Dimming LEDs

I cannot for the life of me think why anyone would need or want dimmable LEDs. I run my LEDs on timers one for the blue one for the white, 1st the blue come on for 3 hours, then the blue are off and the white come on, then both then the reverse.
What is accomplished by the dimmer except a true sunrise sunset effect?

Thanks

 

Depending on your corals, the strength of your fixture, and how high it is above the aquarium sometimes a fixture run at 100% is to much and will bleach your corals. Also running it a 100% all the time will increase heat and shorten lifespan of the light.

Another very valuable use for a dimmer is acclimating. Mainly when you switch from a weaker unit to a stronger one, you can start off running it at say 30% and increase it weekly until you reach your goal. This way you allow the corals to adjust to the new light and prevent bleaching as well

 

dimming and control-ability is half the beauty of led's. Why you may find not much need to dim just blue and white channels except when introducing a new fixture it also allows you to set the spectrum, yes at a loss of some power, but not everyone needs a huge pounding light. When your fixture gets individual color channels and you can set the greens, reds, violets, yellows to a much lower intensity than your blues or whites and not be losing much power from your fixture, you will enjoy bring bringing some colors out more by tweaking these other colors around and leaving the blues and whites on stronger.

Also many have different opinions on what looks best on their tank. Now you can buy one fixture and choose which kelvin temperature your light is running at. Versus buying different bulbs and trying them out.

 

I started to bleach some of my corals when I had mine at 75%, 5 inches off of the water. I turned it down to 55% and have it 7 inches from the water now.

 

If I run my lights at 100% I'd kill every coral in days. Actually one time my Apex defaulted and ran my blues at 100% for 4 hours. My clove polyps were spilling white from their mouths and my zoas closed for a few days.

Currently I run all three drivers @ 30-35%.

 

Wow, never heard of a light cycle like that before!!!

Grettings,
IMO&EO- the most common light hour on/off and color cycle goes like this:

Blues on for 10 hrs
White come ON 1 hr after the blues (Blues STAY ON the entire 10 hours)
Whites go OFF 1 hr before the Blue go off. (So the whites are on 8 hrs total, and always WITH the blues)

There are many variations- endless
But this is the most standard way.

Now- the dimmer :-( I don't have any dimmers on my LED's, YET!

Some people also use the dimmer, to fine tune adjust their blue/white ratio.
And obviously has been stated, not to cook their coral!!

So you have any coral? Try the blues with the whites for enhanced colors, etc.