Natural light spectrum.. Why do we use these so much blue lights?

[Reefering1]

Your heavy blue simply Dont show the corals at their TRUE COLOR

That's what I'm talking about, look at all those colors!! Love how you can actually see all the different shades of blue, purple,pink, red, yellow, orange.

under blues..what is not to like

i don't normally criticize or pick apart people's tanks, but since you asked... That's what's wrong with blue only tanks, you got green, black and blue, and red. And can't see any detail in between the fluorescent highlights.

 

[nickng]

A lot of it depends on the equipment and filters used by the diver (including their experience). Here is a dive I did earlier this year using a Gopro 11 with the red filter no lights attached. Dive was between 85 and 40 feet which is obviously different than 40 and 12. Just showing the visual change close and away from the reef wall.

Full spectrum T5 light.

Your heavy blue simply Dont show the corals at their TRUE COLOR

This one looks like the ocean at say 50-60+ ft depth where the blue tinge is a smidge more.

 

[nickng]

Take this blue stag for example.
under heavy blue light the true color is not presented .
This is with 50/50- full spectrum ,and other blue/fiji purple bulbs .

That’s precisely what am referring to when I said the heavy blue lights make my very blue Zoas disappear and only see a fluorescent yellow dot in the middle of the Zoa mouth.

 

[twentyleagues]

That’s precisely what am referring to when I said the heavy blue lights make my very blue Zoas disappear and only see a fluorescent yellow dot in the middle of the Zoa mouth.

Yeah not much sense in having blue zoas or acros if you run a deep blue light.

 

[areefer01]

This one looks like the ocean at say 50-60+ ft depth where the blue tinge is a smidge more.

Sure - I mentioned that as the depth is between 45 and 90 feet. Filters. Equipment setup and post processing make a world of difference.

 

[Reefing102]

Who is making the claim that corals don't grow under full spectrum or white light?

I was on reef hiatus during this phase, and missed out on the memo

Reefing in the 90s, at the time, the move to bluer light(to actinic) was because full spectrum lighting grew nuisance algae a lot better than just blue light

We even put caulerpa prolifera in the mini reefs to outcompete nuisance algae. And gain the benefits we see with algae reactors and refugiums

Refugiums took off at this time because everyone had expensive wet/dry filters that they were no longer using for filtration. Because of life rock and protein skimmers. And wanted to put them back into use, Miracle Mud got it's start at this time as well

Any old timers, please correct me if I'm wrong here

I’ll chime in on this one. I can’t go back to the 90’s but I started in 2003. During that time, if you posted pics in blue/actinic only, most reefers would have a fit saying yea it looks cool but that’s not what it really looks like. I don’t know about the transition to bluer spectrum, but I believe it was because of people like Julian Sprung, Eric Borneman, John Veron or similar influential people convincing the lighting industry to make something for our hobby based on their experience with the “look” of the pacific shallow reefs.

If I’m not mistaken, most coral back then were collected from these shallow reefs where it looks “natural” vs “deepwater” requiring all the equipment.

 

[djf91]

I’ll chime in on this one. I can’t go back to the 90’s but I started in 2003. During that time, if you posted pics in blue/actinic only, most reefers would have a fit saying yea it looks cool but that’s not what it really looks like. I don’t know about the transition to bluer spectrum, but I believe it was because of people like Julian Sprung, Eric Borneman, John Veron or similar influential people convincing the lighting industry to make something for our hobby based on their experience with the “look” of the pacific shallow reefs.

If I’m not mistaken, most coral back then were collected from these shallow reefs where it looks “natural” vs “deepwater” requiring all the equipment.

But the shallow pacific reefs don’t have a blue look. Why would those influential people push for bluer lighting?

 

[buruskeee]

For me, I don’t care about the natural look - I want to be able to see the different pigments showcased and to show off why that show piece (like a homewrecker, etc) was worth the price with its unique coloration.

I run my peak period at about 13k-15k (AB+ geared spectrum) which is similar to the T5 look without the flatness.

I challenge any of the “natural look is the only look” folks to take a picture of your homewrecker acro (or similar type show piece) under 6500k and show why it’s a show piece next to any other basic acro.

Some folks want to mimic the natural reefs to be closer to scuba diving in their own house and some folks love to show off tanks like subjective art pieces (some people like photorealistic art, and some love having Van Gogh pieces instead which is obviously not a natural rendering of the night sky - stary night).

We all reef for different reasons. Sounds like the “blue is a gimmick” crowd in here all reef to recreate their scuba experiences. I’m sorry, but not all of us have that motive behind why we have our tanks.

Now, I hate the windex look, because it washes out any blue corals you have, but I equally hate the 6500K look because it’s too dull without enough pop to showcase different pigments.

Here’s a video BRS did (not in science of the spectrum but visual appeal) with balancing the spectrum to avoid washouts as well as dullness.

No, corals do not only need low par, blue light.

They can grow fine in full spectrum, no one is claiming they can’t, but the blue part of the spectrum is what is most efficient (which is why people were bleaching corals so easily back when LEDs first came out).

Halides/T5 were on and off. With LEDs, we now are able to use only the wattage for the spectrum we need rather than “live” with whatever default spectrum and intensity old tech gave. This is a huge reason why more folks run more blue than back in the day - because you actually have the ability to.

 

[Solo McReefer]

This is Sprung's main reef tank

13 year old video

I doubt that he was involved in the 20K reef tank lighting thing

Most reefers would call this lighting full spectrum

 

[djf91]

For me, I don’t care about the natural look - I want to be able to see the different pigments showcased and to show off why that show piece (like a homewrecker, etc) was worth the price with its unique coloration.

I run my peak period at about 13k-15k (AB+ geared spectrum) which is similar to the T5 look without the flatness.

I challenge any of the “natural look is the only look” folks to take a picture of your homewrecker acro (or similar type show piece) under 6500k and show why it’s a show piece next to any other basic acro.

Some folks want to mimic the natural reefs to be closer to scuba diving in their own house and some folks love to show off tanks like subjective art pieces (some people like photorealistic art, and some love having Van Gogh pieces instead which is obviously not a natural rendering of the night sky - stary night).

We all reef for different reasons. Sounds like the “blue is a gimmick” crowd in here all reef to recreate their scuba experiences. I’m sorry, but not all of us have that motive behind why we have our tanks.

Now, I hate the windex look, because it washes out any blue corals you have, but I equally hate the 6500K look because it’s too dull without enough pop to showcase different pigments.

Here’s a video BRS did (not in science of the spectrum but visual appeal) with balancing the spectrum to avoid washouts as well as dullness.





They can grow fine in full spectrum, no one is claiming they can’t, but the blue part of the spectrum is what is most efficient (which is why people were bleaching corals so easily back when LEDs first came out).

Halides/T5 were on and off. With LEDs, we now are able to use only the wattage for the spectrum we need rather than “live” with whatever default spectrum and intensity old tech gave. This is a huge reason why more folks run more blue than back in the day - because you actually have the ability to.

Yea to each their own. If you want to replicate nature so be it, if you want to be part of the Pokémon gotta catch em all club so be it, or you like arcade lighting so be it.

The shallow water Acropora we keep are very intertwined with the ecosystem they live in. Algae, bacteria, fungi, etc., you are benefiting all of these organisms and the ecosystem and thus the coral by more exactly replicating the environment they evolved to live in. SPS grown under all blue light definitely have a unique growth to them…doesn’t look healthy.

Seasonal Variations in the Culturable Mycobiome of Acropora loripes along a Depth Gradient - PMC

Coral associated fungi are widespread, highly diverse and are part and parcel of the coral holobiont. To study how environmental conditions prevailing near the coral-host may affect fungal diversity, the culturable (isolated on potato dextrose agar) ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

“The abundance of fungi increased with increasing water depth, where corals sampled at 25 m yielded up to 70% more fungal colony forming units (CFUs) than those isolated at 6 m”

“Diversity was also higher in lesioned coral samples, when compared to apparently healthy colonies.”

