Adjusting LED Lights

[mhandley92]

Hey Guys,

I know this has probably been asked a ton, and no solution is a "one-size fits all" here. I'm also really interested in learning to be able to view coral responses to the light, and determine how to adjust that way.

I have 2 MarsAqua 300W LED lights. My current schedule is Blues On 9AM -> Whites On 11AM | Whites off 8PM -> Blues off 10PM.
The Blues are at 65%, and Whites are set to ~35%.

The corals look great when the Blues Only are on. The polyps start extending, and you can see color on the sunset monti.
However, when the Whites kick on it seems they are unhappy. They don't show color on the polyps and retract mostly.

I was running the lights at 60% blue, and 40% white until yesterday. My plan was to slowly adjust the whites down (because they seem to not like it). Am I on the right track? Thoughts?

 

[kullas]

I have the sb reef 18" and I run blues with no whites

 

[NanoTowerReef]

I run blues only from t5 to LEDs never white keep in mind my tank is softies only some chalices mostly bounce mushrooms they all seem happy

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

 

[mhandley92]

Are there no benefits to the corals with the white lights?

Will it be okay drastically reducing white light (while potentially increasing blues 5% a week) or should I do the same 5% reduction on whites per week?

I dont want to shock them, but I dont think they like the whites tbh.

 

[adamdaniel210]

We have two of the 165w ones over our 4x2 frag tanks in the shop we hang them about 18" off the water we run the blues at 100% and whites at 10% generally we get good growth and color

 

[mhandley92]

We have two of the 165w ones over our 4x2 frag tanks in the shop we hang them about 18" off the water we run the blues at 100% and whites at 10% generally we get good growth and color

That looks great!

 

[adamdaniel210]

That pic in particular was taken under all blue but there is one under full spectrum

 

[mhandley92]

That makes me want to buy so much stuff. I cant wait to get some nice coral growth going