I have a dim moonlight on my main tank that runs longer than my "growth light" the glowlight and tetras look gorgeous in the dim white light. (Better than with the main lights on) Ive tried a blue lighting effect but, in my opinion it didn't turn out. Other than that I have no idea.
When I say moonlight its actually just a really small cool white led.
Red is a harder colour to bring out than blue. A lot of lights around don't have a nice peak in the red spectrum. Blue spectrum is usually present but no red.
The glowlight tetra has a translucent body which makes them look faded under very bright light and also if they are against light coloured backgrounds. Neon and cardinal tetras don't suffer the same disability.
Medium light with solid spectrum like that of the sun and a dark background will bring out the true beauty of both, glowlights and neons.
These days I see so much reference to PAR, but not many take time to consider that you must have a near 100% CRI to enjoy the natural beauty of your aquarium, of both the flora and fauna. Most of the lights used these days have those peculiar spectrum with gaps between tall bands leaving out so many shades of colour and labeled with artificial K numbers when the bulbs spectrum are nowhere like the K spectrum of the label stamp.
Then beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so disregard my ...................................
I agree with everything you said besides cri. That pastel light rating is flawed especially when you're looking for color rendition. If you want insane color pop cut down green in the spectrum and increase hyper violet/violet light, not uv. It is the same with a reef, real pop only comes from using light bellow royal blues range. Some people see colors differently so this may not be the case for all but it is wide spread information especially in reefing. I personally prefer planted tanks but I learned a lot with my reefing.
My main light is a Kessil Tuna sun. That runs 7 hours a day. (4pm to 11pm) Then I have this light (here) During the afternoon I have that light running to illuminate the tank to the point where you can see it. (12pm-4pm and then at night 11pm-1pm) And my opinion is the glowlights look alot better in the really dim light.
Personally I prefer the color temp to be about 10000K. This seems to bring out the colors of both my fish and the shrimps. the 6500K and lower bulbs all seem to be too yellow and wash the colors of the tank out.
10,000K is like a light for corals and reef aquariums I think.
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