Red Light - too much an issue?

[Bootlegger]

I read some interesting articles on various reef forums, some backed by real science (see the link below) that demonstrate red light no es bueno for corals.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/red-light-negatively-affects-health-of-stony-coral

I'm running 6x T5 54 watt HO bulbs and two of my bulbs are "color+" and with one being a "coral+" which basically means more red light is being pushed (big red spike in the 600nm-630nm range). I'm a little concerned that this is a mistake. I went with these bulbs to push more red so my fish have better color. I would have used a high CRI bulb if I could find one that I didn't have to order "special" online. Anyway, the fish do indeed look good but I'm having problems with some of my corals coloring up. And my Montis won't expand at all. They've been tucked-in (playing hide and seek) for more than two months. The funny thing is they're growing fine...just dull color and no extension.

I've run a lot of tanks in the past and always had good color. I've also not had polyp extension issues that lasted this long. I've had all my parameters checked and everything is solid. I also started doing water changes again as I was rather infrequent. On paper, everything should be perfect. So, what I'm thinking is that the red light is having a negative impact on my corals, especially the ones that aren't at the top of the reef, e.g. adapted to mostly blue light.

Has anyone added red and had an issue? I know a lot of the LED fans (which includes me) will run red LEDs for color balance (since most LEDs has **** poor CRI).

Note: by good margin, the best acro tanks I have ever seen, with corals that would give ORA and Jason Fox envy were gown under 100% Actinic and Blue T5s. The were so outstanding, I actually got angry. I literately yelled, "Are you f..king kidding me!". The corals were more vibrant and rich that I thought possible. My point, I've seen first hand that blue light is all you need. Red is for eyes only...no pun intended.

Note2: the second best tank I've seen, exploding with colors, is Aquarium City's (San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles) display tank. These guys are pushing 10k MH bulbs, that look like Ventures or Ushio, e.g. high CRI with plenty of red. The corals look as good and natural as anything you'd see diving an pristine Indonesian reef in mid day. Clearly the red spectrum that are driving into their tank is not an issue. Maybe it's a ratio issue?

Any comments here?

 

[slief]

While I can't say red light is bad for corals because I do believe they need some, what I can tell you is that it's great for algae. Too much red light will promote and increase nuisance algae growth and isn't really beneficial for corals. Most of the lighting we use be it LED's, T5 or fluorescent fixtures and halides already have some red light as part of their spectrum range because it exists with other useful spectrums. This is true even with LED fixture that have only cool white and blue/royal blue diodes.

When it comes to forescent bulbs, I think you want to have a balance between the whiter/lower kelvin temp bulbs and the actinic spectrum/higher kelvin bulbs. In your case, I am not so sure that an abundance of red within your bulbs is the cause of the lack of color or polyp extension. It could be due to nutrients or a wide range of other issues including light spectrum but not limited to the reds particularly.