LED Color Temp and Coral Growth

[fishdude]

<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I know that lower temp MH bulbs (6500k) are better for growth while higher temp (20000k) are used more for looks. Is the same true in LEDs? If you have whites and blues on different channels can you turn up whites to promote growth?</span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Thanks,</span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">-Nick</span></span>

 

[jbadd99]

you could be here for hours and hours reading about different light spectrums and coral growth, especially with LED and it seems that everyone has their own flavor of what's best.

Me personally, I keep my LEDs in what is considered the 18k range for T5.

 

[nickh06]

jbadd99;923554 wrote: you could be here for hours and hours reading about different light spectrums and coral growth, especially with LED and it seems that everyone has their own flavor of what's best.

Me personally, I keep my LEDs in what is considered the 18k range for T5.

Agreed. When I spoke with a few of the popular LED manufacturers and some reef enthusiasts they stated the same thing you did. Whites for growth blues for color. A good mix is best but will vary from tank to tank from what I understood.

 

[mc524]

I've been reading up on this stuff lately. From what i read, the color spectrum where most corals use is from the 450nM-600 range iirc. This appears to be more blue, to violet colors. Virtually no red, as the color red doesn't penetrate, along with yellows and greens.
So, where the whites fall into this, I'm still trying to learn and find data on it.
If you talk to most with LED's, they are running whites at 50-65%. Anyone have any data on how much the whites contribute?

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[kirkwood]

MC524;923596 wrote: Anyone have any data on how much the whites contribute?

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The "whites" are a full spectrum diode whereas the blue/red/violet/green diodes are all directed at a specific wavelength.

Violet = 405nm
Royal Blue = 450nm
Blue = 480nm
Green = 520nm
Red = 630nm
Hyper Red = 660nm

The 10k, 14k, 20k cool white diodes are full spectrum.

 

[mc524]

So, are you saying the white lights are covering that full spectrum of color? From 405nm to 660nm? I always wondered about this, and easy for us to look at it and say, well our blues and whites on at the same time look one way, with whites by themselves it completely changes. In some instances, each one of us see that light differently. Its tough with different depth tanks. Strange to see how much PAR falls off, yet to our eye, no change... Or very little. To an untrained eye like most of us anyway.

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[kirkwood]

Yes. White light = all colors. Pause your TV and grab a magnifying glass and look at any white color. You will see the Red Green and Blue pigments. I have a sharp Quatron which adds in yellow to the RGB and when I just did this and saw red, green, yellow, and blue pigments.

 

[mc524]

Yeah i got ya, prisms. I'd like to see the different levels of the light spectrum from the different levels of whites.

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[jdavid]

A cool white led is not sufficient. It has gaps on the required spectrum, particularly large "sag" in the 470-490 nm range, 400-450 nm, and upwards of 600nm (red which is actually needed for photosynthesis in shallow water species). This is compensated by targeting these ranges with specific colored LEDs (royal blue, red, etc)