Zoa Lighting

[organism]

Wow!! 7 actinics and 1 Blue special??
For how long?
Have you actually compared the growth with a 50/50 ratio, for e.g.?

For years and years, in a commercial propagation system. I'd used 50/50, and got exponentially more growth, color, and healthier corals overall when using one blue special and 7 actinics. I was getting 1/4" every week on my acros, and zoanthids would cover entire plugs within a month... Most of the farmers I know use the same combo, some even use all blue LED's. These are retailers, and if something else was better or more efficient then they'd be using that, but they're not

imo zoanthids get stressed with too much white light and grow more slowly, whereas if you blast them with blue light they'll turn neon colors and grow like crazy. I have yet to see any 50/50 based system that even touches the growth and coloration I've seen on actinic based systems.

 

[BlueChip]

i have a 6 bulb system that i am running 2 daylights, 2 purple and 2 blue.

will this be a good combo, or should i start swapping out bulbs?

i have all zoas, shrooms and some hammer/torch/frogspawn

My goal would be get accelerated growth out of all, but i would be fine with accelerated growth out of just the zoas

Chris

 

[A. Grandis]

For years and years, in a commercial propagation system. I'd used 50/50, and got exponentially more growth, color, and healthier corals overall when using one blue special and 7 actinics. I was getting 1/4" every week on my acros, and zoanthids would cover entire plugs within a month... Most of the farmers I know use the same combo, some even use all blue LED's. These are retailers, and if something else was better or more efficient then they'd be using that, but they're not

imo zoanthids get stressed with too much white light and grow more slowly, whereas if you blast them with blue light they'll turn neon colors and grow like crazy. I have yet to see any 50/50 based system that even touches the growth and coloration I've seen on actinic based systems.

Well, That's not what I experienced at all.
I'm willing to try again on Jan I'll be getting new bulbs for my system and perhaps I'll have 2 actinics, 3 Blue Plus bulbs and maybe a 50/50 bulb this time to try out. The PAR on the Blue Plus is much better than the actinics, so maybe would be a good idea even to have 5 Blue Plus bulbs instead getting the actinics.
I'm still thinking about it...
I know some people say 14K - 20K is a good choice...

Grandis.

 

[organism]

i have a 6 bulb system that i am running 2 daylights, 2 purple and 2 blue.

will this be a good combo, or should i start swapping out bulbs?

i have all zoas, shrooms and some hammer/torch/frogspawn

My goal would be get accelerated growth out of all, but i would be fine with accelerated growth out of just the zoas

Chris

When your bulbs get older I'd do 4 blue plus, 1 aquablue special and either 1 purple or another blue plus. I'd recommend all ATI bulbs, those are imo well worth it for the increased quality... If you like neon colors you'll be wondering why you didn't change the bulbs earlier

 

[organism]

Well, That's not what I experienced at all.
I'm willing to try again on Jan I'll be getting new bulbs for my system and perhaps I'll have 2 actinics, 3 Blue Plus bulbs and maybe a 50/50 bulb this time to try out. The PAR on the Blue Plus is much better than the actinics, so maybe would be a good idea even to have 5 Blue Plus bulbs instead getting the actinics.
I'm still thinking about it...
I know some people say 14K - 20K is a good choice...

Grandis.

That's my bad, when I say actinics I mean ATI blue plus, when I used their true actinic bulbs it was only 1 in an 8 bulb fixture. My usual lighting was 6 blue plus, 1 true actinic, and 1 aquablue special. Some of the best wholesalers use the same combo and when you see a full warehouse running that spectrum it's pretty impressive

 

[A. Grandis]

That's my bad, when I say actinics I mean ATI blue plus, when I used their true actinic bulbs it was only 1 in an 8 bulb fixture. My usual lighting was 6 blue plus, 1 true actinic, and 1 aquablue special. Some of the best wholesalers use the same combo and when you see a full warehouse running that spectrum it's pretty impressive

Oh, ok...
Well, that's similar to the ones I've had before adding the 6500K and the Coral Light!
I had an Aquablue special and 5 Blue Plus bulbs. The growth rate with the Coral Light + 6.500K + 4 Blue Plus is higher for sure, in my case.

I was thinking to try a 10.000K and 5 Blue Plus to see what happens.

Thanks for sharing!!

Grandis.