ComforablyNumb
New member
Disagree. Being a diver for decades, I have seen shading of corals in nature and the undersides of most corals are naturally thinner with polyp density than the top, even those in direct sunlight. Its the same in my tank and its the same in nature. My reef has been running for over 3 years with only kessils. Shading is not a problem for me. If it were, I would have kept the t5's I ran for several months. I found them totally unnecessary, and I didnt like the flat appearance.There is some shading but not even close to what happens with leds.
"First the sun move. It lights on side in the morning, then noon the top and then evening the other side " I can move the perceived point of light across my tank from left to right as well with my controller. The light is scattered the same way it is nature, via surface agitation. You will also experience natural scattering from reflections from the 4 glass panels and off the rockwork, etc. Like I said above, if shading were a problem for me (it isnt) I would have kept the t5's running.
"Plus the light from the sun is allot farther away and not as point source as led." That makes no difference in my opinion. If I move my lights up, I dont get less shading, I only get less intense light over all and less entering the tank.
"The waves and the surface of the ocean refract, scatter and bend light." I recreate that same refraction and scattering/concentration via surface agitation. Not sure what you mean by "bend". The surface agitation is what produces the shimmer. Take that agitation away, the light does not shimmer (or scatter/concentrate) the same way at all.
Here's a link to pictures of my mixed reef. As you can see, shading is not a problem at all for me:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25151157#post25151157
Cheers.
Last edited: