Please give me advice about lighting! Save my corals!

[AlexFishFriends]

Hello, so I have a bit of a story to explain my unusual setup, and then I would love some advice about what parameters I should set my Hydra 32 HD to.

So, I am currently running a hydra 32 Hd on a reefcasa flat nano tank (6 gallons I think). I originally bought this way over powered light because I had intended to run it over a 20gallon water box, but my girlfriend didn’t want such a large tank in the apartment (since I also have a 15 gallon freshwater tank lol), so now the water box is in storage and I have a super powerful light over a tiny tank.

When I have the light set for default settings, (which is the first picture, all channels set to 60%) all the corals in my tank seem to live, but they don’t really grow. For a little while I set my light to the settings in the second picture, which is a preset I found online. This had two effects. One, my zoas started reproducing like crazy, and two, basically everything else died. I killed two acans, a frogspawn, and some other stuff. I was devastated.

So, my question, how would you suggest I set the parameters now? I know blue light is important, but how much of which channels is good for growth without killing any corals? I currently have two duncans, some zoas, a leather, a montipora, gsp, and a pulsing Xenia. On Wednesday my impulse buy torch comes in and I reaaaally want to keep it alive. I also have a bunch of inverts and three fish. I’ve attached pictures of the setup for more context. Please help! Thank you so much for reading and any advice. Thank you. (The lighting in the picture is a cool white channel I turned on just for these photos.)

 

[AlexFishFriends]

Oops! Posted before adding pictures of the tank. Here they are.

 

[Reign1]

I mean a decent amount of light for a small tank. I would have had blues, violet etc like 40-50% whites like 10-20% for a while (like several months) then gradually turned up channels ..
Unless you are going heavy on SPS IDK that you are going to need blue channels above 50-60%

 

[twentyleagues]

Do you have access to a parmeter?

 

[AlexFishFriends]

I mean a decent amount of light for a small tank. I would have had blues, violet etc like 40-50% whites like 10-20% for a while (like several months) then gradually turned up channels ..
Unless you are going heavy on SPS IDK that you are going to need blue channels above 50-60%

Hmm okay, I’ll try that. My #1 priority is to keep everything alive, and then growth would be nice!

 

[AlexFishFriends]

Do you have access to a parmeter?

Nope! They’re pretty expensive. But would you recommend investing in one?

 

[PRB83]

That's a lot of light over a little tank. My gut feel is that your corals died from too much light, not too little. I used the same Saxby profile on a Prime 16HD over a 20 gallon 12" deep tank, but I had to lower the intensity of each channel. I think I was using about 85% of the original intensity. I also acclimated my corals to that intensity over a month. I was still getting 175 PAR at the top of the water and 100 PAR on the sandbed.

In my opinion, it's better to start with a lower intensity, then gradually ramp up. I'd even venture to say you could reduce your intensity to half of the standard Saxby profile, then maybe use the acclimation mode to go higher if you need to. It will take corals a lot longer to die from low light than it will to die from too much light.

Without a PAR meter to get proper measurements, all of this is mostly speculation. I did invest in an inexpensive PAR meter off Amazon for about $125. It may not be quite as accurate as a $400+ meter, but it has served me well enough.

 

[Tahoe61]

While not the same fixture by a long shot I run my Popbloom over my Reefcasa 6 gallon at 60%. I have had the AI Hydra 32, that's a lot of light.
I would start at 40% Blues and 10% whites or your going to bake your corals.
I keep Clams, that the only reason I run mine at 60%.

 

[twentyleagues]

Nope! They’re pretty expensive. But would you recommend investing in one?

I wouldnt say you need to invest in one, does your lfs rent them? brs used too not sure if they still do.
I find it a useful tool and some would argue that, but in my mind it gives me some sort of idea what the coral is actually getting. I dont think anyone really needs one. I used to run MH lights on my tanks years ago never knew the par stuff survived, thrived or started to die and got moved. If I had access I would use one though. I did buy one myself on a black friday deal.
From your description above I would think you may have something else going on though as all 3 of those corals types could thrive in the same lighting but only your Zoas did.

 

[SaltyTwigs]

I wouldnt say you need to invest in one, does your lfs rent them? brs used too not sure if they still do.
I find it a useful tool and some would argue that, but in my mind it gives me some sort of idea what the coral is actually getting. I dont think anyone really needs one. I used to run MH lights on my tanks years ago never knew the par stuff survived, thrived or started to die and got moved. If I had access I would use one though. I did buy one myself on a black friday deal.
From your description above I would think you may have something else going on though as all 3 of those corals types could thrive in the same lighting but only your Zoas did.

