Lights and settings to bring out coral colors without dulling fish colors

[gatling02]

I have a Fluval 13.5 and am looking to get some new lights for it. I haven't put corals in and won't for a little bit longer but I needed some help finding lights for it. The ones on it Im sure bring out coral colors but they completely block out the colors on the purple fire fish in there so much that its hard to see him when its on the blue setting.

I have no experience with this so I don't know what lights I should buy and how I should tune them. Any help is appreciated.

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Imo most common light for your tank is an AI Prime 16hd. Fully customizable colors and a great light. I have the Hydra 32hd and love it. But I’m sure others will chime in. The fish don’t “require” lighting so if anything at all it will benefit their coloration.

 

[gatling02]

Imo most common light for your tank is an AI Prime 16hd. Fully customizable colors and a great light. I have the Hydra 32hd and love it. But I’m sure others will chime in. The fish don’t “require” lighting so if anything at all it will benefit their coloration.

I know the fish dont need the light, but when I turn the blue light on which would show off the corals, the the entire fire fish turns dark blue and is hard to see, so I wanted something that I could customize. The AI Prime was something that I was looking at and looked perfect for it, the hydra is a bit out of my price range but thanks for the input.

 

[oreo54]

I know the fish dont need the light, but when I turn the blue light on which would show off the corals, the the entire fire fish turns dark blue and is hard to see, so I wanted something that I could customize. The AI Prime was something that I was looking at and looked perfect for it, the hydra is a bit out of my price range but thanks for the input.

You have 2 sort of competing things here . Blue for corals, "natural light" for fish..
Adding more than the "common" amount of red/green will get your fish color elevated.

You can't see the color of the fish if the color isn't available to be reflected back.
and you need enough to not be overpowered by the blue.

 

[Bpb]

Oreo is correct. The issue is many corals which would be considered to “pop” (I hate that term but making a point) are producing fluorescent colors. Pigments are being excited by blue light and are actively emitting a different color light. Fish are not fluorescent critters. Their colors are purely reflective. You need white light, or at least the addition of red and green to see their colors. Your fish will never show vibrant colors under only blue lighting. It’s just a fact of life. I run my white, red, and green channels at 1/2 the strength of my blue channels (which is far more than most people do), and the fish colors are very vibrant but I still have plenty of coral fluorescence. Under a very white 6500k-10,000k appearance, fish colors will be the most bold. One set back to running such a white appearance is green algae really jumps out. It appears almost invisible under blues, but turn the whites way up and there it is.