When do you use a red light

[Lamie]

I've been looking at lights and there is a red light as well as a white led light. When do you use the red light?

 

[Colin_T]

if you have live plants then you want red, white and blue light on during the day.

 

[StevenF]

I agree with Colin plants use rad and blue light most effectively but other colors are also important. White LED produce most of the colors needed including blue. But they are a bit weak on red. So run both at the same time.

 

[Lynnzer]

I agree with the previous. However, there are some absolutely fantastic lights out there that you can buy. I have one of them on order right now. It's a Chihiros Vivid 60cm. You can control the light colouration and intensity via a phone app. I saw it on an aquascape that had chili rasboras that were a really gorgeous red, and the red plants were magnificent. The owner then dialled the red down and increased the green and the effect was superb.
They are a bit on the pricy side but if you truly want your tank to look magnificicent then you must take a look at them.

 

[JuiceBox52]

A lot of people use red lights for night time

 

[Lynnzer]

A lot of people use red lights for night time

I believe there's a whole district in downtown Manchester where every 2nd house has a red light over the door. Sounds fishy to me ..........

 

[Colin_T]

I believe there's a whole district in downtown Manchester where every 2nd house has a red light over the door. Sounds fishy to me ..........

damn red light districts

 

[Lamie]

I agree with Colin plants use rad and blue light most effectively but other colors are also important. White LED produce most of the colors needed including blue. But they are a bit weak on red. So run both at the same time.

So maybe I get a red light then instead of another white one

 

[Colin_T]

If you are buying a new light, just get a LED light unit that has a 6500K (K is for Kelvin) rating and has a full colour spectrum (yellow, red, green, blue, white and maybe UV) but UV isn't really necessary in freshwater tanks. Most new LED light units will have these colours already built in and you just program them to come on at different times.

The sun produces yellow light first thing in the morning, then red, green, blue and UV.
Blue and UV are at their most intense during the middle of the day.
Red and yellow are the first light that we see in the morning and last thing in the evening (sunrise & sunset). Red and yellow are also produced right throughout the day.
There isn't actually white light produced by our sun but they have white LED's in light units to add a clear bright light to show things up better.

 

[itiwhetu]

With a T8 fitting, I would use one gro lux tube (red) to every 3 cool light tubes. Be careful of daylight tubes as they are too blue for plant growth. To obtain plant growth everything must be warm, towards the red spectrum