Ideal Settings for ViparSpectra 165w?

[Lightspeed]

Changed out diodes on both 165W Vipars on channel 2, added, 4 x Violet 415nm, 5 x Cyan ice blue 480nm, 4 x UV 400nm, 3 x Bright Blue 460nm and swapped the 2 Greens 520nm for 2 x Turquoise 510nm. Replaced all Warm whites for Cool whites 15000k.

Lifted Channel 1 to 50% from 45% and Channel 2 to 10% from 1%.

Its a pretty big shift in spectrum from all the White light on Channel 2 and concentrates pretty heavily on now on the 400nm to 500nm across both channels.
Timer on Channel 1 runs from 0600hrs to 1800hrs.
Timer on Channel 2 runs from 1000hrs to 1400hrs.

Still waiting on extra Royal Blue 450nm and extra Violet 415nm, i guess will let the tank adjust and watch LPS carefully for reaction after these changes.

Be nice to be able to monitor the spectrum balance now to see exactly where the changes have affected the range, probably best i can do without having top tier fittings with multiple channel adjustment.
No adjustment to mounting height, Vipars are mounted at 15" above water level, all lenses are fitted and stock issue.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Yes. It changes the spread from 90 degrees with the lenses to 120 degrees without them. With 3 fixture mounted like you have them, no lenses is the way to go IMHO.

Ron, what do you think would be a good setting for the units with lenses on? I added them back in.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

I know it's not the cheapest thing to do, but I would seriously recommend renting a par meter or see if you can get one locally (check FB). BRS rents them for like $50 or something? As far as reefing goes, money well spent.

Looking at your setup, with 3 of these 8" above water, you can EASILY blast your tank...with 90 degree lenses , at that height these lights are par cannons.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I know it's not the cheapest thing to do, but I would seriously recommend renting a par meter or see if you can get one locally (check FB). BRS rents them for like $50 or something? As far as reefing goes, money well spent.

Looking at your setup, with 3 of these 8" above water, you can EASILY blast your tank...with 90 degree lenses , at that height these lights are par cannons.

I know. Just don't have the money with the holidays coming up. They require something like a $500 deposit, and that ain't happening. Lol

 

[LeftyReefer]

I'm sticking close to the BRS recommended mounting height of 14" and keeping the lenses on. At 13"-14" above the waterline, i get very little to no disco ball effect, so I see no reason to remove the lenses and lose par while doing so.

I've turned my lights up slightly, I'm now at 70% blue 7% White, and added an additional hour to the white channel.
Now 12 hours of blues and 5 hours of whites. I'll keep turning them up slowly and increasing the time the whites are on.

I added my first couple SPS frags a few weeks ago and I'm already seeing some tiny new growth on them, so I guess my settings can't be too far off.

 

[Biff0rz]

Just tested a single over a 20L at 10" deep, light is about 6" above water. 115 par at blue 1, white 0.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ron, what do you think would be a good setting for the units with lenses on? I added them back in.

Joe, I think you could lower the setting by 20% and run the lenses. You are probably even low enough to ru at your current setting with the lenses in place. The bare leds are typically a 120 degree spread and with the lenses it's a 90 degree spread. That would bump up the PAR by about 10% to 20%. If you don't mind the look, run the the lenses still off on the red, green and violet leds. There aren't very many and without lenses their light will spread more and cause less 'spotlighting'.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Joe, I think you could lower the setting by 20% and run the lenses. You are probably even low enough to ru at your current setting with the lenses in place. The bare leds are typically a 120 degree spread and with the lenses it's a 90 degree spread. That would bump up the PAR by about 10% to 20%. If you don't mind the look, run the the lenses still off on the red, green and violet leds. There aren't very many and without lenses their light will spread more and cause less 'spotlighting'.

Thanks! What about UV? There are 4 of these diodes in the middle column. I've got a Fluval Marine LED 3.0 48" strip in there as well to add more color. I'm not sure which channels need to be set to what. I have blues and whites turned off, since I already get those from the Vipars, and pinks, purples, and cyans on, since I don't get these from the Vipars.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'd run the UV (if they are really true UV i.e. below 400nm spectrum) lower as they are higher energy spectrum. As for the cyan and pink... I wouldn't waste my time with them. Your corals really don't need them giver they are getting white light already, and white light is a mix of all spectrum.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I'd run the UV (if they are really true UV i.e. below 400nm spectrum) lower as they are higher energy spectrum. As for the cyan and pink... I wouldn't waste my time with them. Your corals really don't need them giver they are getting white light already, and white light is a mix of all spectrum.

