PAR Map. I think I need more light.

[Lavey29]

The effect I'm referring to appears to be flashes of light in different colors all around the tank. When I put a difuser on, it went away.

That was my experience also

 

[DanyL]

The effect I'm referring to appears to be flashes of light in different colors all around the tank. When I put a difuser on, it went away.

Huh interesting.
What is the height of your tank and the mounting height of the lights?

 

[BrettE]

Huh interesting.
What is the height of your tank and the mounting height of the lights?

The water is about 21” (53 cm) deep. The lights are about 8” (20 cm) above the water.

 

[BrettE]

When I add more lights to bring up my PAR, it seems like I should maybe ramp up the level over time? How slowly should I go?

 

[DanyL]

The water is about 21” (53 cm) deep. The lights are about 8” (20 cm) above the water.

Just as an experiment - try to take off the diffusers and raise the lights to around 27-30 cm.

See if there’s any disco effect, and check PAR.

Even if it does somewhat mitigate the problem, It’ll likely blind you so you’ll need to solve a different problem.

When I add more lights to bring up my PAR, it seems like I should maybe ramp up the level over time? How slowly should I go?

Depends how big is the difference.
For an increase of 30-50 PAR I wouldn’t do acclimation at all.

For 50-100 - about a week or two, gradual from 70%.

For 100-200 - 3 to 4 weeks, gradual from 60%.

 

[Lavey29]

When I add more lights to bring up my PAR, it seems like I should maybe ramp up the level over time? How slowly should I go?

I did 1% per day intensity increase from 70% to 100%.