[Coral-List] Suitable lighting for coral maintenance in the aquarium

Tue Jun 6 08:24:13 EDT 2017

Dear Tim,

If you need further information regarding DIY LED lighting / light spectrum
or anything else LED related, you can contact me.
On the weekend a friend of mine (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen) told me,
that he is observing outstanding coral growth with red / infrared light,
which is a real surprise for me.

Kind regards,
Ruediger

2017-06-02 18:35 GMT+02:00 Tim Wijgerde <wijgerde at coralpublications.com>:

> Hi Ruediger,
>
> Too much (blue) light is too much, there's certainly quite some data to
> support that view. Next to the action spectrum of zooxanthellae, it is
> interesting to note that blue light seems to entrain the cell cycle of
> zooxanthellae (for example see Wang et al. 2008). Without blue light,
> corals
> don't fare that well after some time (Kinzie et al. 1984, 1987, Wijgerde et
> al. 2014).
>
> This certainly is an interesting topic! I am starting a new experiment
> using
> narrow bandwidth LED's soon, to look at a host of coral responses to
> various
> individual colors. Good times.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Tim
>
> Kinzie III RA, Hunter T (1987) Effect of light quality on photosynthesis of
> the reef coral Montipora verrucosa. Mar Biol 94:95–109
>
> Kinzie III RA, Jokiel PL, York R (1984) Effects of light of altered
> spectral
> composition on coral zooxanthellae associations and on zooxanthellae in
> vitro. Mar Biol 78:239–248
>
> Wang L–H, Liu Y–H, Ju Y–M, Hsiao Y–Y, Fang L–S, et al. (2008) Cell cycle
> propagation is driven by light–dark stimulation in a cultured symbiotic
> dinoflagellate isolated from corals. Coral Reefs 27:823–835
>
> Wijgerde T, van Melis A, Silva CIF, Leal MC, Vogels L, et al. (2014) Red
> Light Represses the Photophysiology of the Scleractinian Coral Stylophora
> pistillata. PLoS ONE 9(3): e92781. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092781
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Rüdiger Siek
> Sent: Friday, June 2, 2017 11:43 AM
> To: SIVIWE ELVIS
> Cc: Coral-List
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Suitable lighting for coral maintenance in the
> aquarium
>
> Dear Siviwe,
>
> In your e-mail you mentioned, that you are looking for a lighting with
> "natural daylight", but to be honest, it would be possible to keep your
> corals with 0.3 watts / litre with 1:3 royal blue : blue LEDs without any
> "white" light.
> Blue wavelength have the highest emitted energy of all "visible" wavelength
> (besides ultra-violet) and when you look at the absorption spectrum of
> zooxanthellae, you can see, that the important wavelengths are between 430
> and 470 nm.
> In 2009 I build my very first DIY high power LED lighting and found it a
> good idea to put a 3 watt royal blue LED for "moonlight" in the center of
> the lamp. Two weeks later I found my Stylopora bleached due to the
> permanent
> light stress. You see, too much "blue light" is not healthy for corals
> either.
> >From my experience, the above mentioned mix 1:3:16 (royal blue : blue :
> 6500K) has been tried and tested by many aquarists.
>
> If you need more help, feel free to e-mail me.
>
> Kind regards,
> Ruediger
>
>
>
> 2017-06-01 17:55 GMT+02:00 Tim Wijgerde <wijgerde at coralpublications.com>:
>
> > Hi Ulf,
> >
> > Fortunately, today's aquarium lights can easily replicate nature in
> > terms of irradiance, at least up to 1200 umol photons/m2/s. It depends
> > on the size of your wallet, and of course the depth of your aquarium.
> > I prefer the LED lights made by a well-known Dutch manufacturer of
> > home appliances :-).
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Ulf
> > Erlingsson
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 4:42 PM
> > To: Capman, William
> > Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Suitable lighting for coral maintenance in
> > the aquarium
> >
> > The other week I was a searching for info on light level on natural
> > corals and found an article saying that aquariums notoriously have too
> > little light, so you may want to measure in the field and make sure
> > you get the appropriate light level in lux or in energy per square meter.
> >
> > Ulf Erlingsson
> > President and CEO
> > Lindorm, Inc.
> > 10699 NW 123 St Rd
> > Medley, FL 33178
> >
> > http://lindorm.com
> > ceo at lindorm.com
> > +1-305 888 0762 office
> > +1-305 888 0978 fax
> > +1-305 308 6334 mobile
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On 2017-05-30, at 11:28 , Capman, William <capman at augsburg.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > People are having good results with both LED and T5 lights (and
> > > sometimes with combinations of the two!).
> > >
> > > Personally, my favorite lighting for small polyped stony corals is
> > > metal halide - this is tried and true lighting for stony coral
> > > aquaria that can give really excellent growth.  I have used 6500K
> > > bulbs as well as 10,000k bulbs - the 6500K bulbs give excellent
> > > growth (some folks have told me they feel 6500K bulbs give the best
> > > growth), though corals do fine under the 10,000K bulbs and when
> > > appearance matters the
> > latter look nicer.
> > >
> > > A rough rule of thumb from Delbeek and Sprung's wonderful book "The
> > > Reef Aquarium" is 3 - 5 watts of light per gallon (those
