Feedback needed on Neptune Sky Schedule

RDaber

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Can anyone with experience with the Neptune Sky provide feedback on my current schedule? I have 3 Sky lights over a 6x2x2 mixed reef and would like to hear other's opinions before I start adding more expensive sps to the tank.

sky schema.png
 

areefer01

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Is this an existing reef?
Replacing / switching lights?
New reef?
What size corals are we talking about (frags vs colony)?

Personally speaking as an owner of SKYS for almost a year now I do not bounce between presets. I'm not sure why you are doing that. I run two SKY's over a 210 54 x 30 x 30 system. 80% of the day I'm using 'coral growth' which is 100% across all channels with a peak power of 80%. I ramp up at 0700 and lights are off at 2200. The last 4 hours of my schedule I am running PHX14 I think it is.

I've measured PAR at 3 locations in my display using each of the SKY's preset spectrums. At the same time I did that I also adjusted the brightness percentage (power) so now I knew PAR per spectrum and brightness. This helped me get an idea or calculate DLI if I so choose.

Since I swapped from Kessil a360x I could compare and acclimate over time.
 
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RDaber

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Is this an existing reef?
Replacing / switching lights?
New reef?
What size corals are we talking about (frags vs colony)?

Personally speaking as an owner of SKYS for almost a year now I do not bounce between presets. I'm not sure why you are doing that. I run two SKY's over a 210 54 x 30 x 30 system. 80% of the day I'm using 'coral growth' which is 100% across all channels with a peak power of 80%. I ramp up at 0700 and lights are off at 2200. The last 4 hours of my schedule I am running PHX14 I think it is.

I've measured PAR at 3 locations in my display using each of the SKY's preset spectrums. At the same time I did that I also adjusted the brightness percentage (power) so now I knew PAR per spectrum and brightness. This helped me get an idea or calculate DLI if I so choose.

Since I swapped from Kessil a360x I could compare and acclimate over time.
This is an existing reef that is about a 15 months old. I have had the lights since September and this is the first time I am adjusting the schedule as the previous did not have the look I wanted. Mostly frags with a few decent sized euphilia in the lower 1/3 of the tank.

Thanks for the feedback.
 

areefer01

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This is an existing reef that is about a 15 months old. I have had the lights since September and this is the first time I am adjusting the schedule as the previous did not have the look I wanted. Mostly frags with a few decent sized euphilia in the lower 1/3 of the tank.

Thanks for the feedback.

I would recommend using the Apex Fusion app then and enter the SKY settings and flip through the various presets at say 80% brightness to see how they look and feel to your eyes. If you go into the Fusion portal then you will see a few more settings to choose from. Give it some time between changes so you adjust to it.
 
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RDaber

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I checked the PAR and found that the reading were good during the AB+ times and were a bit too high during the Coral Growth timeframe. I lowered the intensity a few percent and brought it back in line.

Any opinions on the rest of the schedule? Would it be better to remove some of the other points and just go AB+-->Coral Growth-->AB+?
 

Jon's Reef

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I normally shoot for 8-10 hours of steady par with 1-2 hour ramps.
I would suggest this:
8:00, All Blue, 0%
10:00, AB+ (or SKY), 50%
14:00, SKY (or Coral growth if you want more white), 45%
18:00, AB+ (or SKY), 50%
20:00, All Blue, 25%
22:00, All Blue, off

That will give a nice blue viewing in the morning and evening with some white for color development in the middle of the day. You could use the SKY setting from 10:00-18:00. AB+ is a little bluer, SKY is slightly blue and coral growth is a nice white. In terms of PAR at the same point intensity, Coral Growth > SKY > AB+ because of diode usage.
 

Jon's Reef

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Another option I am playing with right now is to boost the violet channel to broaden the 400-500 peak. My thought is that the violet may help to color up my sps a little more. Since I was running the point intensity at 50% before, I get 50% more violet. In this case you would do something like this:
TimePointVioletBlueAmberWhite
7:00​
0​
50​
25​
0​
0​
10:00​
100​
100​
50​
10​
10​
12:00​
100​
100​
40​
30​
30​
18:00​
100​
100​
50​
10​
10​
20:30​
100​
50​
25​
0​
0​
22:00​
0​
50​
25​
0​
0​

Here are some calculated spectra:
1652474244578.png

I did some par measurements and the violet:blue par ratio is ~1:2 for the mod blue, which aligns well with the above. Overall par of the 3 above settings is similar.
 
