all blue leds?

[ilostnemo]

so im going to set up a 10 gallon nano reef. and i bought from my work panorama brand 12 1 watt blue leds 453 nms. i know its enough light to support corals but my main question is would all blue be fine?

 

[iDream]

i would imagine so, the only thing is i think certain corals grow under daylight with actinic, my mushrooms never opened when my daylight went out, after i fixed it they opened up and stretched like no tomorrow

EDIT: btw just my thought, thinking i'm wrong though

 

[ilostnemo]

yeah thats what i was thinking too. my zoas open up slower than normal only thing is i love this coloration throughout my tank.

 

[cmor1701d]

12 watts is nowhere near enough light. For night time that would be find. My LED's consist of 120 1w LEDs per unit (3 units on a 6' long tank).

 

[iDream]

even for a 10G? i thought watts didnt matter for LEDs, it was different?

probably wrong again..

 

[cmor1701d]

PAR is what matters, but you're not going to get it with 12w.

My 120w LEDs are equivalent to 400w MH for the top third of the tank. They don't penetrate as well, but my clam on the sandbed is happy, and my candy cane has to be now be shaded.

I would think you need at least double if not triple the number of LEDs depending on what you want to keep. So maybe two blue strips and one white strrip to get the look you want with the PAR you need for corals.

 

[ilostnemo]

My 12 watts of leds is double the amount of par of a 150 watt MH soooooo. Plus you have about 24 inches to penatrate where I have 10?

 

[ilostnemo]

Correction amount of usable light. But these leds are ment for coral. Look up panorma leds. They are brighter than MH

 

[ilostnemo]

Anyone know if all blue would be ok?

 

[mr_X]

it would be fine if you like that look, and it's enough PAR. i am in the "doubt boat" with cmor.

 

[cmor1701d]

Where are you getting your PAR numbers from. I see a review these strips to half the ppfd of a 150w MH at 18" and about 1/3 less ppfd at 12".

At the surface though they are very good.

 

[ilostnemo]

Why you in the doubt boat if it'd work? And the compnay that makes them and my boss that talks to them.

 

[mr_X]

i'm in the doubt boat because i am not sure that they will sustain corals due to not enough PAR. otherwise you can keep corals under blue light. many deep water species don't even see the lower kelvin and do fine.

i'm not sure what you are trying to say here:

And the compnay that makes them and my boss that talks to them.

 

[cmor1701d]

Well the review I read showed ...
At the very bottom of the aquarium, approximately 18″ from the light source, the PAR readings ranged from 36 PPFD (photosynthetic photon flux density) to 38 PPFD...

Approximately 6 inches off of the bottom, or about 12″ from the light source, we measured 57 – 60 PPFD...

We moved up in the water column to position the meter at approximately seven inches up from the light and we saw a jump to 100+ PPFD

So down to 7" it may equal a 150w MH, but you can see how quickly it falls off below that.

But that review was for the white/blue combo. I beleive blue puts out less than the white.

 

[ilostnemo]

Mrx I was answering cmor about who I talked to. And well blue is the most used light. Plus everything except my zoas seem happy my ric and mono are happy. I think my zoas are unhappy cause they are to close to the light.

 

[cmor1701d]

So you believe what the company says over an independent review?

Deep water corals will respond better to all blue as blue penetrates the furthest. Red is absorbed near the surface. None of that really should matter in the depth of our tanks, but it's what happens in nature and hence what corals respond to.

If you like the look and corals do well over a long period of time then don't worry about.

 

[mr_X]

blue is the most used light? do you mean by hobbyists or corals?

 

[cabezon]

I have a 4 Led reefbrite on my 8 gal. It only covers the front half. I like the look. Frogsawn opens but the kenya doesn't. You could try some 14000K whites to perk up the par.

 

[Jimbo7]

I think it would be a sweet tank for zoas where little light is required. Anything more then that and I think you would be asking for trouble. 12w really isn't enough to sustain much. Even getting one white bulb of some sort and having it turn on for an hour in the middle of the day would help. Lots of early nano tanks had a lot of success with strong CF bulbs in desk lap or clip on fixtures.

To relate to your earlier question as well, watts don't exactly tell the full story with leds. You have to look at the lumen output, PAR or PPFD, wattage and wavelength to really make an assessment of the quality. There are cheap 3W diodes coming out of china that are worthless to us, but still 3W diodes. Hope that helps.

 

[zanegary]

Nano reef is a kind of aquarium, which is usually less than 140 liters. The exact limit that distinguishes a normal dwarf barrier reef is somewhat ill-defined, but 140 liters seems to be generally accepted limit.