Blue Tanks: I started keeping corals 15 years ago. Still don't get it.

[dvanacker]

I heart this thread.

 

[Biocubehqi]

The op had a little to much hateraid

 

[galleon]

Its almost too easy sometimes isnt it...

 

[frankyrivera]

Umm am I missing something here or am I the only one wondering why the op hasn't posted a picture of his tank using only white or natural light. Is it cuz his tank looks like crap or he doesn't have one or he does use blue I don't know I'm confused but where's the proof show us what your dive master white tank looks like lol

 

[bogg]

I understand somewhat lots of pictures make things look comical
But in person I love the way royal blues make the colors pop
It's neat and is really pleasing to the eye now all the time all royal blue wont be Benificial IMO but lots of Blue at certain times is fun!

 

[Nano sapiens]

Umm am I missing something here or am I the only one wondering why the op hasn't posted a picture of his tank using only white or natural light. Is it cuz his tank looks like crap or he doesn't have one or he does use blue I don't know I'm confused but where's the proof show us what your dive master white tank looks like lol

The OP just threw some bait in the water to see who would bite

 

[Bigcefa]

Yes he's an idiot

 

[Acronic]

 

[NeilFox]

Too much Vodka dosing perhaps?

 

[Acronic]

I bought blueberry vodka by accident. Go figure

 

[Paul B]

I think when the op goes diving he means snorkel and mask In the kiddy pool he obviously hasn't seen a reef In 100 feet of water

Exactly, tourist dives only go 30' or less because you can stay all day and don't have to de -compress. Many people go on those and figure they are diving and that is what a reef looks like. But like was said a few times, at 30' you will still see some color.
As GrimReefer correctly said, at 150' everything is dark blue.
I was down once in Mexico and this jerk near me tried to pet a very large moray eel and the eel grabbed his hand up to his elbow and began shaking the guy. There was a lot of blood and it was black or dark green, but as we neared the surface, it turned a nice bright red.

 

[animalkingdom]

Shame, I guess I'd like my corals to look good in a natural sense, rather than pretend they look good through 3D glasses at a discotheque while tripping on acid.

You aren't pretending they look good. Color is all about reflection and absorption of visible electromagnetic radiation. What you see is what you get. If they look good, they are good. This is coming from a colorblind individual who knows quite a bit about variation in perception of color....
btw my reef may look bland and dull to most of the world, but for all you red green deficient reefers out there I bet it looks great!
JK, I often bring wifey along to pick out pretty colors, but that doesn't mean if she says it looks ugly I won't pick it up if it looks like a million bucks to me

 

[Piper27]

I farted a few seconds ago. Not surprisingly it brought up better conversation than this thread did

 

[NeilFox]

The OP has posted his tank on this thread. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21536065#post21536065 . I had to check it out. You guys can formulate your own opinions.

 

[frankyrivera]

Wow brown corals nuff said good luck with that

 

[psykobowler]

I don't care about your justifications, rationalizations, whatever. Your overall blue light makes your corals and tank look like crap. Yes you.

Honestly, Galleon your tank looks like crap with whatever light you put on top of it. You should stop criticizing others maybe even stop reefing because you obviously don't know what you are doing. You may have a point if you got something to show for it but your brown out corals does not give you any credibility. Diving experience does not make you a better reefer. It just makes you arrogant to think that you are ahead of everyone else. Respect others and they will respect you.

 

[galleon]

The OP has posted his tank on this thread. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=21536065#post21536065 . I had to check it out. You guys can formulate your own opinions.

Man, that only took 3 full pages.

 

[saltyair]

I have been a diver for many years - I have dove the great barrier reef, reefs around Vietnam and Caribbean reefs. Mid level dive things sure start to look blue.

chill and enjoy what u like

Yup, it's a personal problem because I know what sunlight in seawater actually looks like. Looks like many people in the SPS world just guess, dream, or play a version of monkey see monkey do. Basically, my personal problem is everyone being a bunch of followers with either no idea what reality looks like, or willfully ignoring it to make their corals look like they are partying in a rave.

 

[Reefer1225]

Most entertaining thread in a while... pointless... but entertaining.

 

[ANFPO]

Im with Galleon, we should all go back to the 400 watt Iwasaki 6500k look. J/k !, i think it all boils down to personal preference as long as we strive for keeping the corals healthy and learning from keeping them. What about for us who are colorblind? Are we excused from having a "blue" tank as long as the corals are healthy? Just something to think about, I guess.

Also, dont know if this was already pointed out or not. Bluer spectrum encourages coralline algea which has MANY benefits. Furthermore, how can we _exactly_ replicate nature if our volume doesnt even come close?

Another point is Bluer light is just one of the many ways we COMPENSATE for not having nature's ability to do many other things, like for example having a whale hover a reef without anything happening to the ecosystem (nutrientwise). We are limited by the things we cant do like mother nature, but we compensate by manipulating other parameters. Blue light is just another one of them.
In my humble opinion.