Should I switch to all blue?

[Gordi]

Hi, I've just got a bargain spare blue LED and was wondering if it is beneficial to switch to all blue lighting?
I currently have two 24 inch led tubes, one white and one blue. Every tank in my LFS is lit by just blue light and the corals seem a lot healthier than mine, although in fairness, they probably have a lot more maintenance time than I do.
Would it hurt to experiment for a day or two?
Thanks in advance!

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

They may be running all blue to reduce the amount of algae in the system. Blue makes corals look cool, but they do need more than just blue light to thrive

 

[Theulli]

Hi, I've just got a bargain spare blue LED and was wondering if it is beneficial to switch to all blue lighting?
I currently have two 24 inch led tubes, one white and one blue. Every tank in my LFS is lit by just blue light and the corals seem a lot healthier than mine, although in fairness, they probably have a lot more maintenance time than I do.
Would it hurt to experiment for a day or two?
Thanks in advance!

Blue light penetrates into the water more effectively than white, so if you aren't seeing great growth from your corals it's worth a try.

White light, on the other hand, seems to be most effective at growing nuisance algae and cyano...I run mine at <10%

 

[MONTANTK]

I currently run a very blue spectrum. Some of the programs I have seen people run utilize UV, red and green rather than white LEDs to get that white look. I am by no means an expert on this stuff but corals should definitely have a little bit of white light exposure in some way l, shape or form

 

[Zeal]

Hi, I've just got a bargain spare blue LED and was wondering if it is beneficial to switch to all blue lighting?
I currently have two 24 inch led tubes, one white and one blue. Every tank in my LFS is lit by just blue light and the corals seem a lot healthier than mine, although in fairness, they probably have a lot more maintenance time than I do.
Would it hurt to experiment for a day or two?
Thanks in advance!

So I personally hate white light in my reef. But unfortunately white light produces the most amount of PAR.

After lots of research and discussing with various people I decided to run the WWC 1500g SPS dominated radion schedule.

The schedule is AB+ setting from 9am to 1PM 25% whites, 100% blues and 10% red and green. From 1PM to 3PM it is a modified version of AB+ with whites at 15%, 100% blues and green and red at 5%. After 3PM the light is 100% all blue no whites, red or greens.

The reason I switched to this schedule is because 1I had extremely low PAR in my reef and I run 3 Radion XR15Pro Gen 5 and I noticed my WD acro was green not that pretty goldish yellow green.

Some white is needed if you want to grow your corals. Sadly white really helps but man it does look ugly. I am currently running a 30 day acclimation on the schedule but so far everything seems to be responding well.

I added some photos with the PAR value at various locations in the tank

 

[Lavey29]

So I personally hate white light in my reef. But unfortunately white light produces the most amount of PAR.

After lots of research and discussing with various people I decided to run the WWC 1500g SPS dominated radion schedule.

The schedule is AB+ setting from 9am to 1PM 25% whites, 100% blues and 10% red and green. From 1PM to 3PM it is a modified version of AB+ with whites at 15%, 100% blues and green and red at 5%. After 3PM the light is 100% all blue no whites, red or greens.

The reason I switched to this schedule is because 1I had extremely low PAR in my reef and I run 3 Radion XR15Pro Gen 5 and I noticed my WD acro was green not that pretty goldish yellow green.

Some white is needed if you want to grow your corals. Sadly white really helps but man it does look ugly. I am currently running a 30 day acclimation on the schedule but so far everything seems to be responding well.

I added some photos with the PAR value at various locations in the tank

They say corals do not need white light to be healthy and grow. White light is merely for the viewer outside the tank. Corals in the ocean are often found 30' or more with no white light available.

 

[Midrats]

Don't you want to see ALL the colors in your tank? Pure blue is like looking into the abyss, not a coral reef.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

They say corals do not need white light to be healthy and grow. White light is merely for the viewer outside the tank. Corals in the ocean are often found 30' or more with no white light available.

More like 100' down, and the majority of our corals are living much closer to the surface. And who is "they"? lol

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Don't you want to see ALL the colors in your tank? Pure blue is like looking into the abyss, not a coral reef.

I'll take "windex tanks" for $300 Alex

 

[Lavey29]

More like 100' down, and the majority of our corals are living much closer to the surface. And who is "they"? lol

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://aquariumgenius.com/do-corals-need-white-light-to-grow/%23:~:text%3DCorals%2520don%27t%2520need%2520a,lighting%2520colors%2520for%2520reef%2520tanks.&ved=2ahUKEwjC04jl1ub0AhWBmWoFHRRxBO8QFnoECAQQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0cLTBMwsjuAqy1L0JrBq1M

It's pretty common knowledge via the internet

 

[Zeal]

They say corals do not need white light to be healthy and grow. White light is merely for the viewer outside the tank. Corals in the ocean are often found 30' or more with no white light available.

I said you need SOME on my reef I literally run it for 4 hours at AB+

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

FWIW:

And for all of us non-metric using Americans, 50 meters is just over 164 feet

 

[Zeal]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://aquariumgenius.com/do-corals-need-white-light-to-grow/%23:~:text%3DCorals%2520don%27t%2520need%2520a,lighting%2520colors%2520for%2520reef%2520tanks.&ved=2ahUKEwjC04jl1ub0AhWBmWoFHRRxBO8QFnoECAQQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0cLTBMwsjuAqy1L0JrBq1M

It's pretty common knowledge via the internet

White produces most amount of par. Par grows corals. A Acro at 75 PAR isn’t going to thrive like a Acro at 300 PAR. All I’m stating is running alittle bit of white for a brief time in your schedule greatly helps the corals thrive as opposed to running straight blues

 

[Lavey29]

I said you need SOME on my reef I literally run it for 4 hours at AB+

But the SOME is nothing more then adding visual appeal to the viewer. Does nothing for corals.

 

[Zeal]

But the SOME is nothing more then adding visual appeal to the viewer. Does nothing for corals.

IT INCREASES PAR….

 

[Lavey29]

IT INCREASES PAR….

And yet as I wander through my favorite coral shops display tanks all I see are blue and UV. No white at all. I wonder how they keep all those acros looking beautiful?

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://aquariumgenius.com/do-corals-need-white-light-to-grow/%23:~:text%3DCorals%2520don%27t%2520need%2520a,lighting%2520colors%2520for%2520reef%2520tanks.&ved=2ahUKEwjC04jl1ub0AhWBmWoFHRRxBO8QFnoECAQQBQ&usg=AOvVaw0cLTBMwsjuAqy1L0JrBq1M

It's pretty common knowledge via the internet

You should probably expand your search to some more reliable sources lol Like this one: https://www.tidalgardens.com/blog/lighting/
And if you won't be bothered to read that whole thing, here are a couple important points:
"The color of light is important not only for aesthetics but for the photosynthetic process. Chlorophyll in zooxanthellae does not absorb light uniformly. There are certain spectrums of light that are absorbed highly and other spectrums that are rejected. The type of chlorophyll most commonly found in corals is Chlorophyll A and it has two major absorption peaks. One at the 440 nm wavelength which is a violet light and the other at the 675nm wavelength which is a red light.

Light spectrums neighboring those spectral peaks are also absorbed by Chlorophyll A but also by different compounds such as Chlorophyll C and carotenoids so it is important for whatever lighting you choose to have a robust spectrum outside of just the 675nm and 440nm spectral peaks."

"Still, there are perks to using higher Kelvin bulbs. Bluer light is aesthetically pleasing but has the side perk of algae control as algae tends to rely more on the reds, yellows, and greens compared to coral.

Having said that, lower Kelvin bulbs grow coral faster. Possibly the best bulb I have ever seen at growing corals was the 6500K Iwasaki although it was arguably the least attractive color unless you are looking for a very yellow-looking shallow water reef."

Wait what?? Lower Kelvin blubs grow coral faster?? But "the internet" told me that they only needed blue light! ;Woot

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

And yet as I wander through my favorite coral shops display tanks all I see are blue and UV. No white at all. I wonder how they keep all those acros looking beautiful?

Because running blues only reduces the amount of algae they have to clean up, and they're selling those corals, not growing them out

 

[Zeal]

And yet as I wander through my favorite coral shops display tanks all I see are blue and UV. No white at all. I wonder how they keep all those acros looking beautiful?

Ok but I’m willing to bet the true corals are not coming out because you need the white light. Please do some more research

 

[Lavey29]

Because running blues only reduces the amount of algae they have to clean up, and they're selling those corals, not growing them out

I'm sure BRS or big coral vendors have run lighting tests to see if white adds anything to coral devopment. I run my white at 10% but only for a few hours for visual astetics