Lighting Detail

Betterboy4

New member
Hey guys... in the market for a new light and was just wondering what am i even looking for in terms of spectrum...intensity.. whats good and bad... what would be ideal if i were to DIY light that sort of stuff.. i have a
3ft x 1.5ft deep by 1ft... mainly softies and lps corals... what do i want for that i was looking at the Nemo aquarium lighting range but really dont know what im looking for to be ideal because my current mariglo light im seeing coral bleaching on my torch and blasto.. cheers all
 
There are at least dozen people here on RC (including me) who could write a five page paper answering your questions. And I wouldn't be surprised if in those dozen papers you got 15 different answers!

Do some reading and look at other aquariums and see what you think you like. Then ask some more specific questions. There are a ton of threads here about all kinds of light issues and a lot of good info in articles here as well. And until you can answer most (or all) of your own questions, I'd advise against a DIY fixture. Even some of the people who know the answers build fixtures that A) don't get the job done, B) look like a 10 year old kid made them, C) are so complicated even the builder has trouble making it do what they want when they want to show it off.
 
Okay.. so what about spectrum.. i know you want only a little red and green to minimise the algae what about the rest of it... ive seen the tanks with a lot of blue due the whole physics of light as blue is the strongest light taken sooo in terms of that its best to run a majority blue light correct with the sunlight (white light) for the full spectrum?? What about what you would prefer to use on a tank what are your preferences for spectrum. As if you were comparing 2 lights and said this one has this and that one doesnt so ill choose the other light?? That sortof thing...
 
I'm kinda old school. I like T5's with an LED for accent/moonlight effect. A two bulb High Output fixture should work well. One daylight and one actinic. Reefman is right. You could ask this question to 15 people and get 16 different answers.
 
Spectrum is only an issue if you don't offer enough blue. And most led fixtures do a 50:50 split between white and blue (or at least close to 50:50). If you run both channels at 50% power, you are probably getting enough blue although the tank will look quite white. You'll find that it only takes a small amount of white light to 'wash out' a much bigger volume of blue to our eyes. But that doesn't mean the blue isn't there and still doing it's job helping the coral feed itself and grow. Even at 100% power to the blue channel it only takes 10% or a little more of the white channel to make the tank look white. And as you add more white it may go from a cold white to a warmer white depending on which white leds you have in your fixture.

What shade of white you run is more about what looks good to your eye than what's best for the corals. They need blue for the zooxanthellae to do photosynthesis. They do use other spectrums to create pigments. Some pigments will use the high energy blue spectrum to create (fluoresce) different colors than the coral is under white light. So some people like much more blue to even just blue which makes some tanks look like a 1970's hippie poster under a blacklight (if you are old enough to remember what they were like).

Red and green help coral's color to look more natural, i.e. they have red and green to reflect and show their natural colors when your tank is white. You don't need much, some would even say you don't need any. There is some red and green spectrum in the white leds.

Some people make a huge issue about the color of their tank as they see it, I'm not that picky. Some other people make a big deal out of the exact spectrum they get for keeping corals healthy and growing, most currently sold fixtures do an adequate job here as well. Some people will say you need a high quality (i.e. expensive fixture) and others are on tight budgets and go for the cheap fixtures. In my experience, the cheap fixtures are able to do 95% of what the expensive fixtures do as far as the spectrum is concerned and do it for a lot less money. Then it's a matter of what kind of 'special' features and controls you want, they cost extra as well. Dimmer knobs and add on timers still do a perfectly acceptable job.
 
Thanks heaps that actually really helps... im prwtty sure my decision is made cheers for your help ������
 
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