mr_X
Aquarium Advice Addict
Good question. Stay tuned.....
Good question. Stay tuned.....
Boy did you open a case of worms! This debate has gone on a while. There is a lot of literature on UV radiation and corals. But most of what they call UV emitters on the market are pretty much just violet colored. Real UV LEDs emit almost no visible light and are quite dangerous to work with. Fiddling with the color spectrum is another debate. Broad spectrum, like MH/actinic combos vs. targeted spectrum like LED and to some lesser extent T5. Both groups have huge success stories. But one thing is what makes the corals "look" best isn't necessarily what will promote the most health and growth.
Selling MH is safe, known, profitable because you will need bulbs, maybe a chiller. And MH is proven. It is also done, stick a fork in it. You'll have to special order bulbs from Russia years from now. LED is where it's at it seems, but I suspect the whole story isn't told yet. I like LEDs just fine. More advantages than disadvantages.
I think a mistake is made with LEDs that cause corals to bleach and loose color temporarily under LEDs. Being more frequency specific, they just don't look as bright to the eye as they actually are.
1878 at around 3:00pm.
It would be rather interesting if any fellow reefers with similar par meters from different zones such as florida, hawaii, Australia etc would take reading at certain times of the day just to compare par....the intensity would have to change Drastically mo with different coral growing areas ... It would be interesting just to see the scores
This is a little bit off the current topic (sorry) but I was in my lfs a couple of days ago and asked the owner how he liked using the LED's he had over two of the grow out tanks. They are the dimmable taos that are discussed on here. He said they were doing fine, but when I asked him if he planned on converting everything over to them, he became pretty negative about them, saying they weren't cost effective and that he was losing color on some of the acros he had under them. I wish I had asked him what he had them set at, because my first impression was that maybe he was burning them by turning the lights up to high. The thing he said that prompted me to ask this question though, was that he said they don't have the UV that corals require to grow, hence the loss of color.
Now, I know that there are plenty of testimonials on here about the growth and color of their corals, and I have loved my fixtures since I got them, and seen noticeable growth, however these are my first lights so I have nothing else to compare them to, and all the corals I have need moderate lighting at best.
Anyways, I wasn't really sure how to question him on what he meant by UV.. Other than the difference between the ultra violet color and the actual wave length, but even then, I don't know much. I personally have no doubt that these lights can keep anything that I want under them, just would like to know how to convey information to my LFS. It's a little hard to tell him what to do though seeing as how I am very much still a noob in the hobby If anyone has any suggestions or talking points I could use in defense of these lights, I would appreciate it!
They are way more potent than halides or T5s. The spectrum idea is nonsense. Corals only need the blue wavelength to do well.
The naked eye lies to you when you look at these. You think they are pretty bright...maybe as bright as your old halide unit...maybe even a little dimmer, but make no mistake. I was just talking to the guy who bought my old 265 today, which is 31" deep. He's cooking stuff on the sand bed...lol.
The UV thing is also nonsense. Just like Greg said- The UV diodes are simply violet colored, and not ultraviolet at all.
I've noticed that for sps, It's a matter of acclimation. Mine are just now getting brilliantly colored under these units. It took a while! The important thing is, they are super colorful and growing at a rapid rate.
Tell him to run straight blues for a month or two. His corals will still stay colored up and awesome.