How long to raise Par for corals?

One Reefing Boi

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Just got a par meter from BRS for the week and my par was muchhhh lower than I had thought. Torches were in about 70-80 par (but they did look happy as they were) amongst other coral as well. I ramped up my 2 AI Primes to much higher (maxed the violet and UV, 110% on the blues, 80% on whites and 10% on red/green) which brought the par to my torches to about 140.

wondering how long I should set the “acclimate” period to ramp up the intensity for the torches so they don’t get upset. I have it set on 14 days right now starting at 60% Intensity.
 

zuri

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alot of stress raising the lights everyday I would keep an eye on coral. drastic change in this hobby has negative effects
 

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Just got a par meter from BRS for the week and my par was muchhhh lower than I had thought. Torches were in about 70-80 par (but they did look happy as they were) amongst other coral as well. I ramped up my 2 AI Primes to much higher (maxed the violet and UV, 110% on the blues, 80% on whites and 10% on red/green) which brought the par to my torches to about 140.

wondering how long I should set the “acclimate” period to ramp up the intensity for the torches so they don’t get upset. I have it set on 14 days right now starting at 60% Intensity.
I just checked out your built thread - while I don't know what your current rockscape looks like, it does say that you want a mixed reef with that has both lps and sps/nems

A few suggestions for you since you have a par meter now and is reaclimating ur torches to new par levels

1) SPS and nems needs a lot more Par than the 140. Most prefer 250+. Acros like 300 to 400. I'm not sure where your torches are located thats getting the 140, but make sure you have the "hot spots" that can get up there for your future SPS

2) if you can't get up there, you may want to crank the ais up to the max in the "recommended spectrum ratio" and use the par meter to map out the places in your tank thats suitable for for SPS.

3) if at that level your torches are getting too much, then you probably want to move them now since you are reaclimating anyway and see if you need to add more shades to accommodate.

The same can be said for all your other low light corals and softies you make have in the tank. Better to plan it out now than moving them later bc u r having a hard time placing your SPS or increasing your par later. Setting up a mixed reef that has all these different corals lighting requirements is very difficult but that s also where the fun is. And it's better to plan ahead.

In my mixed reef (similar set up as yours, with 2 primes) I had to move my 30 head torch colony 4 times before I broke it up and basically reshaped the branches with putty so that it can fit in the spot that was not too strong light and had the right flow. I have acros so maxed out the AIs + a reefbright lumi actinic to get to the 350par needed in some parts. This unfortunately meant some spots had 200 par even on the sand so I needed to get creative with shades, caves, light spread and angle to make sure my torches, shrooms, blastos, leptos, cyphs, and duncans don't get burned.
 
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One Reefing Boi

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I just checked out your built thread - while I don't know what your current rockscape looks like, it does say that you want a mixed reef with that has both lps and sps/nems

A few suggestions for you since you have a par meter now and is reaclimating ur torches to new par levels

1) SPS and nems needs a lot more Par than the 140. Most prefer 250+. Acros like 300 to 400. I'm not sure where your torches are located thats getting the 140, but make sure you have the "hot spots" that can get up there for your future SPS

2) if you can't get up there, you may want to crank the ais up to the max in the "recommended spectrum ratio" and use the par meter to map out the places in your tank thats suitable for for SPS.

3) if at that level your torches are getting too much, then you probably want to move them now since you are reaclimating anyway and see if you need to add more shades to accommodate.

The same can be said for all your other low light corals and softies you make have in the tank. Better to plan it out now than moving them later bc u r having a hard time placing your SPS or increasing your par later. Setting up a mixed reef that has all these different corals lighting requirements is very difficult but that s also where the fun is. And it's better to plan ahead.

In my mixed reef (similar set up as yours, with 2 primes) I had to move my 30 head torch colony 4 times before I broke it up and basically reshaped the branches with putty so that it can fit in the spot that was not too strong light and had the right flow. I have acros so maxed out the AIs + a reefbright lumi actinic to get to the 350par needed in some parts. This unfortunately meant some spots had 200 par even on the sand so I needed to get creative with shades, caves, light spread and angle to make sure my torches, shrooms, blastos, leptos, cyphs, and duncans don't get burned.
The AI’s are pretty much in max right now and the torches are on an island that’s a few inches up from the sand bed slightly off center from the light. The top of my rock work is about 230. I have a QT with an AI Prime and so I could bring that over for a 3rd light if I need an extra oomf and use a black box on that tank. I’ll play around with it this weekend. Thank you for the tips! I’ll be sure to swing back around and see what makes sense
 

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The AI’s are pretty much in max right now and the torches are on an island that’s a few inches up from the sand bed slightly off center from the light. The top of my rock work is about 230. I have a QT with an AI Prime and so I could bring that over for a 3rd light if I need an extra oomf and use a black box on that tank. I’ll play around with it this weekend. Thank you for the tips! I’ll be sure to swing back around and see what makes sense

What I found helpful for me is actually moving the primes CLOSER. I know you probably BRSTV video said its best to move them higher in the 12 to 14 inch range but they only said that because they wanted more even light spread.

In our case we actually want to have more uneven spread and purposely have light and dark areas. Maybe moving the lights a few inch closer will get that top of the rock closer to 300 while simultaneously make the edge of your tank have lower par.

Anyway, have fun playing around with it this weekend!
 
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One Reefing Boi

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What I found helpful for me is actually moving the primes CLOSER. I know you probably BRSTV video said its best to move them higher in the 12 to 14 inch range but they only said that because they wanted more even light spread.

In our case we actually want to have more uneven spread and purposely have light and dark areas. Maybe moving the lights a few inch closer will get that top of the rock closer to 300 while simultaneously make the edge of your tank have lower par.

Anyway, have fun playing around with it this weekend!
Move them closer to the water or move the two closer together?
 

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Move them closer to the water or move the two closer together?
i was thinking about closer to water - but i guess closer together also works - really depending on what your rockwork dictates and your tank dimension and light cone spread.

moving closer is will make your light spread more "low, med, high, med, low med, high, med, low" going from left to right across the length of your tank. moving them closer together might make it more "low low med high med high med low low"...

u know what i mean? hard to describe/visualize so not sure if im making sense.

try both, play around. you'll find what configurations works best for your tank =)
 

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