Which light colour is best for corals!

FacebookJail

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Bluer spectrum with moderate to heavy actinic supplementation if you want to pull the best colors, whiter spectrums might produce faster growth though. I personally go for best colors.

I have found that a degree of white is required for some corals to color up properly. Example: When I was just running Blue+ and Pure actinic bulbs over a display, Vivid Rainbow browned out to a degree. A couple months after swapping out one of the Blue+ for a Coral+ it regained full coloration. I noticed similar effects with a couple encrusting montiporas as well.
 
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merereef

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Bluer spectrum with moderate to heavy actinic supplementation if you want to pull the best colors, whiter spectrums might produce faster growth though. I personally go for best colors.

I have found that a degree of white is required for some corals to color up properly. Example: When I was just running Blue+ and Pure actinic bulbs over a display, Vivid Rainbow browned out to a degree. A couple months after swapping out one of the Blue+ for a Coral+ it regained full coloration. I noticed similar effects with a couple encrusting montiporas as well.
Thank you very much
 

Bpb

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Another note. I find it amusing that in this thread and in many others, you have two groups of people among the many.
A: blue lighting is for growth and whites are only for our viewing enjoyment
B: white lighting is for growth and blues and just for our viewing enjoyment.

Both very adamant on being right, with data to support. Some swearing that 20000k bulbs and blue heavy led settings will yield the most dramatic growth, others swearing those colors will yield sluggish growth in comparison to 6500k and 10000k.

Funny
 

FacebookJail

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Another note. I find it amusing that in this thread and in many others, you have two groups of people among the many.
A: blue lighting is for growth and whites are only for our viewing enjoyment
B: white lighting is for growth and blues and just for our viewing enjoyment.

Both very adamant on being right, with data to support. Some swearing that 20000k bulbs and blue heavy led settings will yield the most dramatic growth, others swearing those colors will yield sluggish growth in comparison to 6500k and 10000k.

Funny
Until reading this thread I have never encountered (A), (B) has been much more consistent.
 

Backreefing

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My own experience is . I put 2 t5 lights one in front and one behind my black box , both 10000k coralife growth and appearance were meh . I switch the 10000k bulbs for 2 blue + bulbs and growth and appearance both improved alot . It showed me the light . All else the same .
 

Daniel@R2R

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Another note. I find it amusing that in this thread and in many others, you have two groups of people among the many.
A: blue lighting is for growth and whites are only for our viewing enjoyment
B: white lighting is for growth and blues and just for our viewing enjoyment.

Both very adamant on being right, with data to support. Some swearing that 20000k bulbs and blue heavy led settings will yield the most dramatic growth, others swearing those colors will yield sluggish growth in comparison to 6500k and 10000k.

Funny
Can't they both be right!? ;Smuggrin ;Bookworm ;Brb
 

jda

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Nearly every coral in your tank is collected on one breath and will have nearly the same sunlight at 2 feet. This is a 6500k spectrum. This looks pretty yellow, so even though it is best for growth and actual color, you will likely want to blue-it-up for illumination to look at the corals.

There are few single lights that can both render color and illuminate color well - a few different types of halides. Some LEDs can do Ok with a few different programs using different diodes. You need a mix of T5 bulbs to do this too.
 
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merereef

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Nearly every coral in your tank is collected on one breath and will have nearly the same sunlight at 2 feet. This is a 6500k spectrum. This looks pretty yellow, so even though it is best for growth and actual color, you will likely want to blue-it-up for illumination to look at the corals.

There are few single lights that can both render color and illuminate color well - a few different types of halides. Some LEDs can do Ok with a few different programs using different diodes. You need a mix of T5 bulbs to do this too.
Very good point
 

RevMH

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I dislike that these threads get so derailed that we lose a healthy conversation regarding lighting. There surely isn't one right answer, but instead of debating the topic and discussing strategies for success, the thread dies and no one wants to talk anymore. In my almost 16 years of reefing, I've used PC, T5, MH, and LEDs. I have had success with all of these (I only had softie success with PC). In the end, I enjoy a combination approach and it seems to be successful for me in my circumstance.
 

bacc2bacc

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during the day time when im at work and not by the tank, i run a 10-12k t5 fixture, once i get home, i remove the t5 and turn on some RB cree leds for viewing
 
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merereef

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So i have been reading alot about spectrums and differentlighting schedules masters use i found that corals mainly need the blue spectrum of light to grow. The blue voilet etc is what they require but the white light does emit a little bit of the blue too needed by the corals.. so i think the answer is mainly blue and a little bit of white is needed but most corals will do fine with just the mainly blue but the white is needed to complete the full light spectrum needed for corals but only about 20-30% of the white compared to what you run the blues at. Max intensity that most aquarists that have successful yanks seems to be between 4-7 hours

Below is a screenshot of just the whites on ai hydras that show the blue peak thats also used by corals

67A33608-C909-4D42-AA49-F5DC8460A7A1.jpeg
 
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PlasmaBoy

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I'll throw a stick in here, I believe coral type has a large part to play. When led came into play, the successful tanks all had similar corals. I look back at say Saxbys early 2008 tank and it's very different to how it is now under led. Both are mind blowing :)
 

LARedstickreefer

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Aren’t MH bulbs close to end of production? I remember hearing, from somewhere, that they won’t be around much longer.

On a more serious note, once we decide which light is best, let’s move on to which bear is best.
 
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