Neptune Aquatics

Keeping LPS corals under LED lighting

Red spectrum in particular has been shown to actually hurt corals.
Do you have any articles on that?
I have heard red can benefit nuisance algae more so than coral.
But I have never seen any scientific articles that it actually hurts coral.
And I do see coral growing great in shallow reefs, where in theory it gets a lot of red.
 
I am watching this thread carefully as I am supposed to get my LED (Mars Aqua 300w) tomorrow and have no idea of a starting point for it as I swap from 4x24watt t5s
 
I am watching this thread carefully as I am supposed to get my LED (Mars Aqua 300w) tomorrow and have no idea of a starting point for it as I swap from 4x24watt t5s
I like to keep my Mars Aqua pretty high off the water. Helps spread out the light/par a bit and reduces hot spots from the big diodes
 
Do you have any articles on that?
I have heard red can benefit nuisance algae more so than coral.
But I have never seen any scientific articles that it actually hurts coral.
And I do see coral growing great in shallow reefs, where in theory it gets a lot of red.
I’ll look for the study again. Iirc it was done by a university.
 
This wasn’t the one I found before but it came up first on a google search.

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

I had looked into it because I was having my ap700’s do a sunrise/sunset effect where they would ramp up/down with red and I was having poor results in regards to coral health. I can’t say scientifically that that was causing my problems but I switched to all blue and just increased/decreased the intensity after reading the study.
 
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I like to keep my Mars Aqua pretty high off the water. Helps spread out the light/par a bit and reduces hot spots from the big diodes
Perfect, I was planning on hanging 16" above the water to start. What percentages and times would you recommend as a starting point?
 
Perfect, I was planning on hanging 16" above the water to start. What percentages and times would you recommend as a starting point?
I'm not sure about timing, I kind of just turn mine before I leave the house, and turn off when I get back, probably around a 9 hour cycle. When turning the knob on, I think it starts at around 30% intensity, and does not increase in brightness until the knob is close to 50%. I generally keep blues at around 50% and colors at minimum or slightly higher until I find the look I like. If you have SPS, you will probably want to be close to max blues and 50% colors. This is my experience with the 165 watt, I would imagine the 300 watt is similar
 
This wasn’t the one I found before but it came up first on a google search.

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

I had looked into it because I was having my ap700’s do a sunrise/sunset effect where they would ramp up/down with red and I was having poor results in regards to coral health. I can’t say scientifically that that was causing my problems but I switched to all blue and just increased/decreased the intensity after reading the study.

How long ago did you cut out the red and have you seen an improvement in your corals regardless of what has actually caused it? I'm running red in my AP700s and have been had some success, but feel that somethings grew better under my A360we lights. So now I want to try cutting out the red too and see if I get improvement.
 
How long ago did you cut out the red and have you seen an improvement in your corals regardless of what has actually caused it? I'm running red in my AP700s and have been had some success, but feel that somethings grew better under my A360we lights. So now I want to try cutting out the red too and see if I get improvement.
I get really confused when I reach out for help on forums. First of all I followed what is online per the Ecotech website in addition to aqua illumination. I get on here and find a multitude of different answers telling me my settings are wrong. Life was so much easier with T5 and metal halide.
 
How long ago did you cut out the red and have you seen an improvement in your corals regardless of what has actually caused it? I'm running red in my AP700s and have been had some success, but feel that somethings grew better under my A360we lights. So now I want to try cutting out the red too and see if I get improvement.
It was at least 6 months ago but I can’t say for sure that in my case the red spectrum was the problem. I was still dialing in several things at that stage but I wanted to limit potential problems so after reading the article I went straight blue.

I get really confused when I reach out for help on forums. First of all I followed what is online per the Ecotech website in addition to aqua illumination. I get on here and find a multitude of different answers telling me my settings are wrong. Life was so much easier with T5 and metal halide.
One aspect of this hobby is that it’s not a perfected science (yet). People try to make it that but so much of the information that is out there is anecdotal and not proven science. Whenever I ask for input I always take the response with a grain of salt knowing that what may work for them may not work for me. It can be a pain when you need some finite information but it’s also what makes the hobby fun too since it can be a bit of a mystery.
 
I get really confused when I reach out for help on forums. First of all I followed what is online per the Ecotech website in addition to aqua illumination. I get on here and find a multitude of different answers telling me my settings are wrong. Life was so much easier with T5 and metal halide.

Ehh, I had just as many people say my T5 bulb choice was all wrong when I ran those.
:)

A lot of people say that "too many settings" is one of the big problems with LED.

I still think LEDs are great though. No bulbs to change, less heat in the house, great colors.
It takes some slow tinkering to get the mixture of decent growth + pleasing to the owner though.
 
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