Blue LED's

JFB318

New member
I have just purchased a light which includes blue led's. Are these night lighting, and if so, how long should they be left on, all night?
 
I can't speak to that particular light, but my AI Sol blues are set to 45% white, 65% blue, 65% royal blue during the day, no moon lights.

IMHO, "moon lights" are a gimmick for those who want to view their tank after normal lights out. Having been on a large number of night dives over the years, I can assure you that it is about 3 shades darker than black on the reef after the sun goes down.
 
I have just purchased a light which includes blue led's. Are these night lighting, and if so, how long should they be left on, all night?

The zoanthellae (algae) that live inside the coral polyps do photosynthesis and they do it better with blue spectrum light than any other. So run the blue during the day along with the white. I run my leds at 90% blue and 40% white most of the time. And remember, just because the blue light doesn't look as bright to our eyes as the white light, that isn't true for corals. To them the blue is just as 'bright' and care the same 'punch' as white when it comes to the potential of bleaching your corals.

Some people, me included, run blue only as a dawn and dusk or sunrise, sunset before and after the white leds.

If you can dim the blue channel really low, you could consider running them as moonlight. My bet is if all the blue leds are on even at 1% it will be brighter than you might like. The critters in your tank probably won't care either way. I have just 6 blues out of a 198 total leds that stay on below 10% and I run them at 1%. And even with that low a level, I turn all of them off for 3 or 4 hours during the night.
 
It is a Marineland model ML90618

the blue led's on that particular model you posted are for lunar lights. those fixtures are for freshwater aquariums or FOWLR saltwater aquariums..obviously not smart to run the blue channel 24/7...
 
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