If You're Serious About Lighting, Know This

[Taps]

For the DLI question, (inches of rain is a nice analogy, BTW) please keep in mind the relationship between the DLI and the saturation point of the livestock. I prefer a lower color temp appearance in my tank - more of a natural sunlight appearance instead of the Windex blue that has become prevalent nowadays - so I run a feeding period in the middle of the day. From 11 to 3, I ramp the lights to a higher peak (450-460 PAR), with an emphasis on the 430nM-470nM range. The 3 hours before and after the feeding period I run at a lower PAR (340 range) with more cyan, yellow, and a touch of red. It is a very effective way to get the aesthetics I want, while making sure that my higher requirement corals get the intensities they need. The challenge is keeping the feeding intensity at a level that the rate of photosynthesis doesn't create more oxygen than the corals are happy with (chronic photo-inhibition in the glossary above). Exceeding the saturation point but staying inside the dynamic inhibition range can have positive results on the appearance of the corals. Many pigments/carotenoids that give corals their great colors are present to protect the coral during natural periods of high-intensity light - think high noon in equatorial climes. If the corals' pigmentation starts to become pale/washed out, you've overshot.

As with any light changes, take it slow. Shallow water corals can deal with light levels that would fry captive propagated specimens, because they have grown up in such conditions. My feeding cycle was implemented over several months, and when I introduce new inhabitants, I back off the feeding period levels quite a bit, ramping back up over 30-45 days. Once corals have become accustomed to the high intensity period, they have no difficulty with the temporary reduction, where the new specimens have a real hard time if the return to higher intensities is too abrupt.

 

[turfster26]

The Mitras are very versatile in the spectrum they can put out, so you can get the same blue look. The issue is that with so many channels you don't get the PAR output at that bluer spectrum with the Mitras that you get with the Radions. It doesn't have as many blue LED's so if you want higher PAR you need to up the white channels to compensate.

If you run the Mitras's by modifying the power balance you can increase the blue spectrum and lower the reds and greens. This has helped a lot. Plus make sure you run the energy options at High Output and at 100%. And you have to do this to each Mitras individually via USB cable. You can't do this adjustments using Master/Slave mode if you have multiple fixtures.

Attached is a screenshot for reference. HTH

 

[Brew12]

If you run the Mitras's by modifying the power balance you can increase the blue spectrum and lower the reds and greens. This has helped a lot. Plus make sure you run the energy options at High Output and at 100%. And you have to do this to each Mitras individually via USB cable. You can't do this adjustments using Master/Slave mode if you have multiple fixtures.

Attached is a screenshot for reference. HTH

I did do some playing around with this. I found that I wasn't able to take advantage of it due to hitting the heat limitation.

 

[w2inc]

How do you like the lights and their customer service? I heard a few things from one of my LFS that was on the negative side, and from what I have read on a few websites they seem like a so, so light. I really do like the light spread, ease of operation, and price, as I will not need as many Orphex's as the Mitra's.

I bought 3 of the lights they recommended for my freshwater tank. The photo shows the color blend from the light shining 30" away from a white wall. I complained, they told me it looked great and refused to answer anymore of my emails. More info on the Orphek thread. I do like the build quality but I didn't get what I was promised and they made no effort to resolve the issue.

 

[Jay Norris]

I did do some playing around with this. I found that I wasn't able to take advantage of it due to hitting the heat limitation.

Do you have your lights in a hood, or attached close to a solid object, because the Mitras for me never run close to the ax 65 degree Celsius mark.

 

[Brew12]

Do you have your lights in a hood, or attached close to a solid object, because the Mitras for me never run close to the ax 65 degree Celsius mark.

Nope, they hang from the ceiling on a 80/20 aluminum frame.

 

[Jay Norris]

Nope, they hang from the ceiling on a 80/20 aluminum frame.

That sounds really weird, as with the fans set to 100% and the max temp setting set to 65 degrees you should never reach max temp shut down, are you sure all your fans are working?

 

[Converted to Saltwater]

This is an awsome discussion and im,glad I just found it as im building my own lighting system. I see many are tweaking certain spectrums at certain times of the day. The ability to do this I assume comes with a good bit of added cost. In the past I just used halide once I burned a couple florescent (middle of the spectrum) for an our or so because i didn't want to blast my coral with the MH lights. Also there were major heat fluctuation issues with this setup. What would be recommended for some of the coral that thrive in deeper water? And do some do well with a dose of light outside of the main spectrum? I know FW plants do but not sure about coral. Thanks for any answers. And some as some info.

 

[ecamden]

If you run the Mitras's by modifying the power balance you can increase the blue spectrum and lower the reds and greens. This has helped a lot. Plus make sure you run the energy options at High Output and at 100%. And you have to do this to each Mitras individually via USB cable. You can't do this adjustments using Master/Slave mode if you have multiple fixtures.

Attached is a screenshot for reference. HTH

Good to know. I was wondering why I was having less par from my other lights the further I went down the line. My master is putting out more light than the slaves via par meter, but the percentage showing on all lights are the same. I'm going to have to try changing them individually to ho when I get home. Thanks!

 

[Reefahholic]

Great info!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Great info!

Yup, one of my bookmarks.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Solid info and discussion

 

[Mouser1]

Dana,

This is great! Can you make it a sticky so it doesn't get lost?

What is a sticky? What is the difference between a sticky and a bookmark?

 

[Brew12]

What is a sticky? What is the difference between a sticky and a bookmark?

A sticky makes it stay in a special group at the top of the forum section. A bookmark is used by individuals to find specific threads.

 

[BadFollow]

My bookmark as well

 

[w2inc]

I run a kessil 360x on one side of my tank that looks windex blue. The other side is running a radion xr15 pro on the preset coral grow setting. The sump is 80 is gallons and has a 5500k led outdoor flood light on it.

Initially I set things up so that the PAR was the same under all the lights but I have moved things around some and have not tested values in the past few months.

My other system has the Samsung lm301b horticulture light on it. Previously had a random 150 watt led pink grow light on the sump. The top is lit with Radion 30 and 15 pro sets.

I keep coral in the sump of both systems. I don't notice significant differences in growth rates between the sump and main tanks. It is worth considering the fact that the water flow is faster and more diffused in the sumps, but I really dont notice a significant growth difference in Digi's and Monti's after a year. I do really notice a color difference. The horticulture lights make my coral look pretty bland. I thought it would change when they were under lights that had a higher blue spectrum but they still look pretty bland for the first couple months under the blue lights.

This is just my opinion, but I feel like my coral grows well under all kinds of lights, but only looks awesome after a few months under my lights designed for reef.

 

[johnsonkobe24]

thank you for the information!

 

[MightyMO]

Thanks @GoVols and @Dana Riddle for the information!!!

 

[Dana Riddle]

Thanks @GoVols and @Dana Riddle for the information!!!

Thanks!

 

[Azure Scolymia]

I believe there is an error with the definition of DLI (Daily Light Integral) on the first page. I think that it can be fixed with replacing per second with per day or per photoperiod.