light intensity and color

[palyam]

Hi

What are the "rules" (based on your experience) for colors vs. light intensity?

For example- blue color corals should be placed higher in the tank and close to the lights, or somewhere else to keep their color?

 

[ati70cutlass]

the lower the kelvin the higher the par. the higher the kelvin the lower the par.6500k has more kelvin than a 10,000k, 20,000 kelvin has less than a 14000. however the lower the kelvin the redder or more yellow the bulb. the higher the kelvin the bluer the bulb.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

I guess it depends on the intensity of the lamp and the depth of the tank. Corals in tanks with high intensity lights seem to hold their color better under hi nutrient conditions than corals in tanks with lo intensity. IE the lower the light the more likely the coral is to brown out. However, that doesnt mean that corals cant have great color under lower intensity. They just seem to need lower nutrient conditions to do so.

However, in my systems the wavelegnth of the light seems to make more difference than the intensity. My corals are pretty much the same color no matter how deep they are. I run 6 x 400 watt lamps on a 24 inch deep tank. But i do have colonies of same coral that are under different colors of light and that makes a difference. I have a hawkins that is Blue under a 14K light but purple under a 10 k lamp. The wavelegth of the lights seems to make much more difference than tank depth. Reds look better to me under the 10 K. In my system the ORA rose milli is red with yellow tips on the 10k side. On the 15 K side it keeps green in the base and the red is much more metalic.
It might matter in some systems with diferent lamps but i seem to get full saturation in a 24 inch deep tank with 400 halides. Distance from the lamp doesnt seem to matter much.