Should I just light tank to look good?

[lbacha]

I have not met anyone with a par meter, not even the LFS. Too expensive to buy to use once.

If you consider all the other costs involved with reefing and the importance of light levels it isn’t really that much especially if you get a lower end model. I use mine all the time as corals shade each other to see what the new par levels are and make adjustments as needed.

 

[Dburr1014]

This is true. However, the coral are unable to use most of the white light effectively so the gain in PAR is a bit nuanced if solely relying on white light.

What?
I need a link to back this statement up.
Lots of hard coral are exposed to the air so that means they are at the surface of the water. The sun doesn't filter that much white light at the surface. Lots of coral use white light.



Anyway, I love my PARwise par meter because it tells me the color of my lights.
OP, just turn down the white light until it looks good. UV and blue help it pop.
A par meter is a good tool to know where your par is.

 

[crazyfishmom]

What?
I need a link to back this statement up.
Lots of hard coral are exposed to the air so that means they are at the surface of the water. The sun doesn't filter that much white light at the surface. Lots of coral use white light.



Anyway, I love my PARwise par meter because it tells me the color of my lights.
OP, just turn down the white light until it looks good. UV and blue help it pop.
A par meter is a good tool to know where your par is.

There are many many sites out there that reference the differential in the spectrum. At any rate, this si one of the best descriptions:

Reef Tank Lighting Spectrum

Reef Tank light spectrum and color has been a hot topic forever. Some people fight for blue light, some fight for white light. Let's finally find the answer!

reefstable.com

Yes, corals use both white and blue however they need less white and more blue and OP is blasting his tank with white.

 

[TokenReefer]

Isn't white all the (color) spectrums combined and not really a spectrum per say; so it has red, blue, green, etc ?

 

[Uncle99]

I just add lost of blue, and a dash of white until everything looks good.

When you make a change, it may takes weeks for everyone to get happy.

Then I never touched the lights again in 4 years now.

 

[peterhos]

I just add lost of blue, and a dash of white until everything looks good.

When you make a change, it may takes weeks for everyone to get happy.

Then I never touched the lights again in 4 years now.

Ah, Uncle, your method sounds good to me!

 

[peterhos]

If you consider all the other costs involved with reefing and the importance of light levels it isn’t really that much especially if you get a lower end model. I use mine all the time as corals shade each other to see what the new par levels are and make adjustments as needed.

What you say about relative cost is true, but even with a PAR meter I would not be MUCH the wiser. Nobody knows exactly which corals need a given amount of PAR, so we are always working in the dark (pun intended), hence my question about just going with what ‘looks good’.

 

[Uncle99]

Ah, Uncle, your method sounds good to me!

Me, I want to enjoy my tank.
It’s what I think looks good to me.

Enjoy, set em, forget em.

Keep in mind it’s very hard to underlight a tank, and super easy to overlight.

 

[peterhos]

Me, I want to enjoy my tank.
It’s what I think looks good to me.

Enjoy, set em, forget em.

Keep in mind it’s very hard to underlight a tank, and super easy to overlight.

Your last point is well made. I often think that our lighting set ups and also roller mat + skimmer combined are over the top.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Isn't white all the (color) spectrums combined and not really a spectrum per say; so it has red, blue, green, etc ?

Yes, this is true. Part of the problem is that because it covers the entire spectrum it translates to high PAR that can potentially bleach coral but the spectrum is not ideal for the coral to use to make energy. The targeted blue spectrum we use in our tanks or blue leaning rather gives the coral much more bang for its buck even at lower PAR when compared to white light at the same PAR level if that makes sense.

 

[Doctorgori]

I think there is some confusion about white LED’s …
short answer is just know white is a composite of colors, whereas blue is a primary color…
you aren’t “exactly” turning down “white” per se

 

[Doctorgori]

Isn't white all the (color) spectrums combined and not really a spectrum per se; so it has red, blue, green, etc ?

I missed this and sorry I posted before reading this…

Also I might add many of us started with white lighting and have witnessed years of misconceptions/misinformation about its alleged “harmful” effects and myths about growing algae et

 

[Dburr1014]

Back in the day, I ran 10k halides. Very white.
Then I switched to 12k and 14k. Still white with a nice blue hue.

I see these windex tanks now, they must be 25k by the looks.
Some coral and inverts need full spectrum.

IMO, if you only have softies, you don't need to have the lights on 70%, turn them down. But run the light where you think it looks good. Somewhere between white and blue.

I ran all my white, blue, light blue and violet on 100%. Pretty white.

I since added T5 to the led and now the white is half the blue. The T5 are coral+ and blue+, it may be about 12k.

 

[lbacha]

I see a lot of comments where people equate white to not be good for coral. While this may be true for deep water species many of your shallow reef species (a lot of the reef is very shallow with some coral actually out of water in low tide) love white light in the 6000-7000k range. For years metal halides in the 7000k range (very white and to some extent yellow) grew corals very effectively. My personal opinion is the move to the royal blues and windex looking light is more to draw out the UV reactive pigments in coral vs what is better for the coral. People like the glowing vibrant colors that blue brings out and consider that ideal. As a result many of them don’t realize how amazing an Oregon Tort, red planet, garf bonsai, or other OG corals look under a more white light. The reason we use PAR as a measurement vs lux or lumens is PAR meters read light waves that are ideal for photosynthesis, as long as your par levels are at a range the coral can handle you will see growth. The issue with too little or too much par is that some corals are not designed to handle those extremes and struggle (brown out with too much algae or bleach as they try to expel the algae). I highly recommend a par meter for anyone who plans on staying in the hobby for an extended period and who likes to change their tank around (it is less important if you just plan to setup your tank and see what grows with little changing of equipment or settings (many of us know that tinkering is a big part of this hobby and tinkering with lights can be detrimental if you can’t check light levels).

I personally like to see my tank under white light and under blues my schedule ramps to midday whiter light levels very quickly in the morning stays that way for 4-5 hrs then slowly ramps down to just blues at night as me and my wife like the blue glow and seeing the bright corals in the evening. That is just my preference and some people may just want blue all day (I have a small tank for a clown we have had for almost 10 years and I have a Kessil 360x set at full blue for the whole day since it has a bunch of colorful monti’s in the tank

My only recommendation is be careful when you play with your light channels as you may be drastically increasing or decreasing the PAR levels. If you do this take advantage of any acclimation features your light has. Many corals can adapt to the new levels but like other parameters in our tank they hate rapid changes of light so ease them into the new lighting and they may be just fine with whatever makes your viewing optimal.

 

[ca1ore]

I actually dislike a blue lit tank. Much prefer something that more closely matches what I remember seeing when scuba diving various reefs. I get that blue can accentuate color, but unnaturally so to my eyes.

In the early days of reefing 5/6.5 K was common. Then we got 10/12 K …. then 20 K. I run my tank at 12 K.