I got the Blues for Blues

[tosiek]

I was a little disappointed with a few purchases I made last swap and this swap. Mainly because I don't run my tank as blue as all the vendor tanks were presented in and some corals don't look as colorful or as amazing under normal 10-14k supplemented MH lighting without alot of time under that lighting. I'm sure alot of people feel the same about some of their purchases as well after bringing them home and putting them under their normal reef lighting. It doesn't mean I bought ugly or not so impressive coral, it just means I can't appreciate the same coloration in the same intensity for a few weeks.

It's been a growing trend to keep tanks under 20K+ or heavy actinic lights. Its a psychedelic mix of fluorescent yellows, reds and greens that makes everyone go OOhhh! and AAaahhh! when they see your tank. I remember hearing a low, in awe "Holy crap....thats amazing...." from my fish room when my wife went there with the LED actinics on on night. Everything looks that much more impressive and its super easy and less time consuming than maintaining perfect water quality, placement for light intensity and feeding your tank a plethora of bacteria and suppliments (sorry I had to add that in there but its semi true :tongue1 That single eye of that rare chalice under actinics justifies the hundreds of $$'s you spend on it for alot of people.

If that's the way you want to keep your tank then that is perfectly fine. I like to look at my tank under just actinic lights every once in a while. It blows my mind that a living creature can produce that coloration. And it's that creature that's producing those colors, not some illusion that the light creates.

"Photosynthetic corals obtain their food and colors from the resident zooxanthellae cells on their surfaces. Corals can increase or decrease the number of zooxanthellae cells in response to the amount of light which reaches the coral. Zooxanthellae cells produce chlorophyll, which reacts with light to produce food for the coral and pigment for protection."

So, adjust the light spectrum and it adjusts types of bacteria that grow in the coral as well as amount of bacteria which in turn adjusts the coloration of the coral.

After so many years reefing and attending swaps I now know that I purchased coral that I knew were grown and kept under specific spectrum lighting, and if I matched that lighting I would get the same results in color. If I keep it under my own lighting I will get something similar but different, but know the potential of that coral and a super colorful non neon color would be cool too in a month or two. This is now my mentality when purchasing coral and I bring a small white light LED flashlight when buying coral from heavy actinic tanks.

What does bother me is that a lot of coral sellers advertise their coral under just actinic lighting or heavy actinic spectrums. People see the crazy colors and that's what they want that in their tank, this is their new sales mentality and its transferring into our member sales. A lot of people know and realize that but there is a good number of reefers that don't until they make their first few purchases.

Is the sales end of the hobby going to be more interested in who's blue light is more flourescent or who has the better coral? How is this changing the industry long term? Will we all eventually have blue tanks? (ok maybe I'm over exaggerated a little)

Anyways, something to think about and talk about. With LED's being the big thing, and the blues from the LED's that far surpass any actinic on the market I see things changing in how we view and present our tanks.

 

[prattreef]

I couldn't agree more. I can't stand all the blue light. It actually gives me a headache. It makes it near impossible to shop for corals unless you run your tank under these same skewed to the blue in extreme conditions. Acros and clams are simply impossible to view this way. That awesome clam I got from Dr. Mac that is on the swap thread I spotted BEFORE he turned his lights on. Once they went on the clams were blah and you couldn't see what they looked like. Virtually nothing I bought at the event looks anything like the photos posted beforehand or in the displays at the event. Like Tony, I am not surprised by this and make my purchases accordingly and when possible ask vendors to kill the blue and let me look under normal lighting conditions. Admittedly, I'm old school and run pretty white light, but to me the blacklight effect that is so dominant now is cool as a parlor trick for a few minutes, but no way to run your reef IMO. What happened to husbandry as a way to affect beautiful colors in your corals?

 

[FaviaFreak]

the trend these days is too mix in more blue, mainly blue LED. Of course some hobbyist don't like to have too much blue, they like more natural 12-14k which is personal preference, as is the flip side of the coin, to have more blue accents. Vendors take the stance that more and more hobbyist are leaning toward bluer supplementation for they're tanks, so vendors like to show-off the potential of their corals knowing more and more hobbyist are going that route. Of course corals don't exude those fantastic colors under regular 12-14K lighting, that's just a fact. Hobbyist keeping 12-14k appreciate more natural colors, whereas with the insurgence of LED's into the hobby folks are taking their corals natural fluorescences to a whole over level of viewing. I personally don't like full on blue but I do like my tank under a more 20k look

 

[NYreefNoob]

got frags adjusted light for people, i will say this of the eco lights, they dont have that heavy blue color most leds have, and alot of store's photoshop the corals and ect or under a 20k radium light, i do keep around a 16-18k color temp on my tank, and a ex owner of led lighting your right, the colors pop much more pronounced under them. and i seen you running around with your little flashlight i will say this but also seeing i run a more blue spectrum in my tank, the stuff i brought home looks much better in my lighting then it did at the swap.

 

[jadakiss]

great thread

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I can honestly say that I have always advocated more natural lighting over my tanks. Whether it's halide or HO T5, I try to stay away from making the tank too blue in order to get the corals to "pop" in that unnatural way that makes them look almost fake. I see so many corals that aren't anything spectacular at all, for instance generic brownish green zoas, that under LEDs, suddenly become some limited edition zoa with intense color that otherwise wouldn't be present. As far as being on the commercial side of this I can say that I personally see the use of "overly blue lighting" to be almost misrepresentation of the actual coral. That's not to say that I look down on people who use those lights at home. You can use whatever lights you want it's your tank and if it makes you happy and doesn't harm the livestock than by all means, knock yourself out. I just feel that when you look at some of the online coral retailers and you see colors so bright under incredibly blue light, so much so that the camera can't even process the picture properly and ends up distorting portions of it, you have to question it. It always raises an eyebrow with me when I see purple eggcrate in a picture...

