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should i change out lights?

664 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  klibs 
#1 ·
ive heard of people putting in coral lights on their planted tank due to the higher light spectrum and such... is that true or is it just as good to stick with the regular plant grow light which i believe is 6,700 K
 
#2 ·
Coral/reef lights tend to be very, very blue, usually something like 10000k white + additional actinic blue. This looks a bit weird visually in the planted tank, at least in my opinion, as it ends up muting out the yellows and reds. If you have any red/pink/orange plants in your tank, this would kill their color.

Also, while plants will photosynthesize with this light it is not an optimal spectrum, as it lacks sufficient red light. Pure blue light will tend to cause leggy growth in plants. A reef light generally has some red, but not very much compared to the amount of blue. It may or may not cause leggy growth.

Most folks here seem to use 6500k daylight bulbs, or a mix of 6500k daylight bulbs and plant-grow or color enhancing bulbs.

Some folks with green-oriented tanks (iwagumi) like their spectrum a bit higher in color temperature, but not as far to the blue as reef lights go.
 
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