FYI the BRS videos are trying to sell you a product.

 

[Yanir34]

This Stylo gets 700 PAR . most of that coming from full spectrum bulbs.
1 pics can explain all.

 

[X-37B]

I prefer a whiter looking system. I do enjoy the 1.5 hr ramp down at night to see the different color effect.
I Run 2 photon 50's on this system. Each 50 has 20 white lights so 40 total. I can get any color variation I want from blue to a halide look.
This is the mid day full spectrum look. Great color and growth then the bluer look during ramp down that brings out many different colors.
Couple random pics.
Tank is only 5 months old.

 

[X-37B]

This Stylo gets 700 PAR . most of that coming from full spectrum bulbs.
1 pics can explain all.

Nice stylo one of my favorite growth patterns.
One of my old cat paws under xr15 ab+ 100%.

 

[buruskeee]

SPS grown under all blue light definitely have a unique growth to them…doesn’t look healthy.

Substantiate this claim. FYI, pH and flow have more to do with coral structure than lighting.

FYI the BRS videos are trying to sell you a product

The video wasn’t to “prove” why to use lower wavelengths of light - if you watched the video you’d know that. The video was simply to show where the best balance for visual appeal was at in terms of diverse colorations - emphasis on “visual” and you can go back and read my note that it had zero to do with science.

I take it you don’t own any high end acros? If so, please take a picture in 6500K lighting for us.

 

[djf91]

Substantiate this claim. FYI, pH and flow have more to do with coral structure than lighting.


The video wasn’t to “prove” why to use lower wavelengths of light - if you watched the video you’d know that. The video was simply to show where the best balance for visual appeal was at in terms of diverse colorations - emphasis on “visual” and you can go back and read my note that it had zero to do with science.

I take it you don’t own any high end acros? If so, please take a picture in 6500K lighting for us.

Show me your “High end acros”. What a goof. Are we comparing jewelry? Are we even talking about animals anymore?

What’s your take on the peer reviewed study I posted?

 

[djf91]

Here are a few of my Acropora under roughly a 10-14k spectrum.

 

[buruskeee]

Show me your “High end acros”. What a goof. Are we comparing jewelry? Are we even talking about animals anymore?

Exactly. You don’t have any so you wouldn’t understand why we like to see the pop a 6500K spectrum won’t give. There’s zero point to collect these unique pieces if you can’t see the difference.

What’s your take on the peer reviewed study I posted?

The study showed only a single mention about lighting/spectrum and zero science around it. Only that it was a variable in the different depths.

What is a “healthy” acro to you?

Here’s a peer reviewed study about why blue spectrum is what’s most efficient at growing corals.

Red Light Represses the Photophysiology of the Scleractinian Coral Stylophora pistillata - PMC

Light spectrum plays a key role in the biology of symbiotic corals, with blue light resulting in higher coral growth, zooxanthellae density, chlorophyll a content and photosynthesis rates as compared to red light. However, it is still unclear ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[buruskeee]

Here are a few of my Acropora under roughly a 10-14k spectrum.

Doesn’t look natural. Pretty hypocritical. Where’s your 6500K spectrum?

 

[VintageReefer]

Don’t care what ya’ll think. Everyone can run their tank however they want and I respect that. Beauty is in the variation and everyone has different tastes.

I can see variation, depth, differences no matter when I look at the tank. Heaviest blues are evening, and that’s when I photograph but a lot of the day it’s like pic 1 then blending to pic 2 then blending to a night setting of blue only for a few hours

 

[Reefering1]

Exactly. You don’t have any so you wouldn’t understand why we like to see the pop a 6500K spectrum won’t give. There’s zero point to collect these unique pieces if you can’t see the difference.

Sounds like you get it. Nobody would spend ridiculous money on nubs of brown sticks if there wasn't light and lenses to manipulate it into looking "cool". Many are here just to show off and validate themselves. Some corals look amazing just by looking at them, other require special lighting and photo editing just to see. Money makes the world go around and many people want to be "cool". They are suckers