PDA

View Full Version : Aqueon 3 LED light colours..


WillsNano63
07/22/2017, 09:38 AM
Hi all!
Just wondering... I recently purchased the Aqueon 48" LED strip light and it has two on off switches... One turns on or off the Blue lights and the other the white and red LED's.
During the day I will turn on the bright whites/red LED's while the Blue are still on... Shortly after I would turn off the blue LED's and leave on the White/reds for the day... Near the end of the day I would turn on the blues with the whites/red still on then shortly after I would shut off the Whites/reds and leave on the blues... This is my idea of mimicking night and day lighting. Perhaps I'm wrong in this method but what my question is; Does Anyone leave on the blues during the day as well as the white/reds or do you use the blues like I do; for night lighting (moon lighting) ?
Thanks to all who respond! :)

Ron Reefman
07/22/2017, 01:07 PM
Almost everybody who uses leds leaves the blues on all day, even when the whites are on. People with dimmer controls run the blues at higher intensity than the white.

The reason is, there is algae (zooxanthellae) inside your corals that do photosynthesis to produce food that the coral can use. The zooxanthellae uses blue spectrum light to do the photosynthesis. If you run just the whites, you offer a little blue to the tank as white is made up of red, green and blue. But it's not nearly enough. If you ran just blue all day, the coral would grow and look pretty good, but the white will help develop pigments (color) and other chemistry useful to the coral.

So run both. And it's OK to run the blue before and after the white to simulate a bit of sunrise/sunset. The corals don't care, but it makes the people feel better!

WillsNano63
07/22/2017, 06:40 PM
Almost everybody who uses leds leaves the blues on all day, even when the whites are on. People with dimmer controls run the blues at higher intensity than the white.

The reason is, there is algae (zooxanthellae) inside your corals that do photosynthesis to produce food that the coral can use. The zooxanthellae uses blue spectrum light to do the photosynthesis. If you run just the whites, you offer a little blue to the tank as white is made up of red, green and blue. But it's not nearly enough. If you ran just blue all day, the coral would grow and look pretty good, but the white will help develop pigments (color) and other chemistry useful to the coral.

So run both. And it's OK to run the blue before and after the white to simulate a bit of sunrise/sunset. The corals don't care, but it makes the people feel better! Well, if it makes people feel better then I will leave them on. Thanks so much for your educated theory of the Zooxanthellae and what the blue LEDs (even though they're nothing compared to the actual 50/50 Actinics found in a HO T8!) :fish2