Great growth but no color

[Charlie’s Frags]

If you want more par I would max out uv,v,ry,b
G to 25 and r 10-50 and play around with the w until you find something that your eye likes. I wouldn’t go over 30 on the white though. Make sure your fixtures are at least 12” above the water and then set an appropriate acclimation % for 3-4 weeks. I’m in an acclimation phase myself to raise my greens and red settings. More red really makes my acros pop.

 

[Travis Stewart]

If you want more par I would max out uv,v,ry,b
G to 25 and r 10-50 and play around with the w until you find something that your eye likes. I wouldn’t go over 30 on the white though. Make sure your fixtures are at least 12” above the water and then set an appropriate acclimation % for 3-4 weeks. I’m in an acclimation phase myself to raise my greens and red settings. More red really makes my acros pop.

Would slowly raising the intensity of each channel by about 5%/week over 3-4 weeks be the same as using the acclimation setting? Not real familiar with that setting.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Pretty much the same thing. The only difference is the acclimation feature will automatically do it a fraction of a percentage a day.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

5 fixtures Is ton. I’m at 48x18x20

Not really. Most of us that have LED-only tanks do that to avoid shadowing. In my case, it's a Radion XR30 plus 2 Radion XR15s (all gen 3s) over a 2 foot by 2 foot 50 gallon tank. I agree that the color issue may simply be your perception of the color rather than the coral's color themselves - running almost all blue means that red pigment just doesn't show up all that well.

 

[jda]

Ahh so you think supplementing T5 along with my led would help? I’ve thought about getting the combo fixture. Thanks!

Everybody's mileage varies on what they are keeping and on what they expect. The progression usually goes like this... LED only, happy at first... add more acropora... then happy with some stuff, but not all... decision point: stay the course or get T5s... those who get T5s almost unanimously are glad that they did (do you remember too many credible posts about people adding T5s and hating them). Once it is see what the T5s can do, some go beyond and add even more T5s to do the heavy lifting and use their LEDs for accent lighting.

Some people can tell the difference and don't care. Some people cannot tell a difference. Some people don't keep anything where it matters at all. The majority are happy that they added T5s when keeping acropora. Unfortunately, nobody know which one that you might be. There are all kinds of people happy with all kinds of different things... but you only will likely fit into one of these buckets, or a few at best.

If you want to stay the course with the LED only, then some of the best tanks raise the lights up high and run all channels at 100%. More of the lower end daylight spectrum (yellow, green and red) truly are needed to make corals render the best color... then you can use the blue to illuminate them.

 

[BestMomEver]

Red Sea Colors. I love the stuff. My tank has never looked better.

 

[Robert McCreary]

I took that down a couple years ago, but did make a par map. Used the lower of the two numbers.


48x24x24

whats with the spike on the back right corner of the pic? is one of your lenses messed up giving a higher par?

 

[hart24601]

whats with the spike on the back right corner of the pic? is one of your lenses messed up giving a higher par?

That was ceramic rockscape and that side was much higher than the left which was more a plateau. Let me see if can find a pic showing that more.

Doesn't show it the best but a little.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

The 52’s have higher settings than the 26’s and the primes.

Interesting. So, would 1 52HD have a higher output than 2 26HDs?

 

[hart24601]

Interesting. So, would 1 52HD have a higher output than 2 26HDs?

I confirmed with AI that 2 26's have more power than 1 52 due to the more efficient cooling so they can run more power.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Interesting. So, would 1 52HD have a higher output than 2 26HDs?

2-26’s have more potential power than 1-52, but the settings go higher on the 52’s. If you want to max out the ab+ spectrum on the 26’s it generates 54 watts out of its potential 90. The 52 can max out the ab+ to 120 which is as high as it goes. But 2-26’s will give better spread than a single 52.

 

[blstravler]

2-26’s have more potential power than 1-52, but the settings go higher on the 52’s. If you want to max out the ab+ spectrum on the 26’s it generates 54 watts out of its potential 90. The 52 can max out the ab+ to 120 which is as high as it goes. But 2-26’s will give better spread than a single 52.

I’m trying to decide what to use over aRed Sea 425xl - 3 26’s or 2 52’s - I’m new to LED but from what I’m reading it seems like 3 26’s will give my less shadows and better coverage? This will be an all SPS tank so I feel like coverage is key?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I’m trying to decide what to use over aRed Sea 425xl - 3 26’s or 2 52’s - I’m new to LED but from what I’m reading it seems like 3 26’s will give my less shadows and better coverage? This will be an all SPS tank so I feel like coverage is key?

3-52 HDs would be the best if you’re going led only
3-26 HDs would be better than 2-52HDs led only
Ideal would be a T5/Hydra hybrid, although that’s just what I’ve heard because I’ve never used T5’s

 

[blstravler]

3-52 HDs would be the best if you’re going led only
3-26 HDs would be better than 2-52HDs led only
Ideal would be a T5/Hydra hybrid, although that’s just what I’ve heard because I’ve never used T5’s

So in some ways 3 units (26 or 52) just give better coverage then 2 units?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

So in some ways 3 units (26 or 52) just give better coverage then 2 units?

Basically. I mount my 2-52 HD’s 16” over my 50 gallon cube. Mounting them that high gives much better spread, eliminates hot spots and reduces shadowing. My coverage looks very similar to my MH that I have on my frag tank(with dinos). But mounting that high reduces par, so The more fixtures the better.

 

[Stigigemla]

The water values do influence the colors too.
It is common that iron has to do with green color and iodine with purple and blue.
Discussed is potassium and red.
Bromine is used by fluorescent colors but I have never seen anything about supplementing it.

 

[tnyr5]

Could you show us some pictures of the corals you don't think are coloring up?

 

[SeaDweller]

So in some ways 3 units (26 or 52) just give better coverage then 2 units?

For sure, and of course more lights give more and Better coverage.

 

[Travis Stewart]

Could you show us some pictures of the corals you don't think are coloring up?

Like top left side my PC rainbow is red and has great growth, but doesn’t show multiple colors. Also you can see an orange setosa and I’ve always seen them deep orange and mine is light and pinkish, still good growth but just curious if that’s all I’m going to be able to get out of an led. Other things great color just having trouble my nicer multi colored pieces. I will post more pics tomorrow of individual pieces.

 

[Stigigemla]

I would like to know Your potassium value.
What i wrote before was about colors in white light.
The colors in blue light is a bit trickier because they come from fluorescense.
You must both have the right substance in the coral to give the fluorescence and light of the proper wavelength.
The fluorescence substances act a bit like "sun tan" = protection against strong light so it will be more of them in stronger light.
But they are also dependent on the wavelenght of the incoming light.
Red is often from about 470 nm and green from 455 nm but thats just "often".
Mike Paletta has written a few articles of color coloration thats very informative. They are in Advanced Aquarist and difficult to find but they are there.