Light does not create algae, it just feeds it . The difference is somewhat unimportant as you can definitely use lighting period and intensity to control (at least in part) green algae. Interestingly enough, the purple coraline in my rocks seems to be growing (or at least not diminishing) but I don't get much (if any) on my walls (unlike one of my other tanks (lighted with compacts) where I have to scrape the acrylic daily to remove the purple (looks great on the snails but doesn't seem to grow much on the rocks - go figure).
I can't give a good color determination really. The setup we decided on uses 3 sets of white and 2 sets of blue (24 lights each) and we haven't tried just the white. The combination shows off the coraline purples nicely but the effect is diminished drastically by adding just one red dome (24 lights) which is why I usually move the red to the back of the tank during the day. The added blue is not quite as effective as an actinic visually (actual wave length will be different but plants are not a factor here). I also have one of the whites inside the sump cabinet and there is definitely a color difference.
The intensitiy of the lighting I am using is far less than the lights in all my other aquariums (compacts in most with one MH for the 4' skinny tank) with about the same photo period. I cannot have critters that host algae nor any long term plants. I do put in helemedia to feed my pencil urchins and it does last for over a month but nothing green will survive long term. I have found that adding the live plants is important or my urchins start eating other things (like my feather dusters and gorgonian) and they won't eat the dried seaweeds commercially available. I have kept the small, orange, deep water sponges for over 6 month and they seem to tollerate the lighting very well. I recently put in the mushrooms and they are surviving but reach out for the light during the day and don't really add a lot to the esthetics of the tank.
The article my husband recently read (I can get the link from him if you are interested but he found it way to technical to be useful for our level of undstanding) did some comparisons between using the newest LED lighting vs Halides. The basic understanding that he came away with was that using enough LED's can produce the intensity of MH but there is a wave length difference. The article did not take a stand that one was better than the other but confirmed that the intensity could be equivalent.
Lastly, you can forget about heat, from your lights or from your equipment, being part of algae control. My pot bellies live at 66 degrees and algae loves the tank
I can't give a good color determination really. The setup we decided on uses 3 sets of white and 2 sets of blue (24 lights each) and we haven't tried just the white. The combination shows off the coraline purples nicely but the effect is diminished drastically by adding just one red dome (24 lights) which is why I usually move the red to the back of the tank during the day. The added blue is not quite as effective as an actinic visually (actual wave length will be different but plants are not a factor here). I also have one of the whites inside the sump cabinet and there is definitely a color difference.
The intensitiy of the lighting I am using is far less than the lights in all my other aquariums (compacts in most with one MH for the 4' skinny tank) with about the same photo period. I cannot have critters that host algae nor any long term plants. I do put in helemedia to feed my pencil urchins and it does last for over a month but nothing green will survive long term. I have found that adding the live plants is important or my urchins start eating other things (like my feather dusters and gorgonian) and they won't eat the dried seaweeds commercially available. I have kept the small, orange, deep water sponges for over 6 month and they seem to tollerate the lighting very well. I recently put in the mushrooms and they are surviving but reach out for the light during the day and don't really add a lot to the esthetics of the tank.
The article my husband recently read (I can get the link from him if you are interested but he found it way to technical to be useful for our level of undstanding) did some comparisons between using the newest LED lighting vs Halides. The basic understanding that he came away with was that using enough LED's can produce the intensity of MH but there is a wave length difference. The article did not take a stand that one was better than the other but confirmed that the intensity could be equivalent.
Lastly, you can forget about heat, from your lights or from your equipment, being part of algae control. My pot bellies live at 66 degrees and algae loves the tank