Ideal Settings for ViparSpectra 165w?

[Lightspeed]

So, got my spare Viparspectra in today and did couple quick readings.

1: 24" above flat surface (floor) with my apogee 420 directly under the fixture, lenses ON, 100 Blue 30 White (which is what the BRS recommended settings were) = 388 PAR.

2: 24" above flat surface (floor) with my apogee 420 directly under the fixture, lenses OFF, 100 Blue 30 White (which is what the BRS recommended settings were) = 90 PAR. I had to double check several times because it surprised the crap out of me. I moved the sensor around under the light and 90 was the highest reading I got. But, on the upside, the par drop-off was significantly better than with the lenses.

My plan was to take lenses off and drop 3 of my lights from where they are now to about 8", which would put mu lights at 32" from the sandbed. I will measure at 32" tomorrow. I will be doing same thing as I've done with the other 3 and remove all but 6-8 (probably?) of the 24 white LEDs and replace them with combination of cyan, violet, and royal blue, which should allow me to utilize more than 30% of the white channel.

I'll get started on it this weekend by plucking off white LED's and replacing them.

Sounds like a plan, i am still waiting for my extra Royal Blues and Purple diodes, all the rest i have on hand, my plan is to flesh out the 380-390nm to 480-500 nm with no warm whites on channel 2.
Postage from international is a pain as my parcels spend 3 weeks quarantined before they are delivered, so maybe next month i will get to complete my layout.

Very interested to see your diode changes, so please keep us posted and lots of pics along the way, i did note the new Radions have a heap of Cyan in them, it was harder to find the Purple 415-420nm for me than any others.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Sounds like a plan, i am still waiting for my extra Royal Blues and Purple diodes, all the rest i have on hand, my plan is to flesh out the 380-390nm to 480-500 nm with no warm whites on channel 2.
Postage from international is a pain as my parcels spend 3 weeks quarantined before they are delivered, so maybe next month i will get to complete my layout.

Very interested to see your diode changes, so please keep us posted and lots of pics along the way, i did note the new Radions have a heap of Cyan in them, it was harder to find the Purple 415-420nm for me than any others.

Honestly, my experience with sub-400nm LEDs from Ebay has been garbage. They burn out within a month or two; maybe you'll have better luck... But there is a reason why many fixtures don't have true UV diodes and the ones that do are "premium" fixtures. Good true UV LEDs are very expensive (relatively speaking) ie. PHILLIPS Z package.

Some of my earlier DIY projects have omitted white LEDs as a whole and replaced them with mint, which covers a lot of the same spectrum.

Anyway, not trying to get too crazy with it. So probably 2 cyan, 4 violets, 10 royal blue or 10RB and 6 Violet (420-430).

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

So, got my spare Viparspectra in today and did couple quick readings.

1: 24" above flat surface (floor) with my apogee 420 directly under the fixture, lenses ON, 100 Blue 30 White (which is what the BRS recommended settings were) = 388 PAR.

2: 24" above flat surface (floor) with my apogee 420 directly under the fixture, lenses OFF, 100 Blue 30 White (which is what the BRS recommended settings were) = 90 PAR. I had to double check several times because it surprised the crap out of me. I moved the sensor around under the light and 90 was the highest reading I got. But, on the upside, the par drop-off was significantly better than with the lenses.

My plan was to take lenses off and drop 3 of my lights from where they are now to about 8", which would put mu lights at 32" from the sandbed. I will measure at 32" tomorrow. I will be doing same thing as I've done with the other 3 and remove all but 6-8 (probably?) of the 24 white LEDs and replace them with combination of cyan, violet, and royal blue, which should allow me to utilize more than 30% of the white channel.

I'll get started on it this weekend by plucking off white LED's and replacing them.

Wow! That was a significant drop in PAR. Also, you can change LED diodes? I thought they were soldered into the board?

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Wow! That was a significant drop in PAR. Also, you can change LED diodes? I thought they were soldered into the board?

They are. Easily de-soldered... The legs anyway. Fun part is whether they are soldered to the heatpad or use traditional thermal compound; my viparspectra's have a mix of both... I think this one is soldered as well. Will see this weekend.

 

[Lightspeed]

Wow! That was a significant drop in PAR. Also, you can change LED diodes? I thought they were soldered into the board?

They are soldered but unlike high end lights the Vipars dont use smd so they are asy to change with a little soldering experience.

