Best color temp for coral growth ?

[RT964]

I'm trying to find the best colour temp to promote coral growth and wondered what success other people were having.

At the moment, I'm running 7.5K for most of the day, going to 10K for the latter part of the afternoon, fading into deep blue in the evening.

[rckrzy1]

I believe 6.5K for growth but I don't know anyone who could stand the yellow color , not to mention corals will turn more brown. I run about 15K all day.

[RT964]

I'm thinking of doing a bit of mix and match - lower colour temp for growth when I'm less likely to be around during the day, turning to higher temp colours later in the day when I'm around ?

[dthomas]

Best growth I've ever had was with 6.5k and actinics combo. Its a balancing act, using 6.5 only didn't seem to be as good, and the algae seems to love that spectrum, micro and macro.

[zombie]

IME i saw the best growth by a very small margin using 10k for corals that are primarily green or yellow. For all other colors of coral the growth rate was the same with 20k, but the color of all corals was much better with 20k, and algea growth in the dt was minimized so I stuck with that.

You might be an engineer if...You have no life and can PROVE it mathematically.

[10b0b]

Excellent article here > http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dw/

Scroll down about half way to the Metal Halide bit and read the part about Kelvin ratings. I have tuned my radions to follow what that says more or less and have my main lighting period going through the various K ratings. So far... so good.