Lights... hit me...

Photosynthesis (feeding) is only part of the equation. Different wavelength also trigger different responses in coral tissue - changing pigmentation, accelerating calcification, changing growth thickness and shape, chemical protection release, mucous release, and even prompting reproduction etc...

I've specifically added high intensity UV LEDs just under the burning flesh threshold to stimulate rapid recovery after pruning and fragging. I think it limits undesirable growths on the exposed sections just below the level that would harm the coral (much).

Can you tell where the UV spotlight was pointing? Hint- it's a circular region.

<a href="http://s1062.photobucket.com/user/karimwassef/media/81FD7AFC-C364-45E7-9ED9-CD4AFC7B9641_zpshjdcqy9x.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1062.photobucket.com/albums/t496/karimwassef/81FD7AFC-C364-45E7-9ED9-CD4AFC7B9641_zpshjdcqy9x.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 81FD7AFC-C364-45E7-9ED9-CD4AFC7B9641_zpshjdcqy9x.jpg"></a>

Yes- green with blue tips > gold with purple tips.
 
Again, details and nuance matter. There are many things that light does for coral. To name a few, it provides food to the dinos, it is reflected at the same wavelength that it comes in at, it can be reflected at a lower energy levels, and it can build pigments to use as "sunscreen" (IR range). When you combine all of these factors, and there are probably more, light from about 360nm to 720nm has use for a wide range of corals. Some don't need that low or high... some do. This is a gross overgeneralization and a single corals will almost certainly not be happy with 720 and 360 and will probably want a tighter range, but any chart of study that just shows dino food is not telling the whole story of lighting coral.
 
Can you tell where the UV spotlight was pointing?
I can tell. ;)

Here is an output spectrograph chart for the a360 kessil. Note how blue it stays no matter how many "whiter" leds are lit within the cluster. (Kessil Logic) A friend told me that makes these idiot proof (good for me) but you still have to be careful of intensity and should ramp that up gradually when placing a coral that came from a different lighting source. Or..start the new coral down low in the tank and move it up as necessary. I run my intensity 0 - 80% ramp over 3 hrs, 6hrs at 80%, 3hr ramp back down. I have my "white" setting to match. Been using that schedule for 20 months since the changeout from mH/actinic, after about 3 months testing various levels of both spectrum and intensity for my corals. I have 2 over a 4' tank, lamps are approx 10" above surface. Note steady peak at 460nm, which tells me Kessil thinks this band is the most important for corals. I wish the chart was viewable down to 360nm but it is not.

1nTkdpz.png


*edit I also have the graph for the newer AP700 if anyone is interested..but it is quite similar.
 
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I just wanted to reiterate one point. There have been a couple here who have criticized my stylo as a "frankencoral" and having a weird color and shape. Not all corals of similar variety look the same...at all. My stylo is an Ora Blue Stylo aka Ora Catspaw Stylo. They also come in color varients.

Tyree Rainbow Stylo:
tvUKZMK.jpg


Ora Catspaw stylo, this is not my actual coral, but mine is the same variety:
xDpkexe.jpg


Ora pink stylo:
hp4MchB.jpg


Tyree green stylo:
KMuN74K.jpg
 
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Yes you're right ComforablyNumb and there's is nothing wrong with your coral, they look healthy. There are many more variables to corals growth other than just light and why they grow a certain way, most everyone knows that...just knowledge one gains with experience.
I sell all these type of corals in my store and in my coral bed in some case, you would think one coral needs more light than the other but both are next to each other. lol
 
lol Acro-snobs...what can we do except call them out when they insult someone's healthy corals in public? Unwarranted, uneducated and condescending comments like jta's and dugger's may have driven a less experienced hobbyist out of the hobby altogether. You work hard, you study, you invest hard earned cash..and if it had been someone new (I have decades of experience) and someone said something like that to them like they said to me..they just may throw up their hands and say ah the heck with it and head over to the For Sale section.

And that is the LAST thing we want to see happen in this hobby.

Rant over..lol
 
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I think if you look back at jda's posts you will see he is possibly the person on the site who offers the best, most sound advice. He was even acknowledged by the moderators as such a couple months ago.

Most people appreciate the cold hard truth because it saves them time and money in the end.
 
lol Acro-snobs...what can we do except call them out when they insult someone's healthy corals in public? Unwarranted and uneducated silly comments like jta's and dugger's may have driven a less experienced hobbyist out of the hobby altogether. You work hard, you study, you invest hard earned cash..and if it had been someone new (I have decades of experience) and someone said something like that them..they just may throw up their hands and say ah the heck with it and head over to the For Sale section.

And that is the LAST thing we want to see happen in this hobby.

Rant over..lol
I suppose the biggest question is (after the is it alive / healthy / growing question of course) are you happy with it, colour and growth wise?

If so, then ignore them... it's a bit like the playground on here sometimes... 'my stylo is better than your stylo' comments help no one and are frankly childish.

If someone compared their stylo to yours and noticed differences and then asked why they were different... then we're getting somewhere... down that road lies knowledge and wisdom...

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I love playing the why game with my kids... although they've now cottoned on and after about 3 turns of my 'why' they give up and say 'because of the big bang'...