Yeah BRS still does offer a 60 day return on Par Meters with a $100 restocking fee. I myself went the route of getting the cheaper USB model that you need a computer or laptop to read the values several years ago. It's quite a bit more affordable, and I seem to like that style better.

APOGEE USB Smart Quantum SQ-420X PAR Sensor

 

[Science/G]

So you're running the David Saxby schedule, that's good. I prefer the light blues down with the UV and violets though. My schedule AI Primes is below. Two Primes on a 30 gallon mixed reef BTW. You are running the lights too high. Use the two fingers on the screen method and slide the whole schedule intensity down by 30% so at peak, your highest number (Royal blue) is in the 60s. This should be more than enough to achieve par levels adequate for LPS and soft corals.

 

[Hooz]

Okay... I have the same tank (16x15x7 Flat 6) being lit by a single Prime HD. My tank is mushrooms coral only, so I run my light intensity very low. The light is 9" above the water line, and my light is, what I would say, at about 20% of its potential "max intensity". My PAR is from 50-85 throughout the entire tank, which is perfect for my mushrooms.

That being said, you have roughly twice the potential power in your light. If you ran it at the same 20%, you would still get double the output. Even at the crazy height you have the light, I'd say that schedule with blues peaking at 60-100%+ is absolutely cooking your tank. That may be ok for SPS, but softies and LPS would probably appreciate less light.

From a color mix (blues/red/green/white) standpoint, that schedule (Saxby) looks just fine. You can do the "2 finger slide" (place 2 fingers on the screen in the MyAI app and slide them up or down to change the intensity of the whole schedule at once) and get the majority of those peaks down around 25-30%. I think that will get you much closer to where you need to be.

As a side note: You can also "2 finger slide" the entire schedule left or right to change the start/end times.

 

[Dom]

Hello, so I have a bit of a story to explain my unusual setup, and then I would love some advice about what parameters I should set my Hydra 32 HD to.

So, I am currently running a hydra 32 Hd on a reefcasa flat nano tank (6 gallons I think). I originally bought this way over powered light because I had intended to run it over a 20gallon water box, but my girlfriend didn’t want such a large tank in the apartment (since I also have a 15 gallon freshwater tank lol), so now the water box is in storage and I have a super powerful light over a tiny tank.

When I have the light set for default settings, (which is the first picture, all channels set to 60%) all the corals in my tank seem to live, but they don’t really grow. For a little while I set my light to the settings in the second picture, which is a preset I found online. This had two effects. One, my zoas started reproducing like crazy, and two, basically everything else died. I killed two acans, a frogspawn, and some other stuff. I was devastated.

So, my question, how would you suggest I set the parameters now? I know blue light is important, but how much of which channels is good for growth without killing any corals? I currently have two duncans, some zoas, a leather, a montipora, gsp, and a pulsing Xenia. On Wednesday my impulse buy torch comes in and I reaaaally want to keep it alive. I also have a bunch of inverts and three fish. I’ve attached pictures of the setup for more context. Please help! Thank you so much for reading and any advice. Thank you. (The lighting in the picture is a cool white channel I turned on just for these photos.)

I would just pick a preset and forget it.

 

[Reign1]

Nope! They’re pretty expensive. But would you recommend investing in one?

many LFS will rent one out to you for a fee otherwise local reefers will lend them out.

Also for reference I have about a 20+ YO softie 90 gallon lit by 2 primes full blast (yes i need new lenses as they are melted) and I have monster sarcos , shrooms, etc .

 

[AlexFishFriends]

That's a lot of light over a little tank. My gut feel is that your corals died from too much light, not too little. I used the same Saxby profile on a Prime 16HD over a 20 gallon 12" deep tank, but I had to lower the intensity of each channel. I think I was using about 85% of the original intensity. I also acclimated my corals to that intensity over a month. I was still getting 175 PAR at the top of the water and 100 PAR on the sandbed.

In my opinion, it's better to start with a lower intensity, then gradually ramp up. I'd even venture to say you could reduce your intensity to half of the standard Saxby profile, then maybe use the acclimation mode to go higher if you need to. It will take corals a lot longer to die from low light than it will to die from too much light.

Without a PAR meter to get proper measurements, all of this is mostly speculation. I did invest in an inexpensive PAR meter off Amazon for about $125. It may not be quite as accurate as a $400+ meter, but it has served me well enough.

Thank you so much for your response! I think there’s been a lot of consensus here that the saxby profile is the way to go. So, I’m using that but I used the “two finger slide” to bring the max peak down to like 25%. I’ll keep an eye on how the corals respond from here. Thanks again!

 

[AlexFishFriends]

While not the same fixture by a long shot I run my Popbloom over my Reefcasa 6 gallon at 60%. I have had the AI Hydra 32, that's a lot of light.
I would start at 40% Blues and 10% whites or