[adicus]

Nice paper - good information!

[Seano Hermano]

Thanks. It's nice to see people are enjoying it.

[oki_reefer]

Very informative paper. I would like to see the results. Maufacturers will produce papers with results stating why their produce it the best, but biased. There is so much on DIY projects but I am still having issues with how many LED fixtures I need over my 120G. I see great growth on soft and LPS but hit and miss on my SPS.

[Seano Hermano]

Originally Posted by oki_reefer

Very informative paper. I would like to see the results. Maufacturers will produce papers with results stating why their produce it the best, but biased. There is so much on DIY projects but I am still having issues with how many LED fixtures I need over my 120G. I see great growth on soft and LPS but hit and miss on my SPS.

Thanks. Unfortunately, things did not work out as planned and I did not receive the prototypes I was promised to test over my tank.

I still like the idea, and still want to test multiple fixtures/brands of LEDs and compare the growth to that of T5/MH (using several tanks, plumbed together to eliminate other factors which may effect coral growth). That would become quite expensive though.

There are many brands of LED fixtures out there, allowing many possibilities for reefers. For example,you could do 2 Orphek pr156 units over a 4' long tank, or you could do 2 of the BoostLED mu Series 135w (these are now to be replaced with the Series 100w). Over the same length, you could run 2 - 3 AI Sol units (or the new AI phoenix's). Or 4 Maxspect Mazzara panels. Or your own DIY LED build using Cree diodes from RapidLED dot com. I think it mainly depends on how much control you want of the color temperature, the types of corals you want to have in your aquarium, and the price point in which you are looking to spend.

[414-242]

Welcome to the world of product design and true information I have done just what your wanting to do but with refugiums many years ago. Research is not cheap and takes alot of time and effort this is why most product information looks close to the same information as another product of a kind. This holds true with most products not just in our hobby.
As you know anybody now day's can say what ever they want true or not about their product/products it hasn't alway's been this way but it is now.
So how do you pull off your testing on a buget? Here's a thought contact 3reef 40 gallon members find the number of tanks you want and the different lighting they already have T5s, MHs,LEDs ect... next contact a 3reef sponcer and request matching frags(at the end of test they give them back or can buy them) Told you alot of work In a controled test you need a base line with above thought it has no base line but if you and the people involved are honest and you do the contacting,follow up and writing needed you will be able to finish your report and answer many questions regarding this subject.
If you are willing to do the work on this it will be a great learning experiance for many things not just lighting.

No matter what Seano very nice paper!

[Llubel89]

Post results when you can! I am looking forward to the outcome.. Awesome plan/research project

[Chance]

Excellent read. Maybe I should post my paper on the destruction of natural reefs. It's not nearly as well.thought out as this, but it'll influence people to buy aquacultured!

[BoB123]

So 6500k is the best for sps in general.

[Seano Hermano]

In theory, the 6500K would promote excellent coral growth. From experience however, a 6500K alone bulb will support corals for only a short period (1-2 months) of time before they brown out.

The problem with such low kelvin temperatures for coral is they lack the bluer wavelengths wich support the growth of the zooxenthelle algae (they give the coral it's colour you're seeing).

While white light is good, I would not suggest anything lower than 10,000K unless done so in conjunction with other multiple wavelengths. This is often done with newer LED fixtures, and is also why we utilize a range of colour tubes when using T5 lighting.

Does that answer your question?

[Thatgrimguy]

Originally Posted by Seano Hermano

In theory, the 6500K would promote excellent coral growth. From experience however, a 6500K alone bulb will support corals for only a short period (1-2 months) of time before they brown out.

The problem with such low kelvin temperatures for coral is they lack the bluer wavelengths wich support the growth of the zooxenthelle algae (they give the coral it's colour you're seeing).

While white light is good, I would not suggest anything lower than 10,000K unless done so in conjunction with other multiple wavelengths. This is often done with newer LED fixtures, and is also why we utilize a range of colour tubes when using T5 lighting.

Does that answer your question?

Actually your paper is based on the theory of par being useable energy. Which at the time of writing many believed. Par is a measure of visible light and red is the most visible of lights. This causes lower kelvin lighting to push more PAR. But corals don't use PAR, they use PUR. Photosynthetically Useable Radiation. The problem is, we haven't fully identified what wavelengths our corals can use the most efficiently. But we are much closer than we were when you originally wrote this paper. We now know that corals can use blue light much more efficiently than they can use red light.