Amazing Photos of Aquarium Night View Actinic or Moonlight
Over the years we have been displaying amazing photos of SPS dominated aquariums such as Bill’s tank.
Back in January we shared many coral macro photos that he took of his beautiful corals.
In case you missed click on Beautiful tank from UK under Orphek Atlantik units
This week he sent us updated photos under Orphek Moonlight LED channel, so we are going to take this opportunity to plunge into the subject.
MOONLIGHT
Moonlight is as important as daylight to corals because not only corals continue to grow and feed under moonlight, but also mass-spawning (coral reproductive event) is triggered by it.
Moonlight is an important external stimulus for mass spawning synchrony.
Israeli and Australian scientists* have researched the hard corals reproduction in Australian Great Barrier Reef and its co-relation with moonligh, revealing that they have isolated an ancient gene in the corals’ DNA that can detect moonlight.
“Sexual reproduction in corals is possibly the most important process for replenishing degraded coral reefs. Most corals are “broadcast spawners” that reproduce by releasing their egg cells and sperm cells into the sea water surface. To maximize their chances of reproductive success, most coral in the Great Barrier Reef – over 130 species – spawn on the same night, during a time window that is approximately 30-60 minutes long. This is the largest-scale mass spawning event of coral in the world, and is triggered by changes in sea water temperature, tides, sunrise and sunset and by the intensity of the moonlight.
How corals tune their spawning behavior with the phases of the moonlight was an unanswered question for decades. Now, Kaniewska, Alon et al. have exposed the coral Acropora millepora – which makes up part of the Great Barrier Reef – to different light treatments and sampled the corals before, during and after their spawning periods. This revealed that light causes changes to gene expression and signaling processes inside cells. These changes are specifically related to the release of egg and sperm cells, and occur only on the night of spawning…”
Hobbyists were getting blue spectrums with Actinic/fluorescent tubes in the past, but there were no LEDs lights available in the market with such spectrums.
Once they were available in the market, all they could get was an extremely blue light that not only did not enhance coral fluorescence, but also did not look at all in pictures.
While trying to simulate nature in a captive environment as closely as possible, Orphek was the first LED aquarium lighting company for reef to develop light with true UV/violet spectrum and it’s own wide blue spectrum LED.
Back in 2012 Advanced Aquarist has published Dr. Sanjay’s researches on spectral distribuiton of many LED lighting products, including Orphek.
At that time hobbyist could already see that Orphek was the only company providing advanced technology by offering UV/Violet spectrum corals.
Orphek’s idea was and it is untill now, to develop LED lighting solutions that will enhance coral color beauty and growth while providing a natural, balanced stunning look to reef aquariums.
We continued to develop products with such spectrums, such as Orphek super blue Atlantik Slimline Strip LED, that add to any tank a gorgeous blue/violet spectrum and amazing fluorescence.
Photo by: JAKE ADAMS SEP 9, 2015
FLUORESCENCE
Corals display brilliant colors and give off fluorescence.
The visual nature of FPs and the strong correlation with growth enables coral fluorescence to be utilized as an indicator of coral health.
So the easier way to check for coral’s health is to monitor their levels of fluorescence.
Coral fluorescence is produced by special fluorescent proteins (the FPs) that absorb higher energy light and re-emit lower energy light.
Light regulates FP expression in corals: they produce a variety of FPs that absorb energy between ?400–600 nm and fluoresce between ?480–610 nm wavelength.
ORPHEK ATLANTIK V4 SPECTRUM – How Orphek took Moonlight Spectrums to a whole new advanced level:
Our Orphek Atlantik V4 LED Lighting for Reef Aquariums provides a perfect combination for night view.
With our advanced moonlight spectrum your tank will look outstanding and most of all, your corals can grow perfectly during the evening time.
In the schema below you will find the amount of light produce by channels 2, 3 and 4.
Channel 2 – the wide blue channel
Channel 3 – the UV/violet channel
Channel 4- Mix of UV /Blue Orange/IR that create a purple look
The combination of these 3 channels is a result of years of advanced researched on the matter.
(Credit For PAR and spectrum test to Mr. Henning Wiese)
One more thing you did not know!
These 3 channels also provide important spectrum that is called The Chlorophyll A Spectrum.
Check the graph below for more detailed understanding:
As they say ” A picture is worth a 1000 words”, so check these fantastic photos under the Orphek Moonlight spectrum!
Corals are looking amazing under Orphek Atlantik v3 ch 1 and ch2 (our updated version Atlantik v4 provides even better effect using also channel 4!!)
This picture shows the same aquarium at full spectrum under Atlantik v3
Now take a look at the amazing orange red flurecent coral at night time with our Atlantik V4!
Photos by: Masahiro Kamya from Pacific-Japan Co
Check out the green fluorescence under Atlantik V3 running on Channel 3!
Check out Atlantik V4 LED Map to get a deeper look at what we are offering and the almost unlimited combination of color by dimming the channels as you wish!!
In these macro shots under Atlantik v4 channels 2 and 3 you will find also the strong color of carolina algae on the rocks:
Photos by: Immo Gerber switzerland
Let’s see some graphs of our Atlantik V4 channels:
Channel 3 from 380nm – 450nm (Credit For PAR and spectrum test to Mr. Henning Wiese)
This is how the light looks at channel 3:
And Channel 4 graph: (Credit For PAR and spectrum test to Mr. Henning Wiese)
More pictures at night view under Orphek Atlantik light and the amazing flurecent color displayed:
Orphek is a company in constant development therefore pursuing new challenges to answer to new client’s demands we are constantly expanding our line and developing new solutions.
Our newest launch, the Amazonas 80 XP brings a very wide violet/blue spectrum from 380-to 516 nm!
Check now at first glance:
*Orphek was chosen to be the LED lighting company to provide solutions to James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.
We would like this opportunity to thank Bill Disley and all our clients sending us photos of their tanks and corals!
If you are also from Europe, USA or at any country around the globe and you are also wishing to:
- Improve the quality of life of your corals and marine species
- Install a neat and easy to clean fixture
- Own not only a conceptual design LED light solution, but a true color & growth technology
We will be very happy to find the best Orphek LED Lights for your tank.
Also if you wish to know more details about our Atlantik unit, email us to contact@orphek.com and we will help get you started! You can also reach us by filling our form.
One of the greatest pleasures of our company is the fact that Orphek staff is in close contact with its clients. That gives us the opportunity to follow and share the development of our client’s corals over the years. It is also great to receive their feedback on our products and service.
We would like to invite you to browse our website and participate with your Orphek experience.
Let us know about your tank and share it with many other hobbyists!
Sharing is very easy! All you have to do is to send us the basic information about your tank, usually starting from the beginning (when you started your tank), what are you running in the tank, the living creatures you have in your tank and of course pictures of the tank and of your corals. We also would like to have pictures of our lights above the tank 😉
Please send to contact@orphek.com
We really hope you will find some time to send us your info so we can publish right away!
Thank you in advance,
ORPHEK TEAM