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I suppose the biggest question is (after the is it alive / healthy / growing question of course) are you happy with it, colour and growth wise?

If so, then ignore them... it's a bit like the playground on here sometimes... 'my stylo is better than your stylo' comments help no one and are frankly childish.

If someone compared their stylo to yours and noticed differences and then asked why they were different... then we're getting somewhere... down that road lies knowledge and wisdom...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

The point was not to slag in his coral, his reefkeeping, him, whatever. The point was to mention that the coral has an obvious issue because it was lit by LED lighting, when he was trying to show the opposite.

I think what jda and myself are trying to say is this;

LED is fine in 80+% of tanks. If you want a mixed reef and some easier SPS, have at her. If you want to grow acropora, and really colour it well and have it be very healthy, you are better off with other lighting. That's all we're saying.
 
I suppose the biggest question is (after the is it alive / healthy / growing question of course) are you happy with it, colour and growth wise?

If so, then ignore them... it's a bit like the playground on here sometimes... 'my stylo is better than your stylo' comments help no one and are frankly childish.

If someone compared their stylo to yours and noticed differences and then asked why they were different... then we're getting somewhere... down that road lies knowledge and wisdom...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Well said :)
 
So please try saying it in a less insulting and condescending way. I have no problem with discussion on these points...where I do have a problem is when someone says "frankencoral" or disfigured or you dont know what you are talking about or whatever.

"The point was to mention that the coral has an obvious issue because it was lit by LED lighting, when he was trying to show the opposite."

And what obvious issue would that be please? That coral IS lit by LED and as many have said, it looks healthy to them (and me). I still fail to see the issue you have with my corals. It doesn't look like yours maybe and you dont care for its appearance. I may have the same issue with yours because it looks different than mine...but I do not. And I would never say to anyone what they said to me.

I appreciate all input, but please..be respectful when you voice your opinion. Dont be insulting is all I'm asking...they were both insulting.

I appreciate jda's experience.. but I wish he would appreciate mine as well. And be less condescending.
 
The point was not to slag in his coral, his reefkeeping, him, whatever. The point was to mention that the coral has an obvious issue because it was lit by LED lighting, when he was trying to show the opposite.

I think what jda and myself are trying to say is this;

LED is fine in 80+% of tanks. If you want a mixed reef and some easier SPS, have at her. If you want to grow acropora, and really colour it well and have it be very healthy, you are better off with other lighting. That's all we're saying.
I'm really hoping I remember this thread in 24 months or so... when my acros are growing out of the water and full of colourful polyps all over, all fuelled with some black box leds with the odd upgrade [emoji6]

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So please try saying it in a less insulting and condescending way. I have no problem with discussion on these points...where I do have a problem is when someone says "frankencoral" or disfigured or you dont know what you are talking about or whatever.

"The point was to mention that the coral has an obvious issue because it was lit by LED lighting, when he was trying to show the opposite."

And what obvious issue would that be please? That coral IS lit by LED and as many have said, it looks healthy to them (and me). I still fail to see the issue you have with my corals. It doesn't look like yours maybe and you dont care for its appearance. I may have the same issue with yours because it looks different than mine...but I do not. And I would never say to anyone what they said to me.

I appreciate all input, but please..be respectful when you voice your opinion. Dont be insulting is all I'm asking...they were both insulting.

I appreciate jda's experience.. but I wish he would appreciate mine as well. And be less condescending.

I don't know how I was being disrespectful, I apologize if it came across that way. I certainly said some things in jest, sure. I didn't say anything like "frankencoral" but someone else could have.

I'm really hoping I remember this thread in 24 months or so... when my acros are growing out of the water and full of colourful polyps all over, all fuelled with some black box leds with the odd upgrade [emoji6]

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I hope it works out for you man. It's not impossible, just more of a challenge :).
 
Thx, but no need to apologize but I certainly appreciate it. It wasn't you so much..it was the other two.

Ah well..live and learn I suppose..and forget the petty ones with their lame insults. Maybe they were just having a bad day, who knows?
 
Gweeds, good luck and I bet you will have them growing out of the top of your tank. Of course, because they will be under LED's, they will be ugly and leggy (totally kidding here) but if you are part of the 80% simpletons out there, welcome to the club.
 
I will use the sample you have posted for comparison, and I will try explaining this one last time. It doesn't take many years of experience to discern which of these corals pictured is healthier. One, has choked polyp extension and dying undersides while the other has uniform polyp extension and color rendition. One has irregular growth with single stem branches reaching in an unnatural way, while the other is branching in a dense and symmetrical fashion. These are all indications of an issue. Growth doesn't always indicate health, when the frame of the coral is chasing it with dead and dying tissue from underneath.

Yes, Acro focused hobbyists are a bit over the top with the particulars. But that is because growing and coloring these corals demands much more dedication and skill. Very few experienced hobbyists voice their opinions within forums anymore. I remember learning so very much in the early days when I signed on to RC, there were so many brilliant reefers to learn from. It's just a shame that when one still does share very useful information, it gets pushed aside for whatever is new and popular.
 

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