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RDaber

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I normally shoot for 8-10 hours of steady par with 1-2 hour ramps.
I would suggest this:
8:00, All Blue, 0%
10:00, AB+ (or SKY), 50%
14:00, SKY (or Coral growth if you want more white), 45%
18:00, AB+ (or SKY), 50%
20:00, All Blue, 25%
22:00, All Blue, off

That will give a nice blue viewing in the morning and evening with some white for color development in the middle of the day. You could use the SKY setting from 10:00-18:00. AB+ is a little bluer, SKY is slightly blue and coral growth is a nice white. In terms of PAR at the same point intensity, Coral Growth > SKY > AB+ because of diode usage.
Thanks for this. Going to try this for a while and see how things go.
 

TK_KW

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Another option I am playing with right now is to boost the violet channel to broaden the 400-500 peak. My thought is that the violet may help to color up my sps a little more. Since I was running the point intensity at 50% before, I get 50% more violet. In this case you would do something like this:
TimePointVioletBlueAmberWhite
7:00​
0​
50​
25​
0​
0​
10:00​
100​
100​
50​
10​
10​
12:00​
100​
100​
40​
30​
30​
18:00​
100​
100​
50​
10​
10​
20:30​
100​
50​
25​
0​
0​
22:00​
0​
50​
25​
0​
0​

Here are some calculated spectra:
1652474244578.png

I did some par measurements and the violet:blue par ratio is ~1:2 for the mod blue, which aligns well with the above. Overall par of the 3 above settings is similar.
How long have you ran Sky's for? I've had zero luck with my Sky's so far, for getting my sps to take off. Like my previous t5 hybrid fixture did.
 

areefer01

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Have had mine for almost a year. Some corals react amazingly well. Some do not. Few examples:

No name green acro - branching, growing consistently well, frag from mother colony grows
No name purple acro - branching, growing consistently well, maintaining color
No name brown acro - holding steady
Battle Coral Serious Circus - nothing. Maintaining frag size but starting to see some yellow tips
Battle Coral Nero table - Growing more tall and starting to spread
Battle Coral Bonfire - medium growth starting to color up with pink, purple tips - coming into its groove
Battle Coral efflo 2.0 - fastest growing coral I've ever seen (maybe). Spread on rock, growing branches, etc
Green montipora - growing all over the display from me not finding trimmings as I prune it back
Red montipora - similar to green although not as fast
Orange montipora with yellow spots (sunset montipora maybe?) - growing very well
No name zoas - spreading and growing well
Japanese pink nephthea - growing well and fast
Marine farmers mulberry stereonephya - even on sandbed coral is not responding during the day, only extends at lower light
Biota Palau SPS / Acropora frag - incredibly fast grower. Green but my favorite coral to date outside Japanese nephthea

List goes on. Most corals think nothing different than my previous lighting of Kessil a360x. Few corals do not like the SKY's but that is my fault. I just need to move them to lower light. Due to the spread a few corals are growing from me being clumsy from dropping trimmings of corals. Mostly montipora.

At the end of the day I believe everyone agreed the lights can, and will, grow coral. Most of the hobbyist in fighting was due to bias, innovation, dislike of neptune, and price. The lights work and if anyone says otherwise then they are not being reasonable.

Are they the right light for a hobbyist? Only they can answer that. I stay out of what is better or best so only answer questions that users may have or potential buyers. I've had zero issues. The case or cover is fine. Fans are quiet. Phone app is great. Apex / Fusion is great. So far everything seems to be holding / working well.

As it relates to coral growth though - please do not buy something based off me or my response :) There are plenty of displays that grow coral better or faster. I'm happy though.
 

Jon's Reef

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How long have you ran Sky's for? I've had zero luck with my Sky's so far, for getting my sps to take off. Like my previous t5 hybrid fixture did.
I just looked through your build thread. I don't think the light is your limiting factor. Since you replaced all of the rock, sand, plumbing.... I think you are just in that stabilization phase. Could be a few more months before it is ready for SPS.

My experience is that the SKY light is not the limiting factor. Flow, biome, filtration all has to be on point.

In my old tank I got to the point that I just could not support the growth that I was seeing. The light pushed me to the point that the corals were maxing my ability to provide flow and nutrition. ~2 months ago I switched to a larger tank (built with a focus on stability) and I have really seen some great growth and coloration. The old corals that I moved have grown, colored up and damage from the move (bumping.. accidental fragging) has healed. I recently added ~8 new SPS frags (mostly tenuis) and they are looking great and starting to encrust.

I attribute the quick maturation of the new tank to a few things. I had it cycling for ~3 months before moving anything. This helped to get the "new" out. I used new sand, but for rock ~50% is my old live rock and the other 50% is "old" dry rock from a previous tank. The old dry rock is already showing good coralline initiation/ coverage. Algae/ ugly phase was non-existent. The other thing is that I really focused on high flow. >1k GPH for the return and 3 MP40 in a 36x30x24.
 
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