> > > recommendations were from the days of metal halide and fluorescent
> > > lighting - I don't know how to translate that into LED lighting).
> > > Personally, when using metal halide lighting I have tended to use
> > > roughly 6 to 10 watts per gallon (e.g. a 250 or 400 watt metal
> > > halide over a tank as small as 40 gallons), and have had excellent
> > > growth with the likes of Pocillopora and various Acropora species (I
> > > imagine this would be too much light for some deeper water corals
> though?).
> > >
> > > LED lights have the ability to be dimmed, and colors can be
> > > manipulated (assuming you have some basis for deciding what color
> > > balance
> > is good!).
> > > Metal halides can create heat problems (not an issue though if you
> > > have good temperature control in the room with your tanks).
> > >
> > > There are many different lighting options here, and what you go with
> > > will likely in part depend on what you have available in your area.
> > > Note that one needs to be careful about changes in light intensity,
> > > in particular making adjustments to higher light gradually.
> > >
> > > If there are any good quality coral reef aquarium shops in your area
> > > I would visit these and see what they are using and what they
> recommend.
> > >
> > > Even better:  See if there is a local coral reef aquarium hobbyist
> > > group in your area - in the U.S anyway, I have found some of the
> > > members of our local marine aquarium society to be *extremely*
> > > knowledgeable and experienced, and this would likely give you the
> > > opportunity to see a variety of fully functional coral reef systems
> > > in person.  This is important because the lighting is only part of
> > > what it takes to keep corals healthy and growing - the lighting is
> > > important, but there is so much more to system design than just the
> > lighting.
> > >
> > > Also, there are some wonderful online forums, such as
> > > http://web1.reefcentral.com/forums/index.php?s=
> > >
> > > There is a wealth of information already in the discussion threads
> > > at such forums (if you have time to wade through the many *many*
> > > threads and posts and find the information relevant to you!), and
> > > there are many helpful, knowledgeable people who could answer
> > > questions. And you could probably find local coral reef aquarium
> > > hobbyists in your area
> > through such forums.
> > >
> > > Even though you are apparently wanting to grow corals for research,
> > > *don't underestimate the value of making connections with the reef
> > > aquarium hobbyist community, since quite a few of these people are
> > > extremely knowledgeable, very sophisticated aquarists with great
> > > skill in growing and propagating corals.*  Some of the most amazing,
> > > sophisticated coral reef aquarium systems (with healthy, thriving,
> > > live corals) I have ever seen have been in people's homes, and quite
> > > a lot of what we know about how to grow corals in aquaria was
> > > initially
> > figured out by advanced hobbyists.
> > >
> > > I hope this helps (and I apologize for not making the metric
> > conversions!).
> > >
> > > Bill
> > >
> > > On Mon, May 29, 2017 at 7:18 PM, Zachary Ostroff
> > > <zachostroff at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> I suggest reaching out to the public aquarium industry. They can
> > >> help you select appropriate equipment for the dimensions of the
> > >> system you need to illuminate, and what you desire to grow in it.
> > >>
> > >> Zach Ostroff
> > >> Marine Exploration Center, St. Petersburg FL www.mecstpete.org
> > >> <http://www.mecstpete.org/> Facebook.com/MECStPete
> > >> <http://facebook.com/MECStPete>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>>
> > >>> Message: 2
> > >>> Date: Thu, 25 May 2017 15:58:11 +0000 (UTC)
> > >>> From: SIVIWE ELVIS <siviweelvis at yahoo.com>
> > >>> Subject: [Coral-List] Suitable lighting for coral maintenance in the
> > >>>      aquarium
> > >>> To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > >>> Message-ID: <1657713927.1964449.1495727891410 at mail.yahoo.com>
> > >>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> > >>>
> > >>> Dear fellow Coral Reef researchers
> > >>>
> > >>> I am interested in conducting aquarium experiments with corals
> > >> (Pocillopora and Anomastrea species) to be collected from the wild
> > >> (inter-tidal and sub-tidal zone). This is to inquire about the best
> > >> lights to use which would produce the natural day light spectrum to
> > >> mimic the natural coral environment, achieving optimal growth for
> > >> these coral animals while in maintained in glass tanks.
> > >>>
> > >>> I am not good with lights but I seemingly need to make a choice
> > >>> between
> > >> either T5 (fluorescent tube) or T8 (LED strips tube) lights for
> > >> coral maintenance. Any advice and suggestions or references in this
> > >> regard will be highly appreciated.
> > >>>
> > >>> Thank you
> > >>>
> > >>> Best regards
> > >>>
> > >>> Siviwe Babane (MSc Marine Biology student)
> > >>>
> > >>> University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) College of Agriculture,
> > >>> Engineering and Science School of Life Science Biological Science
> > >>> Department Westville, University road Durban
> > >>> 4000
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >>
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