What, blue versus white, lighting combo gives the best coral growth?

What percentage of blue versus white lighting do you think makes the best coral growth combo?

  • All Blue

    Votes: 26 3.3%
  • Mostly Blue

    Votes: 486 61.4%
  • Even Balance

    Votes: 207 26.1%
  • Mostly White

    Votes: 58 7.3%
  • All White

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 13 1.6%

  • Total voters
    792

tamanning

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I start in the morning blue only channel at 60 percent at 8 am the whites come on at around 30 percent. My corals grow well and I don't get a lot of algae.
 

Lasse

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IMO - algae take over does not depends on the spectra - it depends of the presence or lack of grazers. I run all my channels at 80% during a peak period of 4 hours - it means around 136 w of total 240 w is either white LEDs (10 * 0,8 W -> 4500 K, 32*0.8 W -> 6500 K, 43*0.8 W -> 8000 K) or red and green LEDs (172*0,2 W red and 172*0.2 W green).

My spectra looks like this and the colour temperature is around 15 000 K

I use GHL Mitras lightbar 2

1623653077786.png

And the aquarium

1623653241306.png




Sincerely Lasse
 

OR20

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Back in the mid 90's I used Iwasaki 6500k Hetal Hallide over my 220 liter tank and I have yet to see a light that can grow as corals as fast and big and brown as it did.
 

Deyan

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I'm no expert at lighting so I can't offer an opinion as to growth.
However I have noticed that there are advantages to both white and blue lighting. White lighting looks more natural and highlights the fish better. And blue makes the color pop more, but it washes out the fish's colors and it looks really unnatural. The best way to get the advantages of both is to go heavy on the blues and wear orange lenses to filter the light and make it look more natural.
The trouble is, when I look at my tank I don't want to have to put on special glasses that make the tank pop but everything else look weirdly orange.
So to the manufacturers and entrepreneurs out there, why don't you make plastic films that we can stick to the glass over our tanks and cover the whole thing in a light filter. That way we can have a natural looking light with the advantage of the corals popping.
It’s already in the market - check at Amazon.
 

Doctorgori

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I’ve grown corals under 6500k, I got no scientific data but IMO 12k is just fine…
…the wives tale white light equal algae is pure bunk
I use a couple of daylights over my frag tank and in my old Tek fixture use 3 blue+ a purple plus a blue special and a actintic ….I’m gonna guess the resultant color temp is under 14k but above 10k

347176AD-9B65-43A8-BF8A-58092BEAC19E.jpeg B4CB3310-6771-40AD-B836-E6AB607B1AA8.jpeg
 
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Damion123

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I'm no expert at lighting so I can't offer an opinion as to growth.
However I have noticed that there are advantages to both white and blue lighting. White lighting looks more natural and highlights the fish better. And blue makes the color pop more, but it washes out the fish's colors and it looks really unnatural. The best way to get the advantages of both is to go heavy on the blues and wear orange lenses to filter the light and make it look more natural.
The trouble is, when I look at my tank I don't want to have to put on special glasses that make the tank pop but everything else look weirdly orange.
So to the manufacturers and entrepreneurs out there, why don't you make plastic films that we can stick to the glass over our tanks and cover the whole thing in a light filter. That way we can have a natural looking light with the advantage of the corals popping.
I like the idea
 

Freenow54

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Bulk Reef Supply made a statement that it about time Manufacturers took the guesswork out of lighting by doing the research for you. That being said my Aqua
Screenshot_20210510-205021_AQUANEST.jpg
Screenshot_20210510-205056_AQUANEST.jpg
nest lights come with preprogramed settings. One for LPS, and one foe SPS. I intend to get an Apogee Par meter in the future to check this all out, and make a decision based on what I have read here. Here are the schedules
 

Worthy1

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Whats hard with all this is there is so many variables that contribute to colour growth. Lighting is one piece of the puzzle and then there is also the combination of how the variables work together. People often add something and then get awesome growth and assume that was the cause.

I have to Radion XR30 pro's and my sps werent growing. A added T5's and boom exceptional growth. Normally i would put it down to adding the T5's but i may have hit a golden pocket with things like nutrient levels, uptake of the big 3, feeding, flow etc. The reason i cant put it down to solely the T5 addition is i have seen tanks with amazing growth with just the radions.

What i am getting at is i run the Coral blues in my T5, i dont think i would see any difference in growth if they were all white. I probably would have suddenly started getting the growth eventually without them all together.
 

PeterZammetti

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Back in the day we were always told that you needed the white light to make the corals grow and the blue was to make them pop. Today we know differently but what exactly is the BEST percentage combo to experience the best coral growth from a lighting aspect? Throw all the other variables out the door as if they were perfect. This is about Blue versus White! Let's talk about it!

What percentage of blue and white do you think makes the best coral growth combo?
 

PeterZammetti

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Assuming you can (because in my case I couldn't with a table tank) mount lighting the proper 8-12" above the tank and were using 100% intensity: Red 5-8% Green 5-8% UV 100% Purple 80% Royal Blue 80% Other Blue 40% Cool White 15-25% Moonlight 1% With this configuration you can keep Sun Coral lol!
 

ReefRusty

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G5 Pro on a reefer170, 34g dt. Running at 55% overall intensity with the diffuser. Blues , violet, Uv100%, whites 15%, red and green 3%. SPS and LPS, gorgorian, clam, anemone…seems to be working. No complaints from coral or fish. Ramping up slowly and watching for any negative reactions, you never know unless you try.
How has your growth been? Ever used a PAR metre to see what it was at?
 

PeterZammetti

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How has your growth been? Ever used a PAR metre to see what it was at?
With Radeons I always kept my mixed at 250-350 highest at center top. With these new AI Hydra's I am going to have to order a meter. I'm not gonna rent just buy since I am now helping a few others out locally, might as well own one now.
 

bearvalleyplumbers

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I recently upgraded some lousy stock tank lighting (20G hex) with a 100W Nicrew HyperReef LED. Slowly ramping it up since everything was used to, although not happy with, much lower light. I'm running the blue channel and white channel with equal intensity.
 

davy31

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I have no idea what I’m doing, but it’s working for softies, lol.

I have all blues in the morning that ramp up to 80%-100% white/20%-30% blues. Then, it ramps back down to 100% blues.
Hey! I am running a softies tank too and its what lights are you using and could please specify the intensity? I sort of start mine with an all blue ramp up then a mix of white and blue and end the day with an all blue ramp down.
 

davy31

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I recently upgraded some lousy stock tank lighting (20G hex) with a 100W Nicrew HyperReef LED. Slowly ramping it up since everything was used to, although not happy with, much lower light. I'm running the blue channel and white channel with equal intensity.
Hey! I am using the Hyper reef 50W with nicrew, do you have soft corals? I' am using mine on a 30g tank and i'm not sure if it is underpowered.
 

Reefingpops52

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I run my whites at 20% and my blues at 100% at peak of day whites at 40% and back down to 20% and then moonlight until 10:00 676 LED array 400w dual fixture.
 
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