Are red LED bad?

[Thinker1920]

I was thinking about switching to LEDs and read on the main forum that there's a possiblity that red LEDs are bad for coral? and could possibly cause algae growth? anybody hear of this? ...... They didn't really go into there info as to why.

 

[childofgod]

Red is a bad color for corals. It's one of the first to disappear as you go deeper in the ocean.The red wavelength is rarely seen in deeper water and is not needed in an aquarium without plants. Live plants require a more red spectrum for chlorophyll, but corals require a more blue spectrum.

 

[truebeliever71]

Thinker... while childofgod is right people have been finding that they are getting better color pop with adding/replacing a couple LEDs with either red, violet, or even warm white LEDs. You definitely don't want to add too many as it will promote undesirable algae growth.

 

[childofgod]

People are starting to complain that the red is making a haze look to there tanks. I am thinking about trying violet people seem to have a good review on them.

 

[Thinker1920]

I was thinking about doing some warm whites instead. so on a 36 LED fixture 18 royal blue, 5 6500 white, and 13 10k white. (I'd have to of these for the tank) Thoughts?

 

[truebeliever71]

I've read that you want go warmer than 6500 (3000). I'm hesitant to comment on your combination as I have no experience with using the warm whites nor have done reading on them. I do know that there are several... ok hundreds... threads on LED color mixes in the DIY section.