Coral color under different lights

[goslugsgo]

I am a little unclear as to the effect different bulb K values have on the coloring of corals. At present I am running the 175w Iwasaki 15k bulb on my 65 wide. Will the corals get better color under a Radium 250w, or will the tank just look different as it's a different light? The PPFD is identical, ~85, for both.

 

[cubman20]

my colors pop under the 250 radiaum I used a 14k before i like the radiaum better.View attachment 124540

 

[mike_cmu04]

They will get better colors under the 250 radium and likely better growth.

 

[goslugsgo]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like the change will be worth it.

 

[allsps40]

Yeah 250s will be over all brighter that 175s. 20k bulbs are very dim and blue looking. I used 20ks for 2 years now, got ok growth and fairly good colors. 20ks are good for color and popping blues, greens and purples also makes reds very deep. I feel 14k is the best over all. Gives great growth and color and is a nice crisp blue white, nice and bright. 10k will give you really fast growth but more brown colors. It is very yellow and most people suppliment with actinic lighting.

 

[goslugsgo]

But if the PPFD is the same between a 175w bulb and a 250w wouldn't the growth be the same?

 

[outy]

But if the PPFD is the same between a 175w bulb and a 250w wouldn't the growth be the same?

the bulbs you run have great color which is only personal prefference

the bulbs you run have as much par as many 250w 20k bulbs... par= growth

20k is to blue for my liking

light is basicaly divided into kelvin [color] and par [strength] higher the kelvin generaly speaking makes less par, a few bulbs like pheonix and radiums give great par at 20k most do not.

I run 3 x 175w 14k ebay plusrites and 2 60" 454 VHO's for color in a 29" deep tank and I get great growth and color, you can see my monti's growing on a weekly basis no problem

different combinations of lighting work well and you can keep what you have and add atinic supplimentation if you dont like the color but you have plenty of par with those bulbs and you could buy 250w and actually go backwards

 

[ros_sco]

When I first set my tank up, I went with 175 watt Iwasaki 15k in regular parabolic reflectors as the ppfd was the same as many 250 watt bulbs. I was never really happy with the color. I ended up changing to 250 watt radiums in Lumenarc mini reflectors and have run them for 2 years. There was an initial instant color change just due to the different spectrum, but my corals actually changed to more vibrant colors over time as well. Be careful to acclimate if you change. Even though the ppfd is supposed to be nearly the same, I really light shocked some of my acros when I changed - even with window screen. I removed a layer every 3 or 4 days and that was too fast. Probably more the reflectors than the bulbs.

 

[reeflover7826]

Ive have been experimenting with 175w bulbs for a while. I first choose 15k Iwasaki because of the par but the color pop was not there so I supplemented the heck out of them with 4 ATI blue+ and 2 VHO super actinic the mixture made a great blue color, but I still was not satisfied with the coral colors. I then got a pair of 20k XM's and supplemented one of the Blue+'s with a Aquablue special and was getting way better colors from my sps but from the shimmer I could tell that the par was not as strong as the Iwasaki's. So I just recently bought a Bluewave 7 HQI ballast and am going to try out some Radiums and only suplement with the Super Actinics and see which combo I like best. I just like the colors from the 20k's way more I would say growth was about the same. I will keep posted I should recieve the bulbs some time this week.

 

[beeker]

the main test i'd like to see with corals under different lighting is led

like for example take 4 frags of red planet acro, put one under just a cool white led, put another frag under just a cool blue led another frag under a neutral white led and the last frag under just a royal blue led and see what happens after 2 months of each frag being under just that 1 color of led

IMO this would help a lot of people who are getting into leds and are interested in what spectrums it really takes to color up a frag and if i get to that point in the next year i will certainly try this expierment out just don't have the time or the funds for it at the moment,

Also doing 1 frag under a warm white led it would be interesting to see what each frag of red planet colors up too

 

[goslugsgo]

@ ros_sco The corals getting more vibrant hits on my question, but there are so many variables in play, like reflectors, that it's hard to nail it down to the 20k vs 15k.

@reeflover7826 If you could post your impressions when you get them, then maybe a month out that would be fantastic.

I think I'll try the Radiums when I switch in a few months. New items keep this hobby interesting, though investing in another ballast is a bit off-putting.
Thanks all for the input.