Blue light only for Acropora?

[MccReefer]

Is there anyone here that runs only blue light and has good success with Acropora? I’ve always seemed to have better growth with white light but I don’t think I’ve ever given only blue light a chance.

 

[joseserrano]

Two guys corals was doing it. Greg c made the argument that it’s not about spectrum necessarily, but usable par.

 

[Emac909]

So I have a PMK in my tank. And if I run all my blues at 100% and no whites the par is barely at half the range needed.
I’m run 4 radion and an additional 360w in diy rails. So it’s almost 800w in LEDs.

This is over a 187g tank.
I tried running a heavy blue tank and I wasn’t getting great growth with my sps, but colors did pop. Now I’m running a 10k spectrum for 4 hours mid day and my sps have dramatically started growing better

 

[Sold4JC]

I run a much bluer setting most of the day, but I agree with @Emac909 that four hours of white help provide higher par for growth.

 

[drexel]

You can’t get true color rendition of acropora with just blue light. If you want growth and great color, you need full spectrum lighting, there’s no way around this. If you have 6-8hrs of daylight spectrum each day, you’ll see the difference with acropora. There are several wavelengths needed for this, but warm whites play a big role in coloring acropora. If you want true pink, purple and blue, you need those warm whites. Plus, fish look like shit under all blues.


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[jessesoto33]

You can’t get true color rendition of acropora with just blue light. If you want growth and great color, you need full spectrum lighting, there’s no way around this. If you have 6-8hrs of daylight spectrum each day, you’ll see the difference with acropora. There are several wavelengths needed for this, but warm whites play a big role in coloring acropora. If you want true pink, purple and blue, you need those warm whites. Plus, fish look like shit under all blues.


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I agree


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[MccReefer]

You can’t get true color rendition of acropora with just blue light. If you want growth and great color, you need full spectrum lighting, there’s no way around this. If you have 6-8hrs of daylight spectrum each day, you’ll see the difference with acropora. There are several wavelengths needed for this, but warm whites play a big role in coloring acropora. If you want true pink, purple and blue, you need those warm whites. Plus, fish look like shit under all blues.


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Ok I can relate to this. I’ve tried blue light only but the pH never seemed to reach the same peak as when I was running the white leds. I’ve just never been sure how people do it.

 

[joseserrano]

Ok I can relate to this. I’ve tried blue light only but the pH never seemed to reach the same peak as when I was running the white leds. I’ve just never been sure how people do it.

Ph being an issue is most likely due to not enough light (regardless of spectrum), and corals not up taking as much.

 

[MccReefer]

Ph being an issue is most likely due to not enough light (regardless of spectrum), and corals not up taking as much.

Makes sense. I may have to experiment again. It’s hard not touching these LEDs…

 

[drexel]

A great example of a using "blue" spectrum without really seeing it is the Iwasaki 6500k halide bulb. This bulb produces a nice spike in blue around 420nm and 430nm, plus a nice big one around 490nm (which isn't blue). This bulb without question is the best bulb for growing and coloring acropora. It's the coverage between 360nm and 700nm that's most important. It's something that LED's still need to catch up with. The only way to match or get close to this, is by using all channels at 100% like Sanjay does, but most people are not willing to do this. If your goal is growing and coloring acropora, then you need to use full spectrum lighting, no matter what light you're using.