Hydra 26HD power level

Mattrg02

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Hello,

Could I get some feedback on the actual power levels everyone is using on their lights? Not just the percent the color is set to, but also the total wattage. Also, what height above the water level and total distance to corals.

Thanks!

Matt
 

Lenny_S

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It's been a while since I've posted to the forum, mainly because I've been dialing in on my lighting for several months. I'll give you the experience I have so far... I hope it helps, and I hope some others post their experience as well. I think these are working really well, but I'm not sure if I can get even better.
I have a 160 gallon DT, 60"Lx27"Wx24"Tall
Water params are 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit, Ca 450 ppm, Alk 8.5 dKH, pH 8.2, PO4 0, NO3 5 ppm
Stocked with several acros, montis, hammers, acans, zoas, Alveopora, Duncan, photosynthetic gorgonian (corky finger)
Lighting are 4 x Hydra 26's 12" AWL
Photo period and percentages:
5:30 AM to 6:00AM DB @ 1%
6:00AM to 6:30AM DB @ 1% & RB @ 1%
6:30AM to 7:00AM DB @ 1%, RB @ 1% & V @ 1%
7:00AM to 11:00AM Ramp all channels to the following peak intensities: G 5%, UV 25%, V, DB, & CW 45%, RB 55%, Red 65% (Peak 11:00AM to 5:00PM)
5:00PM to 8:00PM Ramp down
8:00PM to 8:30PM DB @ 1%, RB @ 1% & V @ 1%
8:30PM to 9:00PM DB @ 1% & RB @ 1%
9:00PM to Midnight DB @ 1%

IMG_2063.jpg


When I first setup the lights a year ago I was running a very different profile. It was heavy on the blues and violet and medium on the white, and barely any red or green. I followed a lot of posts that suggested that kind of a profile and that was a 20K to 14K color temp. The corals I was stocking would live, but I wouldn't exactly say they were thriving. It looked good, but I wasn't really getting a lot of growth, really almost none. I did a lot more research on chlorophyll and photosynthesis and found that there were 2 important peaks in the color spectrum for zooxanthellae, one at around 430nm-470nm (Deep/Royal Blue) and another at 630nm to 670nm (Red/Deep Red) and seemed like green/yellow was pretty much useless.

LightInLakesChlorophyllChart.gif


That is where I decided on the peak intensity settings G 5%, UV 25%, V, DB, & CW 45%, RB 55%, Red 65%. In my best estimation, those levels give about a 12K color temp. Aesthetically, it is pleasant, and coral/fish colors are nice. They aren't as fluorescent as the higher color temps, but still brighter and more colorful than the super high growth color temps of 10K and below. But I got a pretty dramatic growth acceleration for the corals as compared to my previous settings. The water params and all my husbandry activities, like feeding etc... were all the same as before.

I have a Seneye Reef monitor/PAR meeter and took readings all over my tank under these settings. 6" Below the water line (BWL) I get a reading of around 300PAR in the center 10" (front to back) of the tank and around 225PAR at the front/back 8", 12" BWL 200PAR center, 150 front/back, 18" BWL 125 PAR center, 100 front/back, and on the sand 24" BWL 100 PAR center and 80 front/back. The other aspect of the settings is I think the PUR (Photosynthetic Usable Radiation) is probably pretty close to the PAR since I don't use the green hardly at all and the UV is pretty low. The PAR readings definitely go up when I increase the green and/or UV channels, but if the research is correct, it's not really helping much on PUR.

I've been running those settings for 3 months now, and so far growth is really good and everything is very happy. @revhtree @twilliard @Diesel @Randy Holmes-Farley @Russ265 @Sabellafella @Pete polyp are just a few of the most knowledgeable members on the forum. Maybe they have some input or know of other members who really know a lot about lighting.
 
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Mattrg02

Mattrg02

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What wattage are your lights using? I've got mine using 28w right now, but in acclimation mode.

The bit about the red spectrum is interesting. Not sure of the power output of the red leds, so I may need to up the cw LEDs to get the red spectrum in there.

Matt
 

Lenny_S

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I really don't know the wattage, my lights are the older Hydra 26, not HD's. Is there a way to find out on those? The only thing I know to set is the percentage of each channel.
 
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Mattrg02

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I really don't know the wattage, my lights are the older Hydra 26, not HD's. Is there a way to find out on those? The only thing I know to set is the percentage of each channel.

