Lighting with LED... Oh the possibilities! Help me get a good combination

[flixxx]

Hello,

I've gone through the lighting posts in the sticky above. I noticed it focues on T5's, MH lights and then there is a whole tutorial on how lighting works from reefkeeping.

The thing is I have a radion Ecotech xr30w LED lighting with endless possibilities. Sometimes having too many options is not a good thing.

What I want to accomplish is a combination of coral growth, good lighting to view and moon light. Depending on the time of day, the coral growth and viewing lighting will change (When I get home from, i'd like a couple of hours of nice lighting before and during the day some good lighting for growth)

My question is, what should I focus on when I'm customizing my template?

The app shows "Spectrum" when I play with the lighting and there are presets of Kelvin.

What is adequate spectrum/kelvin for viewing and making colors pop, and what is adequate spectrum/kelvin to promote growth

My aquarium is deep, 18 inches (16 inches of water, 1 inch of sandbed) and the light is hanging 9 inches above the water (From the 16inch point)

[thegrun]

You are going to get better coral growth in the 8K-10k range but better coloration in the 15-20k range. You want to produce at least a minimal amount of light across the spectrum for overall color balance but the predominance of the light you choose should fall somewhere in the 10k-20k range depending upon your own personal preference. I prefer a more blue light so I give up a little growth, but you may like a whiter color.

[chrisfont23]

I have ReefBreeders Photon 48 LEDs over my 90g tank. Without going into endless detail or such about growth, I will simply provide a quote from my four year old (this after the lights have been over the tank for 3 months): "Dad, everything looks much bigger. Did the tank get smaller?" There you have it. Growth and testimony from someone who knows nothing about Kelvin ranges or color spectrum.

If you want an opinion on the LEDs, PM me.

Chris

[flixxx]

You are going to get better coral growth in the 8K-10k range but better coloration in the 15-20k range. You want to produce at least a minimal amount of light across the spectrum for overall color balance but the predominance of the light you choose should fall somewhere in the 10k-20k range depending upon your own personal preference. I prefer a more blue light so I give up a little growth, but you may like a whiter color.

Thanks, i've been tinkering with the tool so the 15k to 20k range are the blues that predominate the colors. The 10k seems to be the white, red and green.

I've chosen a template on their ecosmart site that is called "Radiant Colors", it starts and ends the day with deep blues with a 2 hour moonlighting at the end.

I'll give that a shot and see how I like it. They have another one that seems interesting called Shallow reef.

Lucky for me I have no corals in the tank (just a CUC) so it gives me the flexibility to experiment with the lighting.

The "Radiant colors schedule looks something like this:

7 to 8:30 am ramps up to 50% Royal blue and 25% blue. The rest at 0

8:30 to 9:45 ramps up to 70% Royal blue, 40% blue, 25% red and 10% green

9:45 to 10:15 ramps up to 100% RB, 75% B, 40% Red, 15% green, 15% cool white (Close to 20 Kelvin)

10:15 to 11:20 ramps up the Blue to 100% and the white to 40%

11:20 to 1:30 (peak) ramps ups the white to 55%

1:39 to 3:40 starts reversing the above schedule, so white goes to 40%,. etc.... until 7 pm