Will white light majority grow corals? (PLANTED TANK LEDS???)

[AbnormalReefer]

Hello all, due to a precarious situation I am in of currently transitioning my 55 gallon reef into my new 180 gallon reef, I am left in a difficult scenario. I have the equipment needed to make the 180 into a FOWLR tank (currently working on cycle), however the only thing stopping me from making a full out reef is the lighting. I plan to spent 1600$ or so on lighting, of which only 200$ I’ve saved up for. So it will be a while. I’d estimate at least 4-6 months. Maybe sooner depending on how much I can realistically earn as a 14 year old.

Now here’s the real dilemma. Can I sustain softies, LPS, and montipora and hydnophora with a PLANTED TANK LIGHT??? One of them is a cheap fixture with 10,000k white (30 bulbs) and 460nm blue (6 bulbs). The other lighting is from Dustin’s Fish Tanks (used to be big on planted tanks) and uses what I can make out to be 2500k warm white LED bulbs (36 bulbs) and either daylight 6500k or 10,000k bulbs (36 bulbs). Now, I don’t see how the first one will affect the corals negatively, and may be enough for some zoanthids/mushrooms. However the concern here is mainly with the second lighting and the amount of white here. I figured corals usually needed more blue than white?

Anyways, I guess my question is that whether this lighting will atleast enable corals to survive for 4-6 months assuming I provide otherwise good husbandry? If not, I can always keep them in my 55 gallon with proper lighting for a bit, however with no protein skimmer and filtration besides the live rock! It’s such a dilemma!


PS - The warm white channel on the planted tank LED can be turned down in 25% increments.

[Repost from the hardware forum? Got no answers]

 

[Oscaror]

Hello all, due to a precarious situation I am in of currently transitioning my 55 gallon reef into my new 180 gallon reef, I am left in a difficult scenario. I have the equipment needed to make the 180 into a FOWLR tank (currently working on cycle), however the only thing stopping me from making a full out reef is the lighting. I plan to spent 1600$ or so on lighting, of which only 200$ I’ve saved up for. So it will be a while. I’d estimate at least 4-6 months. Maybe sooner depending on how much I can realistically earn as a 14 year old.

Now here’s the real dilemma. Can I sustain softies, LPS, and montipora and hydnophora with a PLANTED TANK LIGHT??? One of them is a cheap fixture with 10,000k white (30 bulbs) and 460nm blue (6 bulbs). The other lighting is from Dustin’s Fish Tanks (used to be big on planted tanks) and uses what I can make out to be 2500k warm white LED bulbs (36 bulbs) and either daylight 6500k or 10,000k bulbs (36 bulbs). Now, I don’t see how the first one will affect the corals negatively, and may be enough for some zoanthids/mushrooms. However the concern here is mainly with the second lighting and the amount of white here. I figured corals usually needed more blue than white?

Anyways, I guess my question is that whether this lighting will atleast enable corals to survive for 4-6 months assuming I provide otherwise good husbandry? If not, I can always keep them in my 55 gallon with proper lighting for a bit, however with no protein skimmer and filtration besides the live rock! It’s such a dilemma!


PS - The warm white channel on the planted tank LED can be turned down in 25% increments.

[Repost from the hardware forum? Got no answers]

I'd recommend not bothering with corals in the mean time. The light will be able to support some softies like zoas for sure, I'm not sure about other corals since idk the wattage and all that. But even though it's no fun, I'd say just don't bother with corals until you can get proper lighting. By no spending money on corals you'll be able to get those lights sooner afterall since all your money will be going towards that. Budgeting as a 14 year old is hard (believe me I was there not too long ago ) and if you wanna make a big expense like that I suggest going all in. You only have 200 dollars saved towards you 1600 dollar goal, that's only 12.5%. If you catch the coral bug too early it may slow you down. Trust me time flies it'll be over in no time.

 

[Patrick.S]

People grow corals like crazy with 6500k halides. As long as there is sufficient light I don’t see why your corals would die.

 

[Oscaror]

Forgot to ask. You mention a 55 gallon, if that's a reef tank and you're saying you'd bring corals over then there's a different story, and I still don't have the answers to your original question, but I'd avoid buying corals if you're saving money nonetheless

 

[Gareth elliott]

What is the planted light? They are not created equal ime.

Besides par, some have spectrums that are not really full spectrum.

 

[AbnormalReefer]

Hi all,

I will not be buying new corals, I will be moving corals over from my old 55 gallon at some point (whether now or later)

The planted light is from Dustin’s Fish Tanks. I believe they are called the Standard Double LEDS. I believe my 72” model has 36 6500-10000k cool whites and 36 2500k warm whites.

 

[AbnormalReefer]

Bump

 

[Oscaror]

Hi all,

I will not be buying new corals, I will be moving corals over from my old 55 gallon at some point (whether now or later)

The planted light is from Dustin’s Fish Tanks. I believe they are called the Standard Double LEDS. I believe my 72” model has 36 6500-10000k cool whites and 36 2500k warm whites.

You could test it out by moving hardy soft corals over to gauge its effectiveness

 

[naoki]

You might want to take a look at this:

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/2/aafeature

I've been reading the studies of coral and algal photosynthetic action spectra (there are more studies since the article above). But so far, I haven't been convinced about the advantage of monochromatic LEDs over phosphor-based white LEDs. So I decided to go with Bridgelux EB strips gen 2 (white linear modules). In the plant world, people used to use those hideous R+B-based LED grow light fixtures, but most people have migrated to white or white+red. Due to the advance in the blue LEDs and phosphor technology, white LEDs can give equally good photosynthetic quantum efficacy. Actually if you compare the cheap monochromatic LEDs against DIY white LEDs, the later gives the better efficacy. Most reef-LED light companies don't seem to release the relevant specifications, so I can't directly compare, but the PAR efficacy of EB strips are about 2.5 micromol/J, higher than most commercial "grow light".

 

[AbnormalReefer]

Thanks all. I may try it with some cheap gold dust palythoas or something like that!

 

[naoki]

Here is one more, which isn't too technical:

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2018/4/aafeature

Expression of color pigments will be influenced, but as long as the white LEDs contain blue light (all phosphore-based white LEDs do), they will grow well. It appears that the algae use blue light to regulate their cell cycles.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Did you have this light over a planted tank? What plants were you able to grow?
Anything like Rotala macrandra, or other red plants?
Or perhaps Dwarf hair grass or other high light foreground plants to gauge how deep the light penetrates.

I found nothing as far as par, spectrum diode count. Even on planted forums or AA.

 

[AbnormalReefer]

Did you have this light over a planted tank? What plants were you able to grow?
Anything like Rotala macrandra, or other red plants?
Or perhaps Dwarf hair grass or other high light foreground plants to gauge how deep the light penetrates.

I found nothing as far as par, spectrum diode count. Even on planted forums or AA.

Hi,

It was able to grow plants like rotala macrandra, alternantha reneickii, and ludwigia repens. I was never able to grow dwarf hair grass though with the light alone. However when I supplemented with cheap bulbs from Home Depot I was able to.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Hi,

It was able to grow plants like rotala macrandra, alternantha reneickii, and ludwigia repens. I was never able to grow dwarf hair grass though with the light alone. However when I supplemented with cheap bulbs from Home Depot I was able to.

Perhaps use the top 2/3rds then. Going to assume par on the bottom with the led alone is quite low.