Got PAR meter, looking for guidance

[Benga]

My Par meter rental of the MQ 510 just came in and as with most people I was surprised with my numbers. The numbers you'll see below are my revised numbers. Prior to the revision they were about 60% of the new values. I'm hoping I can get some critique or advise on things to do regarding scheduling, spectrum, par numbers. I had to turn off flow otherwise my part was bouncing too much for me to measure.

Some things I should note is this is going to be softies with some LPS only. Zoas, Acans, Duncan, ricordeas, mushrooms, polyps, some leathers etc. No SPS though i have a tiny piece of Pink Birdnest you wont see in the pictures just for experiment purposes. Based on what I'm reading my core PAR should be between 100-250 for the target corals I'm looking at. (not sure if that accurate though in others experience)

The light is a AI Prime HD
9 Inches above the water
The picture of my schedule is wrong time wise, i only run 10 hours total.

Tank Details:
14" Cube
13" Water Depth
12" Light Measured Depth

Also side note, I just got my Hanna Alk checker HI 772 and it said my alk was at 6.0. I use Tropic Marin Pro and I barely have corals, is it possible for that to be correct??

 

[Rmckoy]

What lighting are you using ?

The par reading would also depend on the depth of water

 

[Phildago]

I'd lower the light a bit. Maybe start by bringing it down to 7 inches and remeasure

 

[Benga]

What lighting are you using ?

The par reading would also depend on the depth of water

AI Prime HD+

Forgot tank details this is a 14" Cube
Water Depth 13"
Measured water depth 12" because return was off.

I'd lower the light a bit. Maybe start by bringing it down to 7 inches and remeasure

I'll give it a shot. Sounding like my readings might be too low. I should probably use the acclimation mode because of all these changes.

 

[NS Mike D]

the PAR numbers are not far off for what your corals. Lowering will bring the PAR up a bit, but will reduce spread. But their is only one way to find out and you are doing,


Lets nail down that ALK issue ASAP

 

[Benga]

the PAR numbers are not far off for what your corals. Lowering will bring the PAR up a bit, but will reduce spread. But their is only one way to find out and you are doing,


Lets nail down that ALK issue ASAP

Yea seems like I should test lowering inch by inch till they get bumped up a little. I also dont like white light so ill see if i can reduce it down while getting good par and not too much spot lighting.

ALK surprised me because of how little corals I have and I do weekly water changes, no dosing.
Think I should just two part to increase ALK? I'll invest in a calibration solution for the Hanna too, mistake not buying with the checker.

 

[Bpb]

I find those perfectly acceptable par numbers for those corals. I’d leave it be

 

[NS Mike D]

6dkh is pretty hard to reach in a reef tank. Starting with reliable tests is best practices.

White is just a mix of RGB. I like white in my mix, even though I run my lights heavy blues.

You can up the red and green a bit to bring up PAR. I run my RapidLED Coronas at 25- 30% R&G during peak and white about 60% peak. peak is about 2 hours mid day The corals still pop. In the evening I ramp the R & G way down before the lights turn off.

Here is a @Dana Riddle thread on spectrum

Just for Fun - The Perfect Spectrum

There is no such thing as a *perfect* spectrum for corals, but I arrived at these numbers while working on a project. It includes UV-A as well as the normally considered violet-red wavelengths. Again, just for giggles, but its fairly close. UV (350-399) 13.6% Violet (400-430) 22.3% Blue...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[JPK_Esquire]

As a heads up, I’ve read a lot lately about the Tropic Marin Pro being intended for use with a Calcium Reactor. As a result, the alk starts at a lower number (7.0 I think). Even a few corals is going to lower it. I have a 32g Biocube with eight LPS and softies (zoas, couple of euphelias, sinularia, acans, mushroom) and mine uses about 1.0-1.5 dKH a week. Not really enough to daily dose, but I generally have to buffer on Monday after water change on Sunday. I keep looking at switching to the Tropic Marin Classic formula (which has a much higher starting dKH), but the calcium is much lower. So for now, I’m sticking with the Pro and just add some buffer once a week.

 

[xabo]

My Par meter rental of the MQ 510 just came in and as with most people I was surprised with my numbers. The numbers you'll see below are my revised numbers. Prior to the revision they were about 60% of the new values. I'm hoping I can get some critique or advise on things to do regarding scheduling, spectrum, par numbers. I had to turn off flow otherwise my part was bouncing too much for me to measure.

Some things I should note is this is going to be softies with some LPS only. Zoas, Acans, Duncan, ricordeas, mushrooms, polyps, some leathers etc. No SPS though i have a tiny piece of Pink Birdnest you wont see in the pictures just for experiment purposes. Based on what I'm reading my core PAR should be between 100-250 for the target corals I'm looking at. (not sure if that accurate though in others experience)

The light is a AI Prime HD
9 Inches above the water
The picture of my schedule is wrong time wise, i only run 10 hours total.

Tank Details:
14" Cube
13" Water Depth
12" Light Measured Depth

Also side note, I just got my Hanna Alk checker HI 772 and it said my alk was at 6.0. I use Tropic Marin Pro and I barely have corals, is it possible for that to be correct??

Can you clarify what you mean by revised? Was under the impression that there was no need to do a conversion with the 510 or am I misunderstanding? Thanks

 

[Benga]

6dkh is pretty hard to reach in a reef tank. Starting with reliable tests is best practices.

White is just a mix of RGB. I like white in my mix, even though I run my lights heavy blues.

You can up the red and green a bit to bring up PAR. I run my RapidLED Coronas at 25- 30% R&G during peak and white about 60% peak. peak is about 2 hours mid day The corals still pop. In the evening I ramp the R & G way down before the lights turn off.

Here is a @Dana Riddle thread on spectrum

Just for Fun - The Perfect Spectrum

There is no such thing as a *perfect* spectrum for corals, but I arrived at these numbers while working on a project. It includes UV-A as well as the normally considered violet-red wavelengths. Again, just for giggles, but its fairly close. UV (350-399) 13.6% Violet (400-430) 22.3% Blue...

www.reef2reef.com

That was interesting and good read, I'll definitely make some adjustments based on this information! Thank you!

I was surprised by the dkh too, I'm dosing slowly back to get my in the 8 range probably take a few days. I'm almost out of Tropic marin salt too and my next salt is red sea pro so it will be interesting to see my numbers with that.

Can you clarify what you mean by revised? Was under the impression that there was no need to do a conversion with the 510 or am I misunderstanding? Thanks

I had completely different settings on my light before I got the PAR meter today and so I tweaked them to the best of my ability and those are the settings that are in this thread is what i meant. The PAR meters are tuned out the box and are plug and play according to the paper that came with it from BRS.

 

[oreo54]

Can you clarify what you mean by revised? Was under the impression that there was no need to do a conversion with the 510 or am I misunderstanding? Thanks

MQ-510 doesn't need a conversion factor underwater since it is what it was designed for..
Now if one took readings in "Free air" then that needs to be compensated.

 

[Phildago]

Yeah, I don't think your par is too low... But you have that thing pumped up. Maybe you can lower it a few inches, keep your par where it is and turn the juice down.

Then down the line if you want to get a bit more higher par corals, you can turn it up a little to accommodate.

Save some electric and the leds for now, and give you room for the future.