The relationship between light intensity, light wavelength, and SPS color

[drliu]

Here's a truly informative and very well done piece of research that explicitly tests the effects of light intensity, light wavelength, and other factors on the fluorescent colors of several representative SPS colors (including Acropora, Montipora, and Seriatopora). It's a beautiful study that gets down to the molecular level (monitoring gene expression of fluorescent proteins), with clear results.

Short version for non-specialists:
- In general, higher light intensity yields more coral fluorescent color (I'll call this "color" below, but technical the findings only apply to fluorescent protein-based color).
- For some SPS, 400 PAR units of light is enough to max out this color.
- For other SPS, 700 PAR units results in more color than 400 PAR units.
- For all SPS tested, blue light yields more color than green light, which yields more color than red light.

Of course these findings don't apply if you have other color- or health-limiting factors in your tank, like sub-par water quality. Also, many of us know from experience that too much light can result in color loss, so don't think that nuking your SPS will necessarily be better.

Link to the paper:
http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps_oa/m364p097.pdf

-David

 

[JG1]

- For all SPS tested, blue light yields more color than green light, which yields more color than red light.

Does this mean that Fiji purple t-5 bulbs are least beneficial for SPS color?

 

[jamgar]

I am assuming most of this is Riddle's work. He has a three part arcticle in the advanced aquarist on this very topic.

 

[clowndude]

Does this mean that Fiji purple t-5 bulbs are least beneficial for SPS color?

I'm curious the answer to this also as I'm considering switching my purple for another blueplus.

 

[gablett]

I believe that not to be true because the fiji purple bulb has high reds and high blues. It does bring out other hues like pinks, purples and reds. So the coral would benefit from the blue.

This is very interesting, I used to use bulbs for actinic supplementation that were 460 nm, and I just recently switched to more 420 nm of the UVL Super Actinic and holy crap, stuff glows to an extreme degree.

 

[JG1]

bump


I'm curious would the corals benefit more from a white daylight bulb (GE 6500k, AB special, KZ new gen) than a Fiji purple or purple plus bulb.