Club Sponsored Lighting Research

RSnodgrass · Apr 18, 2020

Fun announcement that's been in the works for several months...

@Abhishek was able to introduce me to the fabled @Dana Riddle who some of you know as being something of a lighting leader in research with spectrum and par, MASNA Aquarist of the Year, as well as his involvement here on R2R. I'd encourage you to check out YouTube for his talks on the matter or any of his numerous papers.

I wanted to touch base with Dana with a goal, a goal of inspiring other clubs to be a resource for those doing work in the hobby and reefs. There was also a rumor that he was hoping to accomplish some experiments on the side as a now retired researcher but hadn't acquired the lighting he was wanting to test. Thankfully he still has access to some pretty awesome equipment and proprietary algorithms to work with.

What is kicking off this month is his proprietary spectrum testing of three different lights and each light will take a couple of weeks to test. The fixtures will be tested not only for spectrum but specifically for those blends we reefers use the most. I don't know about you but I want to know how I'm using it, not necessarily the factory presets.

The conversation should be about more than par and this is it! There's no telling what we'll find out but I think the value added will be awesome, even if it's just a confirmation of what we believe but haven't verified.

There are obviously lots of lights to choose from and below are the three Dana wanted to work with. Ask and you shall receive...

The Lineup:
1) ReefBreeders PhotonV2
2) EcoTech Radion XR30 G5 (was the G4 but then the new one came out, so, you know

)
3) Phillips Coral Care Gen2

I want to thank the TCMAS BOD in supporting this effort, Abhishek, New Wave Aquaria, CoralVue, and of course Dana. Together we strive to further our understandings and the science!

What would you like to see tested?
Anything additional about the lights?

Output (intensity/spectral quality) at full power will be tested, along with PUR, power consumption, ballast/lamp temperatures.

Maybe your club can be a resource to someone else's research project!

RSnodgrass · Apr 20, 2020

With Phillips Coral Care Gen2, it's a relative unknown in the States so I'd like to start by seeing the AB+ equivalent spectrum.

I'd like to see the same with the ReefBreeders Photon V2+.

(or their recommended equivalent if they have a preset)

Ultimately I'm personally very interested in UV spreads and your take on that end of the spectrum...

Your article here about excitation ranges affecting color was interesting https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature.

Of all the acropora you looked at, the excitation ranges predominantly fell between 400-525nm. The handful of soft coral skew towards the 500's it seems while hard corals in general concentrate (50% of the sample size) between 475-525nm. However many lights I've looked at seem to miss the sub 400 which can account for 25% of acros. Maybe there is a reason for this.

I charted the excitation results into 25pt spectrum ranges totalling all 103 coral sampled (including acros). I then plotted the 25 acros sampled a second time and increased the scaling for visibility.

Very interested to see how our "normal" settings cover this range.