Zoanthid light

Frostyfish

Frostyfish

Goby
#1
#1
I have a zoas, palys, two ocellaris, and a pj cardinal in my aquarium and wondering if I should have more blue lights in the 420-480 nm range for the zoas and palys. Currently I have a 4 bulb HO t5 with two actinic and two 12k bulbs. I'm thinking about replacing one of the 12k bulbs with another blue light, possibly the lagoon blue or super actinic. Would that benefit zoa/paly growth and would it bother the fish? I don't plan on adding sps or lps, and wouldn't mind the overly blue tint to my tank. Any input is much appreciated!!
 
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xxHLTxx

Detritus
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
less white light just means slower zoa/paly growth. obviously when you get into feeding and dosing it gets more complicated (in saying which the coral grows more from, food or light), but changing the white to blue would NOT hurt anything in a softie tank, certainly wouldn't bother the fish and would make the corals pop more.
 
Frostyfish

Frostyfish

Goby
#3
#3
I guess what I'm asking is, has anyone boosted the 420-480 nm range and lowered the 680-720 nm range and seen either an increase or decrease in zoa growth?
 
FishTV

FishTV

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
#4
Chad (CRW Reef) might chime in here, he runs a ton of blue, although I'm not sure his actual spectrum, and light combo, but he grows some pretty sweet zoas. Lots of factors come into play, nutrient level vs light, they are both food sources. Light intensity is a factor as well. You could say that running more blue makes something grow better, or worse, when what you really adjusted, might just be the intesity of your white light (white, yellow, red, green). Personally, when I ran T5's, I swear noticed better growth at the end of my bulb life, could have been when the intensity was dropping, or it went to a lower K level (both happen in aged t5 bulbs), but the color wasn't great, and I was always worried about algae spikes. You will get better color pop under blue light, and the beauty of this hobby is in the color. You need to find the best combo of color and growth for "your" system.
 
R

robert.talarico

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
I don't think you should run three blue and one white. Run lots of white but for less time. I.e. blues for 10 hours and during that 10 run the whites for 4 hours. The zoas will then starve for white light and will grow bigger and brighter IMO.
 
Vdubjetta01

Vdubjetta01

Blenny
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
#6
robert.talarico;312169 said:
I don't think you should run three blue and one white. Run lots of white but for less time. I.e. blues for 10 hours and during that 10 run the whites for 4 hours. The zoas will then starve for white light and will grow bigger and brighter IMO.
Click to expand...
I am currently trying something like fishtv where I have all blue leds and a single white led running 10 hours. But there was an article in reef hobby where a "zoa guy" only runs whites for 3 hours a day. But that's all that people take away from it, but what I think they failed to realize was the different light he used first it was MH with a 20k bulb, then VHO super actinic and he ended the day with blue leds and with only 3 hours of whites he claimed the polyps grow bigger and brighter to try and absorb as much white light. But I don't recall him saying he had crazy fast growth just bigger and brighter polyps.
 
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