lighting.

I understand that blues are important for your corals, but is white necessary? I know a lot of people say they don't like the deep blue so they add white for more of a visual appeal. But in terms of corals, do they need white? I don't want to add it as a quite like the rich blue look, plus I've heard that the white helps grow algae, is this true?

While I'm on the topic of light, red and green colors, what are they for? All i hear is people saying to add theses colors in small amounts as they can help algae grow, but why do i need to add them in the first place. My green and red is set at 3% on my 15 gallon, is this okay?

Thanks for reading my post, sorry again if this is a stupid question, i just haven't been able to find an answer anywhere.

There are literally dozens if not hundreds of threads "debating" this.
Some dealing with growth, some color, some visual..

No white light

Hi all I was just wondering if anyone runs their lights with no white, just blues, uv, red and green?

www.reef2reef.com

Some believe red inspire algae..

 

[Bpb]

Blue heavy in the correct intensity range is ideal. If you can manage pest algae growth, the closer you get to real sunlight the better. There's more to coral health than satisfying the needs of chloraphyll A. Yes, that is the "gasoline" in the engine that is a coral, but more accessory photo sensitive pigments play a role in coral health (much like air, coolant, lubricants, ect to keep with the engine analogy). Excessive pest algae is more often a result of immature tank biology and poor herbivore stocking than it is lighting kelvin rating. Plenty of people out there have run extremely high intensities of 6500k and 10000k metal halides and not dealt with nuisance algae at all. It can be done.

 

[mdb_talon]

It was not that many years ago it seemed the consensus was that blue light was to make them look good and white was needed for growth. Lot has changed in the hobby over the years.

To answer your question though I know of tanks that run an extremely blue light with little to no white spectrum and look fantastic, but personally I find that a somewhat broad spectrum does best. I think it also depends on the coral. The deeper the natural habitat of the coral the less white/green/red spectrum of light gets through. Blue spectrum lighting goes deeper in the ocean than other spectrums the way I understand it. A coral that is naturally found in 1ft of water may have a different ideal spectrum than a coral naturally found in 30ft of water.

 

[jda]

This has been well threaded, for sure... lots of them. Some of the stuff is dumb and some is smart... choose well. In general, blue only will lose some color and you won't be able to pop color that is not there. Depending on the coral, they might grow OK and some might slow down. Keep in mind that most white light sources also have a ton of blue in them. Daylight for growth and color rendering and then blue it up to your liking to view the corals - this works best.

You will see some stuff about some proteins being optimal at certain spectrum for a single thing (like photosynthesis), yet some people translate this as 1). this is the only protein in the coral, 2). optimal is the only thing that matters, 3). other things beyond the singular that was stated do not matter (like color production, etc.). So even if a coral has a protein/clade that is optimal at 460nm, it could have many other proteins at other wavelengths for other colors and additional photosynthesis, more wavelengths to produce pigments that act as sunscreen, more than can deal with emerson effect, etc. This is always more complicated than just the statement that coral X only needs spectrum Y.

If you don't think that algae can grow plenty fine with blue alone, then you are kidding yourself. Algae is more of a product of available building blocks and lack of consumers. Even in a tank with low N and P, algae could take over if I did not have an army of snails and urchins.