Hi guys just set up this new lighting and looking for thoughts on my schedule. Lights are a 24” aquatic life T-5 hybrid fixture with a hydra 26hd. They are lighting a 60 gal cube. Right now T-5 come on at 7am and off at 7pm with the hydra ramping up and back down between. T-5 bulbs consist of 2 c+, 2 b+. Hydra sch. Is as follows.
I only run my T5 supplements for 5 hours a day. My understanding is that any more won't help the coral and will only promote algae growth.
It's always best to use a PAR meter but I think you will be just fine.
Ideally I would really like to, but I can’t bring myself to spend the money on something I’d use once. Would you say the hydra 26 is comparable to the xr-15 as far as par and led percentage.
I wouldn't say they are the same. The XR-15 uses more power with fewer LED's so the individual LED's are brighter. The XR15 is also in a single cluster so it will be brighter directly under the light than under the Hydra 26. The Hydra likely has better PAR other than directly underneath due to the extra LED's in 2 clusters giving better spread.
You make perfect sense. BRS ran test with the same t-5 fixture but using the xr15, was just wondering if I set my hydra same as the xr15 would par be comparable.
I think the PAR numbers will be close enough that you can use the info as a good starting point. If you put SPS in it for 2 or 3 months and things don't look right you can make adjustments then.
Thanks for the help that’s kinda what I was thinking also.
I turned down my whites to no more then 29% at there peaks and my algae issue disappeared with in a month. I run my phosphates at .03 and my nitrates around 8ppm