It does indeed have some UV. BRS tested it in the link below. At 30:25, they tested with both channels at 100%. At 33:40, they tested it with blues at 100% and whites at 30%.

Also, gotcha. Should I just take out the Fluval strip then? It's blocking some of the vipar's cones.

 

[Lightspeed]

just my opinion but if Cyan was such a waste of time, Ecotech R&D would not have 10 of them in the Radion G5 XR30 Blue in addition to 6 Cool White.

 

[Semisonyx]

I use the Vipars on my 180. Buy a lux meter for $15-$20 off of Amazon. Dividing the reading by 50 is pretty accurate; 20,000Lux = about 400 PAR. I did this and then later happened upon an opportunity to borrow a PAR meter. The Lux meter was within about 5%. Only downside is that with a lux meter you can only read at the surface, but if you have sufficient par on the surface, the rest isn’t a big deal. With a big tank though, I’d put the lenses back on and hang them 14” from the water. That’s where I have mine, and I have no disco and am also growing sps on the bottom of the tank.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

I use the Vipars on my 180. Buy a lux meter for $15-$20 off of Amazon. Dividing the reading by 50 is pretty accurate; 20,000Lux = about 400 PAR. I did this and then later happened upon an opportunity to borrow a PAR meter. The Lux meter was within about 5%. Only downside is that with a lux meter you can only read at the surface, but if you have sufficient par on the surface, the rest isn’t a big deal. With a big tank though, I’d put the lenses back on and hang them 14” from the water. That’s where I have mine, and I have no disco and am also growing sps on the bottom of the tank.

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely do that soon. Unfortunately, I can't mount them any higher than where I have them. The tank has a canopy and the lighting is already mounted as high as it goes in there.

 

[Semisonyx]

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely do that soon. Unfortunately, I can't mount them any higher than where I have them. The tank has a canopy and the lighting is already mounted as high as it goes in there.

I had a fourth unit that for fun I took the lenses off of and hung above my tank. At 14” above the water with no lenses and both channels running 100%, I was getting something like 350-400 par just below the surface. Due to the way it was hanging, I couldn’t lower it to test it at 8” above the water.

 

[El_Negrito]

Have any of you checked out James Graham's (aka "telegraham") Instagram or YouTube Chanel? He did some followup on the BRS video. If you can get over how long and "of topic" his videos are, you will find that thay are quite informative. Here are two videos about the ViparSpectra: VipraSpectra mods and spectrum, ViparSpectra disassembly/lens swap.

 

[Lightspeed]

Have any of you checked out James Graham's (aka "telegraham") Instagram or YouTube Chanel? He did some followup on the BRS video. If you can get over how long and "of topic" his videos are, you will find that thay are quite informative. Here are two videos about the ViparSpectra: VipraSpectra mods and spectrum, ViparSpectra disassembly/lens swap.

Omg, it seriously hurts my brain watching that guy, he needs to get off the weed baaadly.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

It does indeed have some UV. BRS tested it in the link below. At 30:25, they tested with both channels at 100%. At 33:40, they tested it with blues at 100% and whites at 30%.

Also, gotcha. Should I just take out the Fluval strip then? It's blocking some of the vipar's cones.

There are no UV (peak sub 400nm) LEDs on any of the black boxes, including viparspectra.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Omg, it seriously hurts my brain watching that guy, he needs to get off the weed baaadly.

Yeah he's a little...um yeah. I slugged through his video on the viparspectra's, while informative, his style just doesn't work for me so I won't be watching any more.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

There are no UV (peak sub 400nm) LEDs on any of the black boxes, including viparspectra.

Ah yep. I noticed that earlier. BRS made it sound like they did.

 

[El_Negrito]

Omg, it seriously hurts my brain watching that guy, he needs to get off the weed baaadly

Yea he's "special", for lack of a better word. Still the mod he suggested, changing the lenses, seems better than removing them all together. Or just removing the iner lenses and leaving the outer ones. This way you can lower the light and minimize hot spots in the middle.