Acro growth and color under lower PAR levels. Sound off!

[pdiehm]

i run a 6x80W T5, what would you all recommend for PAR for that for my plans for sps? I run my light about 9.5" over the water, and probably can get it up to 11" with my brackets.

 

[madweazl]

I'm on the road but just posted a pic of most my acroporas in the 75g signature thread. Can't remember off the top of my head but think I'm peaking around 225 par right now. Had a recent issue but everything is bouncing back . The vivid rainbow delight needs a bit more par to color up I believe though I think I'm within 50 for it based on coloration before the tank was moved

 

[Vincent100]

Not sure of my par , gotta be ok as there's 3 radions on a red Sea 350
Second from last pic is a rock on my sand bed and they are growing great for being at the bottom

 

[Deaf clown]

Good job! I can't really fit t5 over my tank with the MH reflector I have. I might need to look into a led solution.

If I was to do it again now and with the LEDs they have currently available-I would go with 2or 3 AI Hydra 52 HD’s with the T5 hybrid fixture. Both of these weren’t available when I purchased my MH/T5 combo. But I’m gonna wait to upgrade since I still have a lot of life left in that fixture even though it’s ugly. [emoji23]

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Not sure of my par , gotta be ok as there's 3 radions on a red Sea 350
Second from last pic is a rock on my sand bed and they are growing great for being at the bottom

That's some incredible color. Wish I could get that kind of color out of mine. I'm having a hard time with my SPS bleaching atm.

 

[MnFish1]

How many of you are growing and coloring up your acropora corals under lower PAR levels?

If that's you what is your current PAR and what type of lighting are you using?

Thanks!

image via @TCK Corals

Interesting Poll. I always use a more high par - more natural white light (not focusing on blue) LED. Maybe another way to ask the question is:

At what PAR do you need to grow colorful acres (in Poll form)

50-100
101-200
201-250
251-300
301-400
401-450
451-500
>500
As high as possible...

 

[BkReefBaby]

This is a very interesting topic. There’s guys like Jason fox who run all blue light only and have sps growing on the bottom of his tanks. We all know he has some of the most colorful sps in the industry. It’ll be nice if we knew what kind of par levels he was getting down at the bottom. In the reef builders and some other video he says only runs blue actinic T5 bulbs and reefbrites

 

[mch1984]

Interesting Poll. I always use a more high par - more natural white light (not focusing on blue) LED. Maybe another way to ask the question is:

At what PAR do you need to grow colorful acres (in Poll form)

50-100
101-200
201-250
251-300
301-400
401-450
451-500
>500
As high as possible...

This would be a good poll

 

[vetteguy53081]

My greatest success which has been recent with acro has been under low par lighting emphasizing on blues and low purple with low-moderate water flow

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Looks like an awesome new use for my fluke DMM!

yes!!! I just used a cheap multi meter.. works the same. click to mili volts and multiply the number you see by 5 = par. Have to say I had my doubts but I checked it against two other apogee meters and it was spot on.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Interesting Poll. I always use a more high par - more natural white light (not focusing on blue) LED. Maybe another way to ask the question is:

At what PAR do you need to grow colorful acres (in Poll form)

50-100
101-200
201-250
251-300
301-400
401-450
451-500
>500
As high as possible...

in theory.. sure.. in practice.. different corals withstand different light.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I think it's important to remember that it NOT all about par. it's about photo saturation and inhabition points. to say "this grows awesome at 100 par" means almost next to nothing. How LONG does it have 100 par for?

I know many people that don't have powerful lights but they run them 14hrs per day.

and about the blue lights... YES. maybe alk consumption jumped when I added two reef brite xho strips to my tank.

 

[Ibn]

Most of my frags sit on the sandbed for at least a week or more before I can decide on where to plant them. Some of the mini colonies that I've grown over the years has always been on the bottom as well. Measurements taken via MQ-210/510. P.S. don't mind the pics below. I run my LEDs on the whiter side than most people.

BC Spainbow is a low light champion that colors up well. This mini is growing under 125 PAR.

Sand bed PAR measurements ranges from 90 - 150 depending on how far they're off the central LEDs (Maxspect Recurve 36").

RR USA OP

RRC JD

Above the sandbed. This A. hyacinthus table gets 220 PAR.

 

[reefpea]

Thanks for the input. I'm looking to keep my PAR levels as low as possible.

Why Rev?

 

[bonomo53]

RR OP and WD getting around 250-300 Par. But i do have a long photo period not sure if that would make a difference.

 

[mch1984]

Well after getting a hold of the par meter last night, I figured out I was attempting to grow acros under very low par. The brightest spot in my tank was around 60, and my photo period is about 8 hours. I did some adjustments while the par meter was in and now have my hot spots where the acros will be around 250. Going to spend a few weeks slowly ramping up the lights trying to not shock anything. Answered a lot of questions for myself though.

 

[Deaf clown]

I think it's important to remember that it NOT all about par. it's about photo saturation and inhabition points. to say "this grows awesome at 100 par" means almost next to nothing. How LONG does it have 100 par for?

There’s definitely something to be said with this. I used to run my lights 12 hrs a day. I shortened it to 10 hrs. I think my corals are happier with the shorter lighting schedule.

 

[Deaf clown]

That's some incredible color. Wish I could get that kind of color out of mine. I'm having a hard time with my SPS bleaching atm.

You’d be surprised what actinic/uv lights and a orange gel filter could do.

 

[Larry L]

RR OP and WD getting around 250-300 Par. But i do have a long photo period not sure if that would make a difference.

How long is your photo period?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

You’d be surprised what actinic/uv lights and a orange gel filter could do.

I have tried one of those filters for my phone, but even when using manual picture mode and adjusting the white balance, they never look all that impressive. I have a Nikon D60 that I got to play with and try to learn on, but have next to no idea how to properly set it up for taking aquarium shots. I come from the old 35mm B&W days and never learned digital photography work so it's a whole different animal. Put a 35mm film SLR in my hands and I'll give you shots like Ansel Adams made, but my DSLR stuff looks like a 5 year old took it with a toy 1MP camera...