In my eyes it almost detracts from the hobby part of this... hobby, and makes it more like collecting baseball cards. There's no need for skill or increasing ones own abilities when you can just use blue light. I think most people tend to appreciate it more when viewed in a much more natural looking environment.

 

[beerfish]

I agree 100%

I can't stand the blue look on tanks. I run 10k MH bulbs with T5 actinic supplementation. Just enough to keep if from looking yellow.

 

[ming]

I personally make my tank look more like a 10k with both white and blue LED's turning on the same time. BUT I do let the blue LED's stay on an extra 30 minutes at night before all going out just for a little sneak peek of all blues. Staring at all blues too long does give me a headache as well, but looking at it for a short while does look cool

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I also want to point out that in most pics of tanks using LEDs, I notice that there is an overall color to the tank and most corals tend to blend in with each other. I might be crazy but it's almost like using a gel for a certain color tone or mood for a shot. It washes out the picture. You never see that effect under more normal lighting. Corals stand out on their own and you can see individual colonies.

 

[bizarrecorals]

This thread reminds me of the victorias secret catalog, all guys wondering "will my wife look like that when she puts that on?" Is all a business gimmick, there are ways to protect yourself from it as someone mention here, have them turn the white light on, if they refuse to turn it on, walk away, very simple.

 

[jadakiss]

This thread reminds me of the victorias secret catalog, all guys wondering "will my wife look like that when she puts that on?" Is all a business gimmick, they are ways to protect yourself from it as someone mention here, have them turn the white light on, if they refuse to turn it on, walk away, very simple.

i agree

 

[lfsmarineguy]

I don't think the aim was to just raise awareness in regards to vendors, I think Tosiek, was trying to start a legitimate discussion.

 

[tosiek]

This thread reminds me of the victorias secret catalog, all guys wondering "will my wife look like that when she puts that on?" Is all a business gimmick.....

Which is exactly part of the point I was trying to make, that's exactly where it is sort of headed towards I feel, and realizing what is actually going on for those that don't (if that made sense). This wasn't a what K is your tank thread but rather what is the effect its having on the hobby, good or bad. It was pinpointing a specific something I seen off, actinics in general. Its not like that from everyone and everywhere but its going to start happening more due to a lot of other topic'ed problems in the same area, like designer coral, ect.

The topic in general is alot broader than just actinics, I was just hoping people would run with it in that direction. I don't even have a yay or nay stance on the whole thing and am both for and against it. It has its pro's and cons. Im not attacking vendors or members, its just something I noticed that is worthy of a discussion and awareness. There is a big difference between 20k supplemented tanks and the more recent actinic T5 setups and the new LED actinics around.

 

[beerfish]

This thread reminds me of the victorias secret catalog, all guys wondering "will my wife look like that when she puts that on?"

No... your wife will not look like that (unless you're married to a VS model). There. I said it.

Actually, it doesn't really strike me as quite the same... it's not misrepresenting the product, just putting it on something else. Ferrari floor mats won't make your Pinto look like a Ferrari. However, if you bought a red Ferrari and drove it outside where it looked pink... that would be the same thing! :lol:

 

[jadakiss]

I'm not going to lie i wish vendor would show corals with regular lights sometimes

 

[Wes]

I dont like the overly blue fake look as well.

What really drives me nuts are the vendors who import a wild colony, chop it up, put the frags under blue LED's, snap a photo and give it a silly name, then charge an arm and a leg for it.

It's worse than the ol "chop shop" vendor because the naming implies that the coral is truly aquacultured.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[House of Laughter]

I'm not going to lie i wish vendor would show corals with regular lights sometimes

How about ALL the time.

We run 14k at all the shows - this show, we set up 2 LED fixtures and ran them at 100% blues and 55% whites, which looked exactly like the 14k halides which we had over the other tanks.

Its a shame , but the market is bearing what the market is bearing - I actually had one customer ask me to turn the whites OFF for the LED's because that's how he ran his tank.

Has anyone investigated the lifespan/longevity of animals that are missing the ROYG in the ROYGBIV? I'd be interested to see growth, color and science behind losing the lower light in the spectrum - where is Sanjay when we need him

House

 

[Staaan]

I understand the whole thing about pictures.

But for instance if your at a store.. or at the swap... any physical setting lol...

Whats the big deal on asking them to turn up the white lights?

LEDs can pretty much.. from what I've seen reproduce MH lighting with ease.

Only thing they can't reproduce yet is the KZ Fiji Purple that I see a lot of guys putting on their T5HO fixtures... but thats about it.

 

[prattreef]

The issue is not what LED's are capable of, it is what the current "aesthetic" of the hobby is. I know several vendors who dislike and don't understand the appeal of the super blue craze. They, none -the-less, feel compelled to run their displays this way because that is what hobbyists ( and mostly new hobbyists IME) want. The original post is more about this trend in the hobby, its link to the LE, collector dominant mode of the hobby, and the stark contrast to past aesthetic and hobby practices.

I've been around for a long time and know many, if not most of the long time, hardcore experienced reef aquarists around and virtually none of them find this aesthetic appealing, nor the collector craze even remotely interesting--especially as a way for new hobbyists to start out.

Is this largely a debate of preference? Yes, but it is a quite sudden and baffling change in approach to those who have been around a while.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I like the blues some of the time. Sunrise/sunset the rest of the time I try to provide a natural (as possible with T5 lighting) lighting. Good subject and thread.