I’ve had been considering a small dyi led project at add a bit more coral pop and slight added par by adding a couple hyper violet and royal blue led chips but now I have seen black light led bars on Amazon and have started thinking this may be the way to go , way easier, that said the black light bars I see claim 395nm which is a bit lower then the 415 nm hyper violet I was going with but..... harmful? my research says debatable , has anyone used black lights in their tanks for this effect and if so can you share the good and bad and ugly if any of this - thanks
Black Light Led
- Thread starter Eggboy
- Start date
I use blackbox on my frag tank (3 of them). I started off with running the whites as low as they go and have eventually just outright shut the whites off. I run just the blues now. I removed some of the lens' because i grow mostly softies and that spread my par readings out ALOT nicer. If you have a deep tank Im not sure i would recommend this. Taking them apart isnt that difficult to do, not sure how easily it would be to swap out led's. I wish we could buy these in blues only and just skip the whites entirely.
At ~12inch depth I found they output ~500-600 par, with the lens removed I was getting 150-175 Par except it had almost a perfect spread. With the lenses on they definitely blast directly under and you lose alot of the par as you move off centre.
At ~12inch depth I found they output ~500-600 par, with the lens removed I was getting 150-175 Par except it had almost a perfect spread. With the lenses on they definitely blast directly under and you lose alot of the par as you move off centre.
thanks but I'm not referring to the black box lights but rather black UV lighting as you would use to make objects glow like the old velvet posters or dance floor or... maybe some of the coral frag guys at shows already use these ? I have a bio cube and a small 6 watt 30 cm black led light bar @ 395nm for $19.99 tucked up under the lid instead of adding a few hyper violet leds @ 415nm stuffed up under there somehow in a dyi untidy unprotected mess might be way easier now that I see them advertised maybe more so that its Halloween. Just wondered if this wavelength was still fairly safe for coral as I have read you don't really want anything much under 400 nm, or maybe it was they don't grow muchunder400 but would certainly glow as long as its not harmful to them. Someone must have tried this or something similar before?
I tested black lights years ago and long term had high death rates unless I transitioned to other lights. Even then the death rate was high. I assume the long term exposure to UV damaged the cells. Black light run in the long range UVA and this spectrum is linked to skin cancer. So not only I would consider this a risk to the people sitting in front of the tank on a regular basis I would think it would damage corals as well. As the spectrum they admit isn't for plant growth (zooxanthellae) it isn't worth the risk to the people who view the tank or the corals. If using a black light was a simple thing it would be more popular then it is now. Considering how cheap led bulbs in the proper light spectrum are I say it isn't worth the risk in my option.
wtac
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2018
- Location
- Calgary and Toronto
With photosynthetic organisms, UVA also create epoxide radicals within the cellular structure and studies have shown elevated superoxide dismutase (enzyme to counteract the effects of expoxides).
UVA and epoxide radicals will damage/alter DNA intended sequence and the ripple effect from the transcribed/translated original vs altered.
UVA and epoxide radicals will damage/alter DNA intended sequence and the ripple effect from the transcribed/translated original vs altered.
thank you all for you input, after a lot or research there seems to be some support of this wavelength from people like Danna Riddle but still a little torn, I have ordered a 9 watt unit (only because it was thinner than the 6 watt) and will experiment a bit with it, may not leave it on 8 hours a day especially to start but curious, for $20 it’s a cheap experiment, see link below
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/best-spectrum-for-reef-tank.318180/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/best-spectrum-for-reef-tank.318180/
wtac
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2018
- Location
- Calgary and Toronto
Essentially, peak absorption/activity/fluorescence @450.1nm of C2 which wavelength is just larger/longer than longwave/near UV (UVA @315-400nm). C2 activity drops significantly with longer and shorter wavelengths.
What I haven't encountered in literature is quantifying the amount of "UV" required for ideal fluorescence for the "visual pop" hobbiests chase (like pH
) without risk to the overall health corals .
What I haven't encountered in literature is quantifying the amount of "UV" required for ideal fluorescence for the "visual pop" hobbiests chase (like pH
) without risk to the overall health corals .The light arrived and well that experiment is over lol, 9w light barely did anything, with lights totally off this light bar barely made anything glow in the tank, little bit of greens but reds not at all which surprised as shining into a closet orange/red clothes glowed, crappy lux meter which prob doesn’t measure uv correctly anyways measured about the same light as surrounding room light @ 12 inches away , showed 1600 lux @ 1/2 inch away but quickly faded to nothing @ only couple inches, anyways sending it back and will do a proper led diy project someday - thanks again for all your replies