Not too sure. I know that on mine, there is a value shown for wattage (via the software app). I also have a power meter that I have plugged my lights into. I notice that the watts shown via the app is close to the meter as well. Looks like cw and rb LEDs have the highest wattage.
 

Russ265

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It's been a while since I've posted to the forum, mainly because I've been dialing in on my lighting for several months. I'll give you the experience I have so far... I hope it helps, and I hope some others post their experience as well. I think these are working really well, but I'm not sure if I can get even better.
I have a 160 gallon DT, 60"Lx27"Wx24"Tall
Water params are 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit, Ca 450 ppm, Alk 8.5 dKH, pH 8.2, PO4 0, NO3 5 ppm
Stocked with several acros, montis, hammers, acans, zoas, Alveopora, Duncan, photosynthetic gorgonian (corky finger)
Lighting are 4 x Hydra 26's 12" AWL
Photo period and percentages:
5:30 AM to 6:00AM DB @ 1%
6:00AM to 6:30AM DB @ 1% & RB @ 1%
6:30AM to 7:00AM DB @ 1%, RB @ 1% & V @ 1%
7:00AM to 11:00AM Ramp all channels to the following peak intensities: G 5%, UV 25%, V, DB, & CW 45%, RB 55%, Red 65% (Peak 11:00AM to 5:00PM)
5:00PM to 8:00PM Ramp down
8:00PM to 8:30PM DB @ 1%, RB @ 1% & V @ 1%
8:30PM to 9:00PM DB @ 1% & RB @ 1%
9:00PM to Midnight DB @ 1%

IMG_2063.jpg


When I first setup the lights a year ago I was running a very different profile. It was heavy on the blues and violet and medium on the white, and barely any red or green. I followed a lot of posts that suggested that kind of a profile and that was a 20K to 14K color temp. The corals I was stocking would live, but I wouldn't exactly say they were thriving. It looked good, but I wasn't really getting a lot of growth, really almost none. I did a lot more research on chlorophyll and photosynthesis and found that there were 2 important peaks in the color spectrum for zooxanthellae, one at around 430nm-470nm (Deep/Royal Blue) and another at 630nm to 670nm (Red/Deep Red) and seemed like green/yellow was pretty much useless.

LightInLakesChlorophyllChart.gif


That is where I decided on the peak intensity settings G 5%, UV 25%, V, DB, & CW 45%, RB 55%, Red 65%. In my best estimation, those levels give about a 12K color temp. Aesthetically, it is pleasant, and coral/fish colors are nice. They aren't as fluorescent as the higher color temps, but still brighter and more colorful than the super high growth color temps of 10K and below. But I got a pretty dramatic growth acceleration for the corals as compared to my previous settings. The water params and all my husbandry activities, like feeding etc... were all the same as before.

I have a Seneye Reef monitor/PAR meeter and took readings all over my tank under these settings. 6" Below the water line (BWL) I get a reading of around 300PAR in the center 10" (front to back) of the tank and around 225PAR at the front/back 8", 12" BWL 200PAR center, 150 front/back, 18" BWL 125 PAR center, 100 front/back, and on the sand 24" BWL 100 PAR center and 80 front/back. The other aspect of the settings is I think the PUR (Photosynthetic Usable Radiation) is probably pretty close to the PAR since I don't use the green hardly at all and the UV is pretty low. The PAR readings definitely go up when I increase the green and/or UV channels, but if the research is correct, it's not really helping much on PUR.

I've been running those settings for 3 months now, and so far growth is really good and everything is very happy. @revhtree @twilliard @Diesel @Randy Holmes-Farley @Russ265 @Sabellafella @Pete polyp are just a few of the most knowledgeable members on the forum. Maybe they have some input or know of other members who really know a lot about lighting.

@Lenny_S seems you are struggling with eeking out as much par as you can, and i would agree that you are on the right track.

uv is unneeded for coral growth as a lot of us dont even have it. Green i cant prove, but the data is there that it is hard for corals to use.

That all being said, i used to have par numbers and struggles getting the "right" temp when i ran some dsuny lights. They were "ok" and grew corals at an acceptable rate but some of the notorious slow growers like the joe's rainbow would just sit there. When i swapped out to about double the par, things started exploding with leds.

one caveat is to make sure nutrients are in the column or you'll toast coral.

Your schedule looks pretty solid. The only thing i'd change is giving it more intensity during peak hours. Par is incredibly important, and while you may think green or yellow is irrelevant, yellow is just a warmer color temp than white. So id use whatever i could get.

