OR-IT2080 LED Aquarium Light and a 185 gal dsa question

[knoxmandan]

Ok so have a led fixture OR-IT2080 LED Aquarium Light and it seems to be keeping every thing in my 92 corner reef which has a little bit of everything in it and I'm about to transfer al of it to the 185 when it finishes it's cycle will this light be enough for the 185 or will I need to upgrade if so what led setup or ups should I look into because I'm kinda new to salt reef systems an LEDs to just don't want to loose anything to poor lighting

 

[knoxmandan]

lol it's not up sidedown when when I attached it sorry

 

[Ron Reefman]

You'll need 2 of them if your 180g is a standard 6' long. I've had 2 EverGrow IT2080's over my 180g DT for over 10 months now. The only time it's been turned off is when we lose power in a summer thunderstorm (SW FL). I have good size lps & sps corals and they are doing as well or better than when I had 1000W (4 250W) MH with 160W of t5 tossed in. I have a large clam on the sand that is doing great. I have sps near the sand. I have an 8" diameter colony of birdsnest that was a 1" long broken tip off a colony in the tank just when I switched to leds 10 months ago.

 

[knoxmandan]

You'll need 2 of them if your 180g is a standard 6' long. I've had 2 EverGrow IT2080's over my 180g DT for over 10 months now. The only time it's been turned off is when we lose power in a summer thunderstorm (SW FL). I have good size lps & sps corals and they are doing as well or better than when I had 1000W (4 250W) MH with 160W of t5 tossed in. I have a large clam on the sand that is doing great. I have sps near the sand. I have an 8" diameter colony of birdsnest that was a 1" long broken tip off a colony in the tank just when I switched to leds 10 months ago.

That's some good growth it seems to be happy Ron. I like the one I have but my new tank is 60x30x24 I'm afraid it's going to hang over the sides with two of them they are 31" each I think.

 

[knoxmandan]

That's some good growth it seems to be happy Ron. I like the one I have but my new tank is 60x30x24 I'm afraid it's going to hang over the sides with two of them they are 31" each I think.

Also how do you have the light cycle set?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Also how do you have the light cycle set?

Oops! I was thinking your tank was 6' rather than 5'... my bad. And it looks like you aren't going to have a canopy over the new tank, right? So getting an OR-IT2040 to run beside your 2080 would look out of balance (if the ascetics matter). My next choice would be get 2 OR-IT2060's. They are 24" long, so the'll fit. Or even 3 of the OR-IT2040's if you feel you need the extra 50 leds for extra PAR and coverage. The IT series fixtures are on sale here at R2R. https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ocean-revive-led/135797-prices-so-low-we-cant-advertise-them.html

I do an 8 hour sunrise with the first 3 hours being just more and more blue and then 5 hours of white and blue each going up about 10% every hour. A 1 hour midday at 90% blue and 40% white, then an 8 hour sunset that is just the reverse of the sunrise with the last 3 hours being just blue getting dimmer and dimmer. Two points. one, I do it this way because I like the idea of it being a bit more like a natural day and I love that the tank looks very different at various times of the day. and second, after running this program for about 3-4 months now, I haven't seen any change in coral coloration or growth. The first 7-8 months was a 4 hour sunrise, a 5 hour midday at *0% blue and 40% white and a 4 hour sunset. Obviously the 4 hour sunrise and sunset were at double the rate of increase and decrease. Here is my schedule:
Light Schedule

Time: Blue: White:
12:00am......1............ 0
1:00...........1............ 0
2:00...........1............ 0
3:00...........1............ 0
4:00...........3............ 0
5:00...........9............ 0
6:00..........20........... 0
7:00..........30........... 1
8:00..........40........... 5
9:00..........50........... 10
10:00........60........... 15
11:00........70........... 20
NOON........80........... 30
1:00.........90............ 40
2:00.........80............ 30
3:00.........70............ 20
4:00.........60............ 10
5:00.........50............ 5
6:00.........40............ 1
7:00.........30............ 0
8:00.........20............ 0
9:00..........5............. 0
10:00........1............. 0
11:00........1............. 0

 

[knoxmandan]

Thanks Ron I'm going to try your schedule out and I pm,d them about the lights I'm thinking about going with 3 of the OR-IT2040's for the extra coverage because the tank is so wide I don't want to have any dark spots. Thanks you have helped me tremendously. I have spent thousands at my lfs and when I ask them something I just get shoulder shrugs and derailed from the question most of the time. I feel like they want my stuff to die so I will just buy more from them to replace it:censored: