Article: Red light negatively affects health of stony corals.

[bif24701]

I was wondering if anyone else has read this and thoughts. Very though provoking now with these "full spectrum" LEDs.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/red-light-negatively-affects-health-of-stony-coral

 

[saltyair]

"found in proven lights such as Radium metal halides and numerous fluorescent bulbs as well as in wild reefs, so the idea is not that red light is necessarily harmful but that too much red light can have negative effects on how stony corals regulate photosynthesis."

i think anyone that has full spectrum led's has learned this (sometimes the hard way)
I experienced this first hand having only 50/50 blues and white before going to full spectrum - it seemed that the corals at first absorbed the red,green violet and uv - but over a 2 week period started to show stress.
low saturation of red and green are beneficial.

same can be said about UV and violet. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/11/aafeature

there are some really great studies like:http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature2

and my fav:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature

 

[bif24701]

Sure we all know that corals do not get "full spectrum" lighting down where they naturally live. The water absorbes many wavelenghts before it gets to them. So any lighting that deveates from what that coral or animal would recive in nature could be harmful if too much is used. Moral of the story: use just enough of other spectrums to improve the astetics and no more to avoid problems.

Saltyair, thanks for the extra reading.

 

[jda]

I think that most experienced people with a wide depth and breath of experience knew this already and have since early VHO and MH bulb hit the market. If somebody were to study it, you can find it with green and yellow too. The LED growing pains are nothing new, yet few seem to listen and the masses who know have gone away tired of arguing. There are indeed people who, just by looking at coral and a tank with a few parameters, can tell you more about a light's effectiveness than a PAR meter or spectral chart can.

It makes sense that the deeper stuff can be hurt by excess wavelengths that the water normally filtered (most SPS). In the converse, stuff from lesser depths probably love it - algae and clams come to mind... and any lagoon-type corals.

 

[bif24701]

I think that most experienced people with a wide depth and breath of experience knew this already and have since early VHO and MH bulb hit the market. If somebody were to study it, you can find it with green and yellow too. The LED growing pains are nothing new, yet few seem to listen and the masses who know have gone away tired of arguing. There are indeed people who, just by looking at coral and a tank with a few parameters, can tell you more about a light's effectiveness than a PAR meter or spectral chart can.

It makes sense that the deeper stuff can be hurt by excess wavelengths that the water normally filtered (most SPS). In the converse, stuff from lesser depths probably love it - algae and clams come to mind... and any lagoon-type corals.

Yes, I agree that most knew what corals needed for best growth and color. I felt early on as I researched the full spectrum wave of fixtures that the additions of green and red LEDs into and already great light was more of a novelty and not needed. I think many saw it as required to get the best coloration of their livestock if not a plus. I AI SOL blue was a great fixture as far as producing light that feed corals and allowed them to thrive. Then came the DIYers that decided there was something missing and thought they needed all the other colors of the rainbow. I feel that’s based mostly because the reds and some greens didn’t appear as bright as they did with other lighting choices. Supplementing the LEDs with some reds and greens does provide color to the eye and makes them more appealing however most of these fixtures have really high powered color LEDs. I didn’t know however that these could be harmful to the corals but anyone that’s been keeping them for anytime should know if it’s not good for them (i.e. required for health) then it could be bad for the health just like anything else.


Example, a LFS here wanted to utilize light incoming from a window for a cube tank to grow SPS and LPS coral. The owner quickly realized this wouldn’t work for two reasons: first, the light its self was much to power full for the corals, though it only received direct light for only a few hours all but one coral was distressed terribly. Second, the light composition burned the corals because the light they should receive should mimic the reef (being filtered by several meters of ocean water. SO he blacked out the window and installed a Kessil 350, put whites at 30~40% and blues 90%. The corals all recovered well and I was amazed when I first saw the tank that one red monti was completely in the shadow of another coral growing above it however the monti was thriving with the reflected light from the tank's glass alone.

The real problem is hobbyists that fail to do the research needed for a successful system. Not RC research but getting to know the real science in what we are doing. That’s the kind of level and detail that one should take in order to produce a thriving reef system for long term success.

 

[NatureNerd]

As I wrote in the other thread:

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike810
Interesting article for anyone using red LEDs

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...of-stony-coral



I am not sure how applicable this article is for most LED users. No one would ever suggest using all red, or a 50/50 mix of red to blue, for our reefs. Perhaps I misunderstood the point.

A little red wine has been shown to be good for our health, too much leads to all sorts of problems.


__________________
Reef tanks since 1987.
Current tank: 75g SPS dominated reef tank set up in 1996
Last edited by NatureNerd; Today at 12:49 PM.