Blackbox to Hydra 26 HD's - Help with light settings and photoperiod

[sman200788]

Hey all,
I just picked up 3x Hydra 26 HD's to replace my 2x 3-4 year old black box led's. These are going to go over my 90g reef tank with softies and LPS.

Firstly, how should I mount them? Its just a standard 90g 48x18x24 tank. Front to back and just have the center light above the center brace? Or run them length wise and have the middle light "straddle" the center brace?

Secondly, Ive never had a light with this much control before... Are there any recommended profiles or settings for these for what I assume my tank is as "moderate light requirements"?

Lastly, how does everyone handle their photoperiod with the lights ability to ramp up and down? I currently run my "blue" channel for about 12 hours and my "white" channel for about 8... Does that seem like a lot for a good quality light compared to what I have now?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

 

[AdamB]

I have same 2 lights on my 80 gallon deep blue rimless. One light will do 24” by 24” area so both configuration you have drawn will work. You probably could have been fine with even 2 hydras for your setup.
I am attaching what I run for a mixed tank . I got setup from BRS video of matching spectrum to Radions. I do a 3 hour ramp up on my tank and I have lps/sps/ few softies .
I’m sure with the corals you have you can lower the time some and lower percentages down some .

 

[AdamB]

Here’s another setup I used before when I first started up my tank in December that worked great.

 

[sman200788]

Thank you!

At roughly what height do you run yours above the water?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I have four 26's over my 75g mounted 10.5" above the waterline and are oriented like your first picture but I have them setup with a gap over the center bar. This way I have two over each side of the tank providing ample coverage and minimal shadowing. With the photo period as shown below I'm hitting 325-350 par at mid tank depth and 120+ across the sand bed. I'm running a schedule similar to WWC's with a 5 hour portion with the whites on then blues only for the remainder of the day. There is a short 1 hour in the evening the whites come on to 2% for feeding and evening viewing. I also have my lights split into two sets. The inner are one set and then the outer lights are the second. They run the exact same schedule except for the moon lighting. The inner lights have a moon light schedule, where the outer pair stay dark. I did this because I felt with all 4 on even at 1% on the blues it was really bright. This way it allows for moon lighting on the lunar schedule, but isn't too bright.

You can kind of see how I have them in this picture.

 

[AdamB]

Thank you!

At roughly what height do you run yours above the water?

Mine are 12” above water line but I have a shallow reef tank that is only 16” in height .

 

[Butuz]

I have 3 26HDs over my Red Sea Reefer 250. My build thread below has both various settings as well as their respective PAR readings. Have fun, these are good lights.