Regarding the UV, i have found with my diodes it really depends on the power output you are running them on, i only buy epistar diodes to change them out.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I did not know that you could change them out. That's interesting. I'm eager to see what you both do with them. Also, the 32" results without lenses. I've got mine at 60% blues and 20% whites currently but I'm starting to wonder if that's still too low now. Lol

 

[Uncle99]

I have used 3 Visparspectra 165watt for over 4/years.....+ 2 Halos to blend.
These lights push big par, 3 years ago I was getting 750PAR, 14” above the water.
One thing I did note was you seemed to be adjusting your lighting quite frequently, this is not reccomended.
Each time to make a change, everyone has to re-calibrate its photosynthetic process.

I recommend starting at 50% blue, 5% white and don’t touch for a couple of months.
Then, monthly, you can raise blue by 5% and white by 1%.
Once your corals look happy and up you don’t get any pest algae’s, stop, and forget any further changes.

It took me 8 months to increase and in the end, I am running 80% blue, 10% white.
Been running without change for 3 years now.

I might stick where you are now and make no changes for the next 6 months.

You’d be surprised how corals can adjust, and once adjusted, growth takes off.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

I did not know that you could change them out. That's interesting. I'm eager to see what you both do with them. Also, the 32" results without lenses. I've got mine at 60% blues and 20% whites currently but I'm starting to wonder if that's still too low now. Lol

My current 3 with lenses have been at 55:1 for couple months now, pushing 120 at the sand. 12" above the water.

 

[Uncle99]

I did not know that you could change them out. That's interesting. I'm eager to see what you both do with them. Also, the 32" results without lenses. I've got mine at 60% blues and 20% whites currently but I'm starting to wonder if that's still too low now. Lol

I wouldn’t touch the lenses, you won’t get a good blend.
The way these lights are configured, removing the lense will result in some corals not gettting the light they need.
I really don’t understand why people modify them, it’s not required.
Mine grow everything well, Acros, Maxima Claims, nems.
What I did notice is when I just left them at one setting, about 4 months later, growth skyrocketed.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Regarding the UV, i have found with my diodes it really depends on the power output you are running them on, i only buy epistar diodes to change them out.

Where are you buying the Epistar LEDs? From places like ebay I would be very suspect of them being Epistars. The only UV manufactured by Epistar are these and it doesn't appear they come in the "egg" type LED package that are on the viparspectras and are commonly sold on Ebay and AliExpress.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

At 32", lenses off @ 100:30 = 53 PAR. At 100:100, lenses off 32" = 76 PAR.

 

[Lightspeed]

Where are you buying the Epistar LEDs? From places like ebay I would be very suspect of them being Epistars. The only UV manufactured by Epistar are these and it doesn't appear they come in the "egg" type LED package that are on the viparspectras and are commonly sold on Ebay and AliExpress.

My apologies, i had to recheck the name in my purchase order in ebay, Epiled and Bridgelux not Epistar.

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[JIsBusyReefing]

At 32", lenses off @ 100:30 = 53 PAR. At 100:100, lenses off 32" = 76 PAR.

Nice! Thanks! Ok my lights probably not sufficient then. Lol! 31" high tank and lights are hung 8" above. 60% blues and 20% whites currently. Might add the lenses back in at this point.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Started pulling off white LED's, here is what I'm thinking:

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Nice! Thanks! Ok my lights probably not sufficient then. Lol! 31" high tank and lights are hung 8" above. 60% blues and 20% whites currently. Might add the lenses back in at this point.

You will can from more par from reflections/glass/water. I measured everything in free-air (outside the tank). Also if you have multiple fixtures also helps.

 

[Lightspeed]

@AbjectMaelstroM

You keeping WW on channel 2 or CW?

Your Ch2 looks pretty good to me.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

@AbjectMaelstroM

You keeping WW on channel 2 or CW?

Your Ch2 looks pretty good to me.

Mostly CW, I think there may be a WW in there.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Ok. I added the lenses back in. It's definitely waaaaay brighter visually. And now I have disco ball effect. Oh well. Lol!

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

So the new layout is live...and I like it. I can ramp white channel all the way to 100 and it's not overly white. Both channels at 100, 24" no lenses, 133 PAR. 100:75 is 109 PAR.

With 3 fixtures, this may be doable. I'm going to put it over a QT tank tomorrow see how the colors look in the water.

Some things to consider is how long these ebay 395's last.....I suspect not long (month or two?). I have a bunch on hand, but I think if the burnout rate is significant, I'll replace them with 400-425 variant, or 450.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

So I changed up all 3 fixtures to new spectrum, popped the lenses off and dropped them to 8" over water.

Did some quick par readings and to my surprise, readings were very usable.

-At the sandbed, 50B:30W was getting me in the 100-130 PAR range.
-Mid tank was 200-250 PAR.
-Upper 2/3 of the tank approx 300 range.

GGoing to run this for the next few couple months, see how things go.