Lighting clarity needed

[putemup]

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I currently have two large maxspect razors mounted over a standard 75.</span><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px;">So far using my own mixture of blue and white lights, I’m achieving coral growth from everything (both hard and soft) over the last year. From what I’ve read, corals feed off of the light spectrum.</span><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px;">I have no idea how much my lights put out but due to a quality lighting system, they live.</span><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The question I have is:</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">-Do the blue lights actually aide in coral growth or are they simply for looks?</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">-Would it be possible to achieve coral growth (using a higher setting of course) with blue lights alone?</span></span>

 

[hnguyen]

In short, yes and yes. I had a good talk with George at Pure Reef and he told me that the blue in your lights put out a lot more par then you believe. Par readings on LED lights can be misleading, you may get low PAR readings with just blues on but they make a big difference. For example, he told me his HUGE reef tank out front is light with Metal Halides and was fine. He added a few blue T5 bulbs to the tank for looks and it bleached his SPS. So rather it be LED or T5's, blues will put out a lot. I know a lot of people will run their LED's with their blues 3 to 4 times higher percentage then their whites/yellow and still get good growth along with great color.

 

[marquiseo]

PutEmUp;1003294 wrote: <span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px">I currently have two large maxspect razors mounted over a standard 75.</span><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px">So far using my own mixture of blue and white lights, I’m achieving coral growth from everything (both hard and soft) over the last year. From what I’ve read, corals feed off of the light spectrum.</span><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px">I have no idea how much my lights put out but due to a quality lighting system, they live.</span><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">The question I have is:</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span></span>
<span style="font-size: 13px"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">-Do the blue lights actually aide in coral growth or are they simply for looks?</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px">-Would it be possible to achieve coral growth (using a higher setting of course) with blue lights alone?</span></span>

Blue LED comes in 450nm(Royal blue), and 470nm(blue) which is in the essential wavelengths for photosynthesis. Royal blue is the better of the two for photosynthesis because it is at the closes to the peak. As for the par that is produced, there is a significant amount of par but not as much if you were to add others such as white, violet, red, and green into the mix. As for the Pure Reef tank, he didn't add a true blue only bulb. He more than likely added a Blue Plus bulb which is not a true blue but a mix of several bulbs having high par or an actinic bulb which is low in par and is a violet(420nm).