Have you noticed a difference in light results over corals in the same PAR for LEDs versus other illumination?
I have a mixed 65gal and have focused on SPS over the last 6 months.
I have 1 hydra 64 and 2 AI primes (that sit on the non-SPS side. Alk 8. Nitrate 2.8. Phos 0.03.
Moderate to strong flow with MP40 and glamorca on the other side.
Tank is 18in tall and lights 8in above water.
Using BRS configuration.
I have previously tried to distribute my PAR getting 250-400 on the SPS side.
To achieve that I have raised light intensity very slowly over months.
While I’ve been raising my PAR I actually noticed important worsening of many SPS, with clear burns of the top (light) side and totally stopped growing, even bleached some.
While it seemed my PAR was not tremendously high, something made me think:
My light curve to obtain this PAR have got 2 times more intense at least than most AI Signature series (and some like Saxby are over a really tall tank).
This made me think: those signature series of successful tanks were actually spreading a much lower par than mine. It was “as if” people with good presets are not measuring PAR at all or “PAR people” are not using LEDs to light the tank...
This made me go back to much lower PAR (Saxby reduced to around 60%) and many SPS are now recovering from this light “burn”. Stopped losing corals after that change and alk consumption doubled over a month after the change...
My question is, have you had similar experiences? It seems I was not having any success while being too worried about PAR numbers with these LEDs, and things are getting much better taking care of what my corals are telling me despite any PAR measurement over them.
Tank picture for reference:
Bleached SPS:
I have a mixed 65gal and have focused on SPS over the last 6 months.
I have 1 hydra 64 and 2 AI primes (that sit on the non-SPS side. Alk 8. Nitrate 2.8. Phos 0.03.
Moderate to strong flow with MP40 and glamorca on the other side.
Tank is 18in tall and lights 8in above water.
Using BRS configuration.
I have previously tried to distribute my PAR getting 250-400 on the SPS side.
To achieve that I have raised light intensity very slowly over months.
While I’ve been raising my PAR I actually noticed important worsening of many SPS, with clear burns of the top (light) side and totally stopped growing, even bleached some.
While it seemed my PAR was not tremendously high, something made me think:
My light curve to obtain this PAR have got 2 times more intense at least than most AI Signature series (and some like Saxby are over a really tall tank).
This made me think: those signature series of successful tanks were actually spreading a much lower par than mine. It was “as if” people with good presets are not measuring PAR at all or “PAR people” are not using LEDs to light the tank...
This made me go back to much lower PAR (Saxby reduced to around 60%) and many SPS are now recovering from this light “burn”. Stopped losing corals after that change and alk consumption doubled over a month after the change...
My question is, have you had similar experiences? It seems I was not having any success while being too worried about PAR numbers with these LEDs, and things are getting much better taking care of what my corals are telling me despite any PAR measurement over them.
Tank picture for reference:
Bleached SPS: