Zoa lighting

[Deniss]

I'm curious what other people use for lighting, white's , blue's, other...and for how long.
I'm running atm, 2 hours blue, 6 hours white& blue, 2 hours blue.

I'm still experimenting with lighting, so i'm curious what you people run at the moment.

 

[zachxlutz]

Your question is SUPER broad. It really depends on tank size, preference, etc. I only have a few zoas in my system but they get blasted with 8x54w T5 bulbs in my 120 gallon tank. They get around 250-300 PAR.

 

[killingseed2000]

i use two 300 w LED s over a 210 gallon tank and most of my are on top of my tank. ones on top exploded in growth compared to the ones lower. tank is 2 x 2 x 7 foot. i do have sps are well but mostly zoa.

my last zoa tank was a 75 g with 2x 175 w 16k metal highlight and 2 t5 one 5050 and one deepblue. for . zoas mostly on top again. got to love the MH great shimmer and great colors.


as you can see i blast them with a lot of light. i dont start them on top but most end up on top. resulting in lots of growth.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What size is the tank? what light? how high above the tank is the light mounted?

 

[Deniss]

I asked my question wrong, i wanted to talk more about the spectrum. Do you use daylights, or can you go full blue, i have been searching alot lately.
The more i search the more i get lost in it, some say go full blue, others say you need the white for growth.

I'm using led lighting, nothing too fancy at the moment.

They sit on my tank, like the above picture. They spread in 120 degrees and cover the top nicely.
I have 2 of these, one is with complete blue leds. And the second is like the image above, white, blue and a few red lights.

This is the spectrum of the full blue led light bar

This is the spectrum of the full spectrum bar.

I'm slowly ramping them up, but i'm totally lost in how my lighting schedule should be.

 

[garethwood]

your best bet as everyones lights and preferences are so different! is to resesrch where in the world your types of zoas grow best and then try and mimic the light cycle and intensity in that region. thats what ide do if i was trying to keep specific livestock/coral

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

the full spectrum bar is actually plenty to grow coral. In spit of the fact folks call them "white" they arent. look at that blue peak.

Most like to add blue for various reason.

what color in kelvin is the "white" bar?

 

[killingseed2000]

Do you use daylights, or can you go full blue.

no blue will not help in growth much more for color. where daylight will get you growth but not much color. i like to see the blue start of the light cycle and end of the light cycle by them self so i can enjoy the colors the blue bring out during those times. while both the blue and white as to say for daytime light. kind of a dust to dawn affect. no you will not want blues only. not much will grow in them. 16k and 20k spectrum are the way I lean. so i get light for growth and light to bring out the colors in coral and fish.

sometime light colors can very from personal viewing options. if you dont mind the 10k yellowish look , you will get growth. but if you want more color you add more blues and purples to you spectrum it will make your corals colors pop more.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

no blue will not help in growth much more for color. where daylight will get you growth but not much color. i like see the blue start of the light cycle and end of the light cycle by them self so i can enjoy the colors the blue bring out during those times. while both the blue and white as to say for daytime light. kind of a dust to dawn affect. no you will not want blues only. not much will grow in them. 16k and 20k spectrum are the way a lean. so i get light for growth and light to bring out the colors in coral and fish.

sometime light colors can very from personal viewing options. if you dont mind the 10k yellowish look , you will get growth. but if you want more color you add more blues and purples to you spectrum it will make your corals colors pop more.

+1

it gets confusing for most that most light are 16k native but they make a super high blue ratio with little reasoning save rumor.

fwiw there's an article on blue light and growth but written on stony corals. bit of a myth buster there.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

a good read.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

 

[Andrewalex11]

I keep my blues running at 90% power for 12 hours a day, and I run my full spectrum at 10% for about 5&1/2 hours a day with the blues at 100%. This is a new schedule I'm trying out, and so far I'm liking the results, all my corals are seeming to gain color I didn't even know was lost in the first place!

It's better if you start low and work your way up and pay attention to the tank. Bleaching out a coral from too much light is more of a hastle and annoyance than it is to just turn your lights up 5% at a time to find that sweet spot.

Less is always more.

 

[Deniss]

the full spectrum bar is actually plenty to grow coral. In spit of the fact folks call them "white" they arent. look at that blue peak.

Most like to add blue for various reason.

what color in kelvin is the "white" bar?

