led question

Those are really more for our viewing pleasure rather than coral growth. Some folks like to get the red spectrum by using warm white LEDs that have more red in their spectrum, but having both I prefer the red and green LEDs, but no, they are not needed.

 

I thought the red and green is good for plant growth which in turn is good for corals as well.

 

Green isn't really used very much in photosynthesis at all but our eyes are sensitive to it so adding green or lime makes the light appear brighter to us, but does little for the coral. Red is used in photosynthesis and is very important to plants and algae, but as it's filtered out very quickly in water it seems that most coral don't need it and there is even a bit of research that says too much hurts them, but having a little bit brings out color for our viewing. That's why red is used very little or they use warm white LEDs which have a bit of red in them. But both colors in reef tanks are really for our enjoyment.

 

(From my reading). Red and green are good for plants which are spectrums that are measured in PAR meters. However red and green is not included in PUR for corals. A= available, U= usable. The PUR for corals is in the high UV, violet, and blue range.

The green and red are there for physical color rendering. Some articles I read had info about the early LEDs using white and blue only and the color of the corals were faded and didn't pop. Why you see limited number of red and green emitters in the spec sheets.