Black box over sump

[Rmckoy]

After the addition of a juv emperor he has taste for lps .
especially fleshy ones such as lobo , meat coral , open brains etc .
I’m thinking of moving the 2 remaining open brains to the sump while they’re still in good health but ..

1) the only free compartment houses cheato with a grow lamp .
I have 3 extra Chinese black boxes I could use to provide enough light .

what’s the min distance from the open brain to the black boxes ?

 

[Jekyl]

I know the black boxes I had needed to be mounted 12" over the water for coverage. Any closer will focus the light which isn't a good thing. Might be best to trade them to some local reefers.

 

[Jedi1199]

After the addition of a juv emperor he has taste for lps .
especially fleshy ones such as lobo , meat coral , open brains etc .
I’m thinking of moving the 2 remaining open brains to the sump while they’re still in good health but ..

1) the only free compartment houses cheato with a grow lamp .
I have 3 extra Chinese black boxes I could use to provide enough light .

what’s the min distance from the open brain to the black boxes ?

What is the wattage of the LED's? I think if they are smaller ones, and you dialed them back as far as you can, you can put them closer. Of course, I am no expert with this. How much clearance do you have to work with?

 

[Arego]

Just turn them way down in the 10% range. I've done this in a pinch before with great success, as you watch the pieces acclimate you can slowly turn it up if it's even necessary to do so.

The boxes I used were SB Reef when I did this for about 4 months.

 

[Rmckoy]

I know the black boxes I had needed to be mounted 12" over the water for coverage. Any closer will focus the light which isn't a good thing. Might be best to trade them to some local reefers.

I got 3 of them them with my latest upgrade .
i personally have never used or liked leds but if they would help save the 2 corals from being eaten I thought I could make them work for now

 

[Rmckoy]

What is the wattage of the LED's? I think if they are smaller ones, and you dialed them back as far as you can, you can put them closer. Of course, I am no expert with this. How much clearance do you have to work with?

Not sure of the wattage . They have 2 dials on each with 2 separate plugs
They are pretty big units .
as for space I’d have to measure from
The top of the sump to the bottom of the dt
I would assume close to 12-14”
The water in the sump being another 4” lower

about 12 water in that section

 

[Rmckoy]

This is the cheato section I was considering converting to house lps

and 2nd picture is from the top of sump to bottom of dt inside the stand

 

[90's reefer]

Just mount them as high as you can and start the power of both dials low.
I run an old BB on my 30g remote fuge and it works well at growing macro algae. Their is a coral on one rock that i did not know was their and its growing well.

Im only.running 50% at 12" and its working well.

 

[Jedi1199]

Well, my friend, you know as well as I do that there is no concrete answer. Necessity is the mother of invention. Honestly all I can offer is remove the offending party or take your chances with what you have.

If it was ME, and I was faced with your issue, I would go for it.. dial the lights back as low as possible and turn the whites off completely.

I don't have any angels in my reef tanks for this exact reason. Almost picked up a small Lemon Peel angel today but backed off because I didn't want to have any more corals become snacks.