Fluval evo AI Prime

[countryboyreese]

Hey yall, just ordered an AI prime for my fluval evo 13.5 and have some questions regarding lighting. There are no corals in the tank yet, just a pair of clowns. I Intend to keep mostly lps with a few softies, and maybe an sps frag or 2 eventually. My question is, what lighting schedules would you reccomend for the tank that is mostly lps dominated? I have heard a lot about the saxby and AB+ schedules. How do they compare in growth and looks? I have also heard that they should not be run at full intensity over my sized tank, any recommendations on what percentage they should be run at? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[coralboi56]

Definitely not full intensity for LPS/softies. AI are very powerful lights, especially over that small of a footprint for a tank. I recommend testing the light out witha PAR meter, with the top of the rock work hitting 250 PAR for LPS. Note that most LPS thrive in sub 250 PAR so if the top of your rock work is 250, odds are the actual places you want to put coral are gonna be right in that ball park range of 150-200.

As for a schedule, I don't play with AI lights enough to recommend a color schedule, but the textbook total photo period for any tank is 10-12 hours. I run my lights for 10 hours.

 

[countryboyreese]

Thanks @coralboi56 ! Anyone else have experience with schedules? Was also considering a hybrid saxby/ab spectrum.