Hello all,
I finally got around to renting a BRS par meter. I have several SPS in my tank and I wanted to be double sure about the amount of light I was giving my corals. I'm currently running 4 Kessil 360x and 2 80W T5's over a 72" 220. At the peak of the lighting schedule, the Kessils are running at 25% color 100% intensity, 50 UV and 20 each of green and red. This is when I took my readings.
As some of you may have guess, my par numbers were a little low. On the rocks where my SPS were mounted PAR numbers were reading anywhere from 195 to 210. In order to increase PAR, rather than buy a new light, I purchased 4 of the 55 degree kessil magnetic lenses. If you're a Kessil owner, you need to check these things out. Same reading, just by adding the lenses, boosted my PAR to 350 and up. The $120 I spent on the lenses suuuuure beats 450 for a new light.
So... after adding the lenses, I dropped my intensity down so my PAR numbers match the pre lens measurements. I definitely want to go slow when increasing the intensity. I fully understand you kill corals faster with too much light, but how slow must one go?
Those of you who have experience with light acclimation, please let me know your thoughts and hopefully experience with doing the same.
Thanks,
Ben
I finally got around to renting a BRS par meter. I have several SPS in my tank and I wanted to be double sure about the amount of light I was giving my corals. I'm currently running 4 Kessil 360x and 2 80W T5's over a 72" 220. At the peak of the lighting schedule, the Kessils are running at 25% color 100% intensity, 50 UV and 20 each of green and red. This is when I took my readings.
As some of you may have guess, my par numbers were a little low. On the rocks where my SPS were mounted PAR numbers were reading anywhere from 195 to 210. In order to increase PAR, rather than buy a new light, I purchased 4 of the 55 degree kessil magnetic lenses. If you're a Kessil owner, you need to check these things out. Same reading, just by adding the lenses, boosted my PAR to 350 and up. The $120 I spent on the lenses suuuuure beats 450 for a new light.
So... after adding the lenses, I dropped my intensity down so my PAR numbers match the pre lens measurements. I definitely want to go slow when increasing the intensity. I fully understand you kill corals faster with too much light, but how slow must one go?
Those of you who have experience with light acclimation, please let me know your thoughts and hopefully experience with doing the same.
Thanks,
Ben