Be careful with UV. i would use that as a "tweaking" light as it bears some risk and little reward.

as a reference, here is my schedule.
image.png


the blue line is my whites @ 75%
the white and black are blues/moonlight 100%

But this is with double the par. So dont be afraid to use more par if you arent satisfied with growth. Using the greens wont hurt your coral either.

Not sure what you are solving for except mediocre growth, so there is my stab at it.

good luck
 
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Mattrg02

Mattrg02

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Russ,
Which light are you using?

What I'm really getting at with this thread is how much wattage should I be working towards. My acros look happy, but montiporas are losing color. Not sure if it's too much light or too little nutrients. My nitrates are around 5ppm but phosphates,according to Hanna, are 0. Montiporas are fading out, even on the bottom and off to the side, while acros are coloring up and encrusting.

Matt
 
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Diesel

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Russ,
Which light are you using?

What I'm really getting at with this thread is how much wattage should I be working towards. My acros look happy, but montiporas are losing color. Not sure if it's too much light or too little nutrients. My nitrates are around 5ppm but phosphates,according to Hanna, are 0. Montiporas are fading out, even on the bottom and off to the side, while acros are coloring up and encrusting.

Matt

It's your Po4 that makes your monti's starving on the moment.
Monti's are more a struggle when you run ULNS and you have a begin of it.
More food or a few drops of skimmate back into the tank.
Spot feeding work too on the monti's, make sure you turn all flow off if you do.
 

Russ265

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It's your Po4 that makes your monti's starving on the moment.
Monti's are more a struggle when you run ULNS and you have a begin of it.
More food or a few drops of skimmate back into the tank.
Spot feeding work too on the monti's, make sure you turn all flow off if you do.

diesel is right on.
im gonna go out on a limb and state that the reason birdsnests and montis are great beginner coral is because beginners generally have more nutrients.

then you see acro experts that cant keep one to save their life because they run so clean.

in this case, i will agree it is nutrients, not lighting effecting color. If you feed more you should see some coloring up. nitrate and phosphate are both needed.

as far as my lighting goes...

image.jpg


6x evergrow wifis on my 7 ft tank.
after running junk dsunys and considering halides again, these babies restored my faith in an affordable solution for lighting.
 

Russ265

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Check out some of these R2R videos about the balance of nutrients
https://mecoral.com/understanding-aminoacids/

(Sorry don't know where to find them here on site )

you can get results within 72 hours dosing nitrate alone and is ultimately cleaner.

rest of the video is spot on, but having amino acids decay in your system will not color up corals unless you needed a "little boost". ive dumped an entire bottle of acropower in my system just to get 2ppm nitrate and a ton of cyano as a test.

white papers show nitrogen/ammonia photosynthesis increase symbiodinium densities. - as he stated BUT the link to AA is misleading.

90% of the white papers on aa show that it is used as a shuttle much like humans use glucosamine to fuel our muscles to move.... we dont consume glucosamine for breakfast.

also as stated: redfield isnt 100% correct. it is a great baseline and keeps the tank nutritionally balanced though. there are some coral that go off the reservation.

the video is mostly spot on, but by showing us a bunch of aa bottles the slant is there.
 
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twilliard

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you can get results within 72 hours dosing nitrate alone and is ultimately cleaner.

rest of the video is spot on, but having amino acids decay in your system will not color up corals unless you needed a "little boost". ive dumped an entire bottle of acropower in my system just to get 2ppm nitrate and a ton of cyano as a test.

white papers show nitrogen/ammonia photosynthesis increase symbiodinium densities. - as he stated BUT the link to AA is misleading.

90% of the white papers on aa show that it is used as a shuttle much like humans use glucosamine to fuel our muscles to move.... we dont consume glucosamine for breakfast.

also as stated: redfield isnt 100% correct. it is a great baseline and keeps the tank nutritionally balanced though. there are some coral that go off the reservation.

the video is mostly spot on, but by showing us a bunch of aa bottles the slant is there.
LOL that link wasn't in support of AA's just the educational information withing the videos
The carbon dosing video is also a good one for education purposes.
 

Russ265

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LOL that link wasn't in support of AA's just the educational information withing the videos
The carbon dosing video is also a good one for education purposes.

well him suggesting "the purest form of protein" to get nitrogen is AA, i kinda shook my head.

i havent used AA as an experiment for a year. My corals look better with nitrogen and phosphate supplements alone.

there are few tanks that have "real" coloration that i am envious of, and they dont supplement or use a skimmer.
 

