Which color light most affects algae growth?

[PoggiPJ]

I currently have three Arctic 247 LED units over my 180 gallon. I can separately set the intensity and on/off times for the blue and daylight channels.

My questions are, do both the blue and daylight have the same affect on

• algae growth?
• coral growth?

 

[jayball]

Most algae can use red more efficiently than coral and coral uses blue more efficiently than red.

 

[MondoBongo]

short answer: it's complicated.

long answer: it's really complicated, check these out:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/2/aafeature/
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature
http://www.coralscience.org/main/articles/symbiosis-4/inside-a-coral-lab

algae, especially green algae, tends to like things about 6500K. corals are also capable of utilizing that temperature area, but they can also use a lot more of the scale as well. it can also vary based on which type of coral, symbiodinium, etc...

 

[PoggiPJ]

looks like I have some reading to do! Thank you both