Blue lights or full spectrum?

[Wheelman76]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

What about such bulbs as the PAR38's that have UV, Reds, etc? They don't have adjustable spectrums yet companies such as Fragbox use them with great success.

That's a good point , I'm not too familiar with the par 38 bulbs but maybe they only have one or two of the different colours so it's not as intense and blends better.

[bowkry]

i run the par 38s from fragbox and supplement with 2 blue led strips. for about 6 months i only ran the par 38s and i didn't love the color, there was no pop in my corals but since i added the blue strips my colors are amazing. I run my par38s at %100 only 5 hours a day.

[Animal-Chin]

I've taped cardboard over my red LED's on my lights. Not cause my coral hate them, because I hate them! I can't stand the pink hew it would cast in my tank. Taped them up and the tank looked WAY better...

[smokinreefer]

with LEDs, I think its a mixture of colors that are needed...
each led omits a different color
and newer fixtures are now including a wider variety of colors to help simulate full spectrum lighting

I believe we are mostly past the days of LED users just using blue and white.

if you have experience with MH, its like back in the day the question was;
6500k vs 10,000k vs 20,000k etc
and for the most part it was just aesthetics
MH was a more well rounded light source, in that a 20,000k bulb wasn't just a blue bulb, it provided a variety of different spectrums, but was "bluer" in appearance.

so, with LED, I'd use both blue and white and some of whatever else is included in whichever set up you choose or build!