Last week I rented a Par meter from BRS and took some readings on my DT with my two Kessil AP9X's running a schedule I had setup based on some BRSTV videos. The lights are on for 12 hours and ramp up and ramp down. The following is the schedule:
For whatever reason you can't see the color setting and I have the 13:00 - 17:00 hour color set to 60 which is more white than blue. I have the 30% intensity blocks at 11:00 and 19:00 set at a color of 40 (which is more blue). The lower the intensities of 20 and 10 get progressively more blue. On Kessil the purple, red, and green lights have their own controls as well as you can see above. (Before I show you the picture of my DT with the par values overlaid don't laugh too hard as I was following guidance from the Reef2Reef thread on when to turn my lights on). Here are the readings at the 30% intensity setting (the picture is not from that color/intensity):
At 50% intensity the par scales way up.
I am planning on putting a few SPS on the top of the rockwork on the right. The left staghorn will be 100% for a zoa garden, it is separated from the rest of the aqua scape. Most of the tank other than those two points will be occupied by LPS such as plate coral at the bottom, a scolly or two, an acan lord garden somewhere in there and haven't decided on the rest of the middle part of the rockwork. Let me know if you have suggestions for turning the light down temporarily or permanently based on those plans. I am also thinking of reducing the overall photo period but would appreciate any input there as well. I had been reading elsewhere that turning the lights more blue would help with the Algae control, can anyone confirm that? I have been doing a lot of water changes, manual removal, and filter sock replacement and seem to have the algae in a state where new algae is not growing. However in doing all that activity I have irritated half of the zoas in the frag rack that were previously happy. I am going to slow down the water changes a bit.
I also did a par reading over the Cheato in the refuguium for my Kessil H160 and found I was getting 200 - 230 par at the top of the cheato when I was at max intensity and set to "grow". When I changed to blue only I get 120 - 130 par at the same spot. I have been running this light in grow mode at night opposite the tank lights and the cheato seems to be growing quickly, I think this and the algae is taking up all the Nitrates and Phosphates and I some some concern that this is what is causing the Zoas some distress. Please let me know what you think .
Overall the Par meter was very easy to use, the values fluctuate as you would expect depending on the flow and surface agitation so that is why I have ranges for everything in the pictures.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.
Happy reefing.
For whatever reason you can't see the color setting and I have the 13:00 - 17:00 hour color set to 60 which is more white than blue. I have the 30% intensity blocks at 11:00 and 19:00 set at a color of 40 (which is more blue). The lower the intensities of 20 and 10 get progressively more blue. On Kessil the purple, red, and green lights have their own controls as well as you can see above. (Before I show you the picture of my DT with the par values overlaid don't laugh too hard as I was following guidance from the Reef2Reef thread on when to turn my lights on). Here are the readings at the 30% intensity setting (the picture is not from that color/intensity):
At 50% intensity the par scales way up.
I am planning on putting a few SPS on the top of the rockwork on the right. The left staghorn will be 100% for a zoa garden, it is separated from the rest of the aqua scape. Most of the tank other than those two points will be occupied by LPS such as plate coral at the bottom, a scolly or two, an acan lord garden somewhere in there and haven't decided on the rest of the middle part of the rockwork. Let me know if you have suggestions for turning the light down temporarily or permanently based on those plans. I am also thinking of reducing the overall photo period but would appreciate any input there as well. I had been reading elsewhere that turning the lights more blue would help with the Algae control, can anyone confirm that? I have been doing a lot of water changes, manual removal, and filter sock replacement and seem to have the algae in a state where new algae is not growing. However in doing all that activity I have irritated half of the zoas in the frag rack that were previously happy. I am going to slow down the water changes a bit.
I also did a par reading over the Cheato in the refuguium for my Kessil H160 and found I was getting 200 - 230 par at the top of the cheato when I was at max intensity and set to "grow". When I changed to blue only I get 120 - 130 par at the same spot. I have been running this light in grow mode at night opposite the tank lights and the cheato seems to be growing quickly, I think this and the algae is taking up all the Nitrates and Phosphates and I some some concern that this is what is causing the Zoas some distress. Please let me know what you think .
Overall the Par meter was very easy to use, the values fluctuate as you would expect depending on the flow and surface agitation so that is why I have ranges for everything in the pictures.
Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.
Happy reefing.