Lighting: Do blues and whites have to be on at the same time?

[Pigpen17]

I was thinking of programing peak blues in the morning and evening, but peak whites during the day. Will this be harmful?

A short story.
I have a reefbeeders Photon 24. It's programmable, and works well, but when it drops from 10%-9%, there is a noticeable "switch". I would love to program this out. The only way I can make it seamless, it to have my blues around 30% when the whites drop to 9%. I would like this to happen around 10PM, so a separate schedule seems like the answer, other than having my blues run almost all the time.

Something like this:
Blues come on very early and ramp up to 30%, than ease in my whites to peak while easing off the blues during the day. Then reverse the thing for evenings. Ease up my blues to 30% while easing off my whites to 0%, then moonights and off.

Is this something you can do, or should both your channels be on together?

 

[thegrun]

I would ramp up the blues 4 hours, run them at the full intensity you max them out at, then a 4 hour ramp down. Start the whites 2 hours after the blues started with a 2 hour ramp up, 4 hours at peak hours and then a 2 hour ramp down so you have two hours of just blue at the end of the day.

 

[Pigpen17]

Yeah, that's not bad. The only thing is I work all day, cook dinner, hang with the wife and then it's office/tank time. I enjoy the whites more than the blues and I really only get to mess with my tank after 8 or so. I guess I could just have the program run later.

So I am guessing that you do want the two channels to run together? I mean, in theory, could you run whites all day and blues all night?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Don't get offended if you already know this, but based on your question I'm assuming you don't.

Your coral has a type of algae called zoanthellae that live and grow inside the coral polyps themselves. This algae does photosynthesis and that also helps feed the coral. This algae does it's photosynthesis MUCH better with blue wavelength light than any other. Now white is a combination of all wavelengths (or at least red, green and blue). But that means a lot less blue than the blue channel on your fixture provide.

Doing dawn and dusk in blue only is fine, but at low power levels typically used at those times, it's not bright enough to get photosynthesis started. So as you ramp up your whites, continue to ramp up your blues. Most people with 2 channel led fixtures find it only takes a small amount of white channel to wash away almost all of the blue look in the tank. But that is just what our eyes see. The blue wavelength is still there and now at higher power, your coral's zoanthellae can do photosynthesis and therefore feed itself and the coral as well.

I typically run my lights at 100% blue and 40% white for my midday high. But my corals have been acclimated to these high power levels over 3+ years with my current fixtures. You should start you power levels lower at first so you don't bleach the corals.

 

[Yonp11]

I have the same schedule problems as you, so I have my lights start to ramp up at 11am, the turn off at 11pm. Gets me an hour or two of more white lighting when i get home, a few hours of blue.

 

[Pigpen17]

Don't get offended if you already know this, but based on your question I'm assuming you don't.

Your coral has a type of algae called zoanthellae that live and grow inside the coral polyps themselves. This algae does photosynthesis and that also helps feed the coral. This algae does it's photosynthesis MUCH better with blue wavelength light than any other. Now white is a combination of all wavelengths (or at least red, green and blue). But that means a lot less blue than the blue channel on your fixture provide.

Doing dawn and dusk in blue only is fine, but at low power levels typically used at those times, it's not bright enough to get photosynthesis started. So as you ramp up your whites, continue to ramp up your blues. Most people with 2 channel led fixtures find it only takes a small amount of white channel to wash away almost all of the blue look in the tank. But that is just what our eyes see. The blue wavelength is still there and now at higher power, your coral's zoanthellae can do photosynthesis and therefore feed itself and the coral as well.

I typically run my lights at 100% blue and 40% white for my midday high. But my corals have been acclimated to these high power levels over 3+ years with my current fixtures. You should start you power levels lower at first so you don't bleach the corals.

I am still learning, but I'm trying. I don't have a par meter, so I have been going by the lights PAR specs vs depth and then tuning my % to that. I tried my hand at a Birdsnest, but it ended up bleaching. I could not figure it out. When the answers I found said it could have been, too much light, or too little light, I had no idea where to turn with that.

But more than that, I am just wondering, despite levels, if there is any harm running the blues on their own and the whites on their own during separate hours. If so, it would give me more freedom to customize my program.

 

[heathlindner25]

I would have to say basically no... the white channel alone is just the wrong spectrum, try to figure something out that will work for you using both channels even if they come on and off at the same time

 

[homer1475]

I would ramp up the blues 4 hours, run them at the full intensity you max them out at, then a 4 hour ramp down. Start the whites 2 hours after the blues started with a 2 hour ramp up, 4 hours at peak hours and then a 2 hour ramp down so you have two hours of just blue at the end of the day.

I run my program very similar to this. Its aesthetically pleasing, and my corals love the extra blues they get at the beginning and end of the day.

 

[Pigpen17]

Yeah. It's good advice. I think I will try something like that. Just more blues earlier and later.

Thanks.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'm not sure why you have an issue with running the blues with the whites? The white over powers the blue so easily that even high blue power levels look white with relatively little white power levels.

Doing them separate can work. But you need to get at least 4 to 6 hours of higher power blue for the corals to survive and grow. As said above, the white leds just don't provide enough of the proper wavelength (400nm to 480nm).

As for your birdsnest, I've found them to be a bit tricky in my tank. I have a neon green one that grows like a weed in almost any light (high or low). But I have 2 others (pink and purple) that just don't like high power settings at all.

Hope that helps some? If not, keep asking questions. Some of this is very much a trial and error kind of situation. And it wouldn't be much different even if you had t5 or MH fixtures. At least with leds you can control the power levels. With t5 and MH you have to raise or lower the fixture to adjust the amount of light.

 

[Bent]

So wait? You guys are all saying that the "white" is not even necessary?...

 

[heathlindner25]

So wait? You guys are all saying that the "white" is not even necessary?...

I didn't say that

 

[Bent]

I didn't say that

Oh ok, just making sure I wasn't thinking wrong all this time.

 

[garwood]

these lights are really strong. I have mine set to 45blue 10 white and am scared to go higher.

 

[Ron Reefman]

So wait? You guys are all saying that the "white" is not even necessary?...

Eh... My take on it is they may not be necessary for most corals to survive. But without the other spectrum found in white, the colors in the coral may change. But then if all you had was blue, the only colors you'd see are blue and any colors the coral would fluoresce.