High Energy Visible Light & Corals

It's a good read. Makes you wonder is all this blue we are adding really helping. Especially with LEDs since the spectrum is so narrow and the Intesity is concentrated
 
It is definitely possible to fry any corals being under such intensity. As a rule of thumb, I try and keep any corals, softies, zoas, lps, sps, etc, no more than 3/4 up the tank starting from the sand bed. You put a Par 38 with 20* optics and try placing a birdsnest or something 4 inches from it, it will bleach in hours.
 
None of these light sources can match the sun's output, coral type selection and acclimation to higher energies is key along with limiting duration. Another reason to have dimmable led systems imo.

Cheers,
 
So far I have not seen any negative reports of damage to corals from the use of LED lighting. I think if anything negative arises it will be over the long term, so far the reports have been been inconclusive either way. So we will need for people to keep accurate records of their LED experience.
 
over the past 8 months Ive had my LEDs I have killed two corals, though not sure if it is from the LEDs or the move to the 90.

One was a 6" monti cap, 4" from water line, 6" from LEDs no optics. Just one day decided to start bleaching on the very ends, friend took it after it was half white and put it under his 1200W + 4x6' T5 Hamilton MH.

Second was a baseball size green acro. Move it to the 90 flawless, 2 days past, half of it is white, day 3, 3/4 is dead, day 4 all is dead minus the frags i managed to save, of which out of the 5 i made, only one is alive and getting its color back, but no polyp extension.

I have no doubt that the monti was bleaching due to the light. Nothing else showed any signs. Water was perfect. Temp was a bit high but none of my other montis showed any signs of distress. It was too close and couldnt move until i have a few more things for my new tank.
 
This is part of the reason why nobody should try to match how many watts they have of LED with any other type of lighting... its just not the same.

I have 90 watts of led over my 100 gallon tank and everything is perfect, i have tons of sps, lps, and softies. I switched from 218watts of T5 and it MORE than makes up for it.

When i first got my led's i measured par and aparently it was at around 700 and ended up frying half my sps, although the talk looked slightly dimmer...

I still dont know how or why people are using 3w led's at full power on any tank less than 24" tall... i use 1watt led's at full power and still get 500 par 6" below my water line with me led's being a foot over my tank...
 
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