How much PAR do you give your soft corals?

[chadfish]

I've read 150 PAR is max, but mine seemed happy at 250.

How much PAR do you supply to your softies?

 

[LRT]

Define softies lol. I run pretty much mushroom only reef. Nothing higher than 150 par currently. Some shrooms like a little less intense light while others I cant give them enough light and would most likely do better in 200-250 range.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

I have zoas, clove polyps and leather corals in anywhere from 200-350. They would probably prefer lower but the tank is mostly sps so they have to deal with it lol

 

[zoaprince]

I have a mostly zoa tank and PAR is ~100. I used to have them in 50 PAR but they did not look good. They look much more colorful at 100.

 

[Ferrell]

My toadstool actually grew towards the Radion XR15. The 'stool is at the top of the water column now with radion blasting at 80%. GSP did the same on back wall
.

 

[E.J.]

I run a mostly soft coral reef lit by 6x54 watt sunpower. My sarcophyton is inches from the water surface where it likely gets around 700 - 800 par and it stays open all day long. Leather corals can take a lot of light.

 

[NaanDu]

I run a mostly soft coral reef lit by 6x54 watt sunpower. My sarcophyton is inches from the water surface where it likely gets around 700 - 800 par and it stays open all day long. Leather corals can take a lot of light.

That intensity of par is wild to me! What size tank? I'm not sure what's up with my setup, but I have a 32 watt led bar light sitting directly on top of my tank, an inch or two above the water and the tank is just a little over a foot high, yet with white and blue both at 100% intensity the top of my rockwork (which is only about 6" below the surface of the water) only gets around a max of 150 par and the lower corners of my tank go all the way down to 20par. Directly below the light only an inch into the water it gets to about 300.

 

[Rappa]

That intensity of par is wild to me! What size tank? I'm not sure what's up with my setup, but I have a 32 watt led bar light sitting directly on top of my tank, an inch or two above the water and the tank is just a little over a foot high, yet with white and blue both at 100% intensity the top of my rockwork (which is only about 6" below the surface of the water) only gets around a max of 150 par and the lower corners of my tank go all the way down to 20par. Directly below the light only an inch into the water it gets to about 300.

I would think that 32 watts is not going to give you much for PAR below the water surface. What light is it?

 

[Doctorgori]

softies?
hopefully the light is too dark or too bright but this never seems to be the case…

 

[NaanDu]

I would think that 32 watts is not going to give you much for PAR below the water surface. What light is it?

It's a nicrew 32w led bar. Read up on them a lot and saw a lot of sources saying they're a great entry-level light that's strong enough to support softies and most LPS. Figured I'd give it a shot since I have a shallow tank.