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Hello,

Could I get some feedback on the actual power levels everyone is using on their lights? Not just the percent the color is set to, but also the total wattage. Also, what height above the water level and total distance to corals.

Thanks!

Matt
My lights just started ramping up, when would you like to know the wattage? Through out the day? or just at peak?
 

twilliard

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My lights just started ramping up, when would you like to know the wattage? Through out the day? or just at peak?
Also in what relation of wattage is he looking for?
For instance my 30" diy has 55 chips in it. Each chip is 3 watts equaling 165 watts total usage at peak voltage. Now this 165 watts is not the total output to the coral as chip efficiency also plays a role in the total equasion.
 

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@Mattrg02, when I posted my response earlier with all my other tank info it was because light is just one of the multiple components that are needed for coral to thrive. Like others have also responded, nutrients are very important.
I was a pretty under stocked for my size tank 6 months ago. As a result I was dosing nitrate constantly. I added a healthy number of fish and now nitrate stays constant at 5ppm without having to dose at all. That has also definitely helped.
 

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Russ,
Which light are you using?

What I'm really getting at with this thread is how much wattage should I be working towards. My acros look happy, but montiporas are losing color. Not sure if it's too much light or too little nutrients. My nitrates are around 5ppm but phosphates,according to Hanna, are 0. Montiporas are fading out, even on the bottom and off to the side, while acros are coloring up and encrusting.

Matt

Go to AI and check out the coverage, you might have to raise the light for more coverage in the corners. I am running around 7 ppm right now testing with red sea nitrates, I am bring them down to 4 to 5 ppm to see what the system looks like. My phosphates creeped up and my arcos and corals started looking bad so I started dosing GFO again and they are almost in line. It is kind of finding a balance of not having to dirty of water or too clean of water to keep everything looking good.

A while back when I was doing a bunch of water changes to try to export my Po4's and No3's my coral colors really started perking up. In the process of doing the water changes I also started stripping the Bio load and stress my fish and lost a few fish, but the corals looked good. I came to the conclusion that doing the water changes, I was feeding the corals what they needed. Not CA, My, Alk but the trace elements in the salt. So I started dosing RS reef colors and my colors start perked up more without all of the water changes. Then I switch to a different line of products and my tank looks even better.

In March I switch to the Hydra 26 Hd's and all of my corals down low, really came to life. My corals have doubled in size since March 2016. Here is a picture of my tank a few minutes ago

IMG_3958.JPG
 

Russ265

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Go to AI and check out the coverage, you might have to raise the light for more coverage in the corners. I am running around 7 ppm right now testing with red sea nitrates, I am bring them down to 4 to 5 ppm to see what the system looks like. My phosphates creeped up and my arcos and corals started looking bad so I started dosing GFO again and they are almost in line. It is kind of finding a balance of not having to dirty of water or too clean of water to keep everything looking good.

A while back when I was doing a bunch of water changes to try to export my Po4's and No3's my coral colors really started perking up. In the process of doing the water changes I also started stripping the Bio load and stress my fish and lost a few fish, but the corals looked good. I came to the conclusion that doing the water changes, I was feeding the corals what they needed. Not CA, My, Alk but the trace elements in the salt. So I started dosing RS reef colors and my colors start perked up more without all of the water changes. Then I switch to a different line of products and my tank looks even better.

In March I switch to the Hydra 26 Hd's and all of my corals down low, really came to life. My corals have doubled in size since March 2016. Here is a picture of my tank a few minutes ago

IMG_3958.JPG

75 gallon?

rockwork looks awesome btw
 

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@Russ265 Thank you. 72 gal bowl front with sump. Total 81 gal water volume.
 
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Mattrg02

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I have been dosing potassium nitrate. That was an instant boost. I then upped feeding and wound up over board with nitrates. A few water changes and getting my skimmer back on line has them back to around 5ppm. No idea why I can't get phosphates to register. There is very little algae in the tank, so I assume the Hanna test is correct. I am now switching to frozen cubes for food to see if I can get some results.

My main concern was if the montiporas were getting too much light, too little light, or not enough nutrients. Like I said before, my acropora and millepora look happy. I have a Forrest fire digitata that looks happy as well, and it's up higher getting more light. That's where the confusion is...
 

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