Gen4 XR15 Pro with diffuser intensity issue

[aarbutina]

So we just set up a new XR15pro w/ diffuser over one of my tanks yesterday. Currently th light is suspended at 13” (my drop downs on my home made suspension kit were a little short) I loaded up the AB+ schedule and set the intensity to a 100% just as a starting point to start failing the light in. When I threw my PAR sensor in the tank I found that I was only hitting approximately 150 PAR at 6 to 10 inches deep directly below the center of the fixture.

Some thing seems seriously wrong here. I normally hit 150 on my sand bed at 24” deep on my main tank and I only have the lights set at 40% on those ones. I am going to try calibrating the fixture and dropping it to 9” this morning but would like to hear if there are any other thoughts out there on this. I am also going to check the programming in ESL to mak sure I didn’t screw something silly up.

 

[aarbutina]

Dropping the light to 9" and calibrate seems to have helps. But I am still hitting ~275 PAR at 6" of depth on the AB+ setting which seems to make sense based on the numbers that BRS got in the "Investigates" video that looked at the diffuser.

 

[Rakie]

You will lose 20% par, for most people running radions that's no big deal at all. If you're running a lone XR15, it may be an issue.

 

[aarbutina]

You will lose 20% par, for most people running radions that's no big deal at all. If you're running a lone XR15, it may be an issue.

Hey Rakie, thanks for your reply. I agree. When you are running a single fixture you definitely have to crank up the intensity to get the same PAR as you would with multiple fixtures.

 

[Rakie]

Hey Rakie, thanks for your reply. I agree. When you are running a single fixture you definitely have to crank up the intensity to get the same PAR as you would with multiple fixtures.

Yep. But also the diffuser as the name implies, diffuses the light, so even though par may fall your coral will be lit from more angles, increasing the amount of light it's getting overall anyways.

So you may lose nothing in practice, while on paper you're losing that 20%.

 

[Rek84]

Can't wait to receive mine later this week. I'm a little concerned about losing shimmer though. I really like the shimmer of the radions, and I hope the diffuser doesn't cause the shimmering effect to take too much of a hit.