6500K LED in tandem with reef LED

[Crawdads57]

I have a question about a combination of specific models of lights and how people think my chosen corals might fair under them. This is going to look rather silly until you see the explanation of why I'm doing this at the end, so please bear with me...

I have a pair of 12G longs (35.5 X 8.25 X 9.5). I want to have them plumbed in series with a sump / refugium under them. I want to light the top tank with this combination of lights: Current Satellite Planted Plus (36-48") and also on the same tank, a Current Orbit Marine (also 36-48"). Then for the lower 12G long I want to use just a Current Orbit Marine (36-48"). So basically, the top display tank is going to have a reef type light and a 6500K plant type light. The bottom tank - just the Orbit Marine. So 3 lights total. Both models are fully controllable of course.

What would that 6500K light do (in combination with the Orbit) to lets say, zoas, palys, mushrooms, acans, gorgonians, other softies and LPS? Would it be detrimental given this shallow water level? I could raise the lights up a little of course. I imagine its going to be a little hot if nothing else.

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Ok, so all the rest of this is the explanation as to why I am asking this silly sounding question, so you don't have to read all of this to answer my question (if you would like to answer my question).

I have these 12G longs already and they are currently a freshwater set up. I bought these with an eventual goal in mind (a multi-tier, in-wall nano reef), and I am building towards that slowly. More slowly than I would like...

Currently, one of these tanks is a display and one is a freshwater refugium of sorts where I grow malawi shrimp and gammarus amphipods for my planted gourami display. Here's point 1) I am lighting the display with the aforementioned Current Sattelite Planted Plus. I already own it, so I want to go ahead and continue to use it if I can.

The end goal is to buy a third 12G long, so that I have a 3 tank display stack over a sump. Depending on how it all goes I will have to build one heck of a cabinet (or closet) for this, and that's the part I'm putting off for the time being, given my current home and the possibility of a new home.

The final goal would utilize the Current Planted Plus on the top display as a display refugium, the next tank would be lit by one of the Current Orbits (this would be my "reef" section") and the third, or bottom display would also be lit by a Current Orbit, but would be turned down fairly low with lots of actinic to showcase some tube anemones, etc.

So my intermediary step is a 2-display-tank setup, for which I already have the cabinet and space. Point 2) I have to buy both of the Current Orbits for this intermediary step anyways, so would I be harming anything to use the 6500K light in tandem with the Orbit? Or am I just going to be letting this 6500K light collect dust until I get to the final goal? That's going to be down the road its seems.

Of course I realize that I can "try it and see" but I was interested to know if anyone had experience with this kind of thing already.

A schematic of the basic set up is attached.

[TangingOut]

If your ultimate goal is to use the planted plus light for the display refugium, then let it sit until you're ready to set that up. Using it in your reef tank along with the orbit marine will result in a tank that's too white. Meaning washed out looking corals/no pop and promote algae growth.

[ktownhero]

I would advise against running a Planted+ light over your Reef.

[oseymour]

I've used 6500k lights to run my refugium with great results. Meaning it grows cheato and other nasty algae well that I didn't want in my display. Also when I put corals in my sump for any reason they didn't grow and got washed out.

That freshwater light will not help your corals much, it could make them wash out and there is a strong chance it will promote nasty algae growth.

Wait and use the 6500k as the refugium light, you might cause yourself a lot of issues because you don't want the light to collect dust.

[Crawdads57]

Ok, the consensus is not to use it. Its funny to me that there are many old threads claiming great coral growth with 6500K and actinic mixed in for color. Its also funny to me that only these older threads contain any recommendation of using 6500K (from what I found searching).

I will probably try it anyways, I have a timer / dimmer for the thing, so I can just run it for a limited duration at the middle of my light cycle to simulate high noon. If it causes me problems, oh well, I can shelve it for the time being.

Obviously a freshwater, planted tank is a far cry from a nano reef, but I have to say that I have had zero algae problems in the planted tank using this light. Naturally the abundance of plants and my CUC, as well as the relatively small food input (compared to my reef tanks) has a lot to do with this lack of nuisance algae.

As far as the color, I can offset the yellow of the 6500K with the right combination of RGB LEDs, and since the RGB LEDs don't contribute much to the PAR, I can get a nice blue color out of the light that will be totally indiscernible with the Orbit running in front of it.

Unless anyone else has direct experience they want to share I'll just give it a go. I think I'll start with the Orbit only. I have an 18-24" model over a little reef cube that contains a lot of the corals I will be moving over to the new tank. The difference is that new tank is about half as tall as the old tank. Then after I see whats going on for a few weeks or months, I'll try incorporating the Satellite for 1, 2, 3 hours in the middle of my 8 hour photoperiod and see what happens. I have a feeling that any negative effects will be obvious within a week or two.

Either way there's no real lose, I have to buy the Orbit(s) anyways, so I'll report back with what I find - good or bad.