Lighting..MH 10k, 14K, 20K, actnic

[chew*]

Well put B. What he said....

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Lighting

As Brian mentioned, lots of things in thsi hobby are trial and error or personal taste, especially with lighting. In the case of lighting, 6500k is suppose to yield optimal SPS coral growth rate. The rest IMO is personal taste. Some like their tanks to look blue, some like pure white light, etc. I go middle of the road with 10,000K MH lighting.

 

[MikeG]

Forgot to mention one last thing. The corals don't produce "color" persay, zooanthalea produce color to protect the coral, Higher the light source the more they "attempt" to protect the coral, More often than not this produces more color.

Not to get off topic but I don't agree with this statement and wanted to post some info that I consider more accurate.

Zooanthalae are generally brown in color and mask coral color not enhance it. It is pigments in the tissues that produce the color of a coral.

"If corals are not all brown, it means that the natural conditions allow them to maintain sufficiently low amounts of zooxanthellae in order not to mask the color of their pigments. To say the least, for a coral, a move from a reef to an aquarist's aquarium is quite a change. Turning brown would be the result of a newly established balance through the increase of the zooxanthellae's numbers, and therefore by the masking of the coral's pigments." from
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature2/view

And some more about specific proteins and the corals in which they are found, which do give corals their color.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/6/aafeature2/view http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/7/aafeature1

 

[dz6t]

One example of what coral farmers do:

Grow coral under 6500K light for max growth. If they can grow coral under sunlight, more profit for them.

Take frags out and put them under 20K to color them up just weeks (or months?) before sale.

Take pictures under 20K for stunning color.