LED Spectrum - The Article most of us have been waiting for
- Thread starter djkms
- Start date
Acans can handle a ton of light, and may in fact grow faster with a lot of light, but the rainbow acans loose a lot of color in intense light, or any direct light for that matter.
If your acan is a dome, and there are baby polyps on the bottom, being shaded by the polyps above, they are the best looking polyps on the whole piece, almost every time.
If your acan is a dome, and there are baby polyps on the bottom, being shaded by the polyps above, they are the best looking polyps on the whole piece, almost every time.
I am still including red in my upcoming fixture. IMO there is not enough evidence that red is useless. I have had w/b/rb over my tank for a year and a half now and I can tell you that aesthetically something is missing. Is red needed to grow corals? No, but if you want your system to have a more enriched look then whites and blues are not going to cut it alone. I am personally going to add violet, red and cyan in the near future.
The beauty of this whole thing is that the extra colors probably won't hurt anything, will only make it better. The only issue I foresee is adding red and getting more nuisance algae growth, if that happens, turn them down or off. Never know until you try!
The beauty of this whole thing is that the extra colors probably won't hurt anything, will only make it better. The only issue I foresee is adding red and getting more nuisance algae growth, if that happens, turn them down or off. Never know until you try!
+1 What ratio of red:blue, green, white. I would not take them out of your build, but would not go crazy with them either. I personal do not have any reds on my system but if I to build a diy set up, I bet your frags that I will put some it it.
Also, years back, I'm talking mid 90's.....a friend of mine in Colorado Springs, would hang red and green Grow bulbs in conjuction with his MHs over his LPS tank just to make the different colors pop. It was a cool site but I did not like the spot like affect so I never did it and I was using VHOs back then.
Also, years back, I'm talking mid 90's.....a friend of mine in Colorado Springs, would hang red and green Grow bulbs in conjuction with his MHs over his LPS tank just to make the different colors pop. It was a cool site but I did not like the spot like affect so I never did it and I was using VHOs back then.
http://www.marinecolorado.org/forums/showthread.php?12029-DIY-Violet-Red-LED-Setup.-Help-me-build-it!
I currently have 3 AI sol blues on my 125. 12”AWL all 40 degree optics. Last PAR reading was about 650 at the highest coral and 225 at the lowest corner of the tank. I plan on putting 2 fixtures between each SOL fixture. Each fixture will house 2 reds, 2 cyan’s and probably 8-12 violets, all with 120 degree optics. Each color will be on its own dimmable driver hooked up to my Neptune system.
I currently have 3 AI sol blues on my 125. 12”AWL all 40 degree optics. Last PAR reading was about 650 at the highest coral and 225 at the lowest corner of the tank. I plan on putting 2 fixtures between each SOL fixture. Each fixture will house 2 reds, 2 cyan’s and probably 8-12 violets, all with 120 degree optics. Each color will be on its own dimmable driver hooked up to my Neptune system.
*1-Good led lights have a minimum of 7 bands, to beat MH youre gonna need 15 or more bands. The exact absorption peaks (nano-metres) for chlorophills A&B are, 430, 453, 642, 662. There are lots more bands needed to get the carrotenoid and phytochrome peaks and fill in the gaps for both chlorophills, here they come in nano-metres and cct. 380 400 410 460 480 500 525 575 590 600 610 620 630 720 -24000k 20000k 10000k 6000k 3000k thats one reason why mh is better
*2-the mh lights produce up to 30-40% more uv witch makes plants and corals more colorful it makes the coral produce more slime coat to protect itself from harm giving it better coloration. also with haveing the minimum of 15bands you get you other uv=uva-uvb-uvc since your coral is producing more chlorophills from photosynthesis your coral now uptakes more cal-mag aka more uptakeas i said
hehe i did not want to type this on my phone lol so got on my laptop
*2-the mh lights produce up to 30-40% more uv witch makes plants and corals more colorful it makes the coral produce more slime coat to protect itself from harm giving it better coloration. also with haveing the minimum of 15bands you get you other uv=uva-uvb-uvc since your coral is producing more chlorophills from photosynthesis your coral now uptakes more cal-mag aka more uptakeas i said
hehe i did not want to type this on my phone lol so got on my laptop
here are a couple links
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/12/aafeature1
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/6/aafeature
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/12/aafeature1
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/6/aafeature
I have read or skimmed all of the studies linked, it seems like to me the conclusion is that most of Zooxanthelle photosynthesis happens in the blue spectrum, not red light stunts growth. The way they tested is by growing corals under 2 different spectrum MH lamps. However if you look at the spectrum graphs they give, the lamp that had less growth had more red in its spectrum yes, but also a slew of other spectral variables including much much less blue. So did the corals grow slower because of the increased red spectrum or the decreased blue spectrum? In one of the studies linked the amount of red output in the spectrum from the 2 lamps tested was identical, the difference was very much in the yellow/green VS blue. For me to be convinced that red light actually stunts growth I am going to have to see some more controlled specific studies.