I have no idea what Kelvin that bar is, can't find it on the box, nor in the manual. Been searching the internet to find the Kelvin but with zero results.
All i found was the spectrum of it.

no blue will not help in growth much more for color. where daylight will get you growth but not much color. i like to see the blue start of the light cycle and end of the light cycle by them self so i can enjoy the colors the blue bring out during those times. while both the blue and white as to say for daytime light. kind of a dust to dawn affect. no you will not want blues only. not much will grow in them. 16k and 20k spectrum are the way I lean. so i get light for growth and light to bring out the colors in coral and fish.

sometime light colors can very from personal viewing options. if you dont mind the 10k yellowish look , you will get growth. but if you want more color you add more blues and purples to you spectrum it will make your corals colors pop more.

Okay, do you advice a sort of minimum amount for the daylight to burn? Do you think the red lights can be harmfull to the corals, you read so many cons and pro's about it.

I keep my blues running at 90% power for 12 hours a day, and I run my full spectrum at 10% for about 5&1/2 hours a day with the blues at 100%. This is a new schedule I'm trying out, and so far I'm liking the results, all my corals are seeming to gain color I didn't even know was lost in the first place!

It's better if you start low and work your way up and pay attention to the tank. Bleaching out a coral from too much light is more of a hastle and annoyance than it is to just turn your lights up 5% at a time to find that sweet spot.

Less is always more.

Did you go full blue before? As you say the colors are comming back that you didn't know were lost? I came from full blue, to 3 hours white, then 6 hours white. Too find the balance in lighting. But the more i was reading, the more i was getting lost in it!.

 

[Andrewalex11]

I have no idea what Kelvin that bar is, can't find it on the box, nor in the manual. Been searching the internet to find the Kelvin but with zero results.
All i found was the spectrum of it.



Okay, do you advice a sort of minimum amount for the daylight to burn? Do you think the red lights can be harmfull to the corals, you read so many cons and pro's about it.



Did you go full blue before? As you say the colors are comming back that you didn't know were lost? I came from full blue, to 3 hours white, then 6 hours white. Too find the balance in lighting. But the more i was reading, the more i was getting lost in it!.

My original lighting schedule was 10 hours long with 10 hours of blues at 60% and 8 hours of whites at 40%. I had never gone full blue until now.

 

[killingseed2000]

Okay, do you advice a sort of minimum amount for the daylight to burn? Do you think the red lights can be harmfull to the corals, you read so many cons and pro's about it.

i use 6 hours daylight, 8 hours total. any more for me and i start to grow too much unwanted algeas. too much daylight and this tends to happen. as well as my sump light too much light and get unwanted algae growth. i run that one 8 hours when the mains lights are not on.

 

[Deniss]

Alright thanks for the input guys, will keep my lighting like this for now and see the results in a couple weeks.

 

[Deniss]

@saltyfilmfolks

I have found the kelvin for the full spectrum bar, it's 25000 kelvin. I noticed something, when you look at the spectrum paragraph the blue goes only up too 30.
While most lighting brands use spectrum's that goes up too 100 in blue and same amount of green and red.

This is a led bar sold by same brand.

This is the one i'm running atm.

You can see the first one goes waaaaaay higher in blue peek almost up to 100, while the second barely reaches 30.
Would the second be for FOWLR or something? Most spectrums i found of brands, blast the blue in the 100's, so i guess that's a better spectrum for corals?

 

[A Toadstool Leather]

The reason blues are used so much is because the blue light spectrum is what the corals absorb best. There is also an absorption maxima on the red part of the spectrum too

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@saltyfilmfolks

I have found the kelvin for the full spectrum bar, it's 25000 kelvin. I noticed something, when you look at the spectrum paragraph the blue goes only up too 30.
While most lighting brands use spectrum's that goes up too 100 in blue and same amount of green and red.

This is a led bar sold by same brand.

This is the one i'm running atm.

You can see the first one goes waaaaaay higher in blue peek almost up to 100, while the second barely reaches 30.
Would the second be for FOWLR or something? Most spectrums i found of brands, blast the blue in the 100's, so i guess that's a better spectrum for corals?

Both work. Just different color temps. Many many debates on how much you "need".
And way way to many on what is "best"

 

[Deniss]

Both work. Just different color temps. Many many debates on how much you "need".
And way way to many on what is "best"

For sure, a guy told me the spectrum was not right and the peeks were wrong, i'm not educated enough yet spectrum wise..to debate about it.
But i was not sure as a shop owner recommended me these, in combination with this bar.

So basically there just as "good" but only the visual appear to us is different?
Is it true that too much of the red, can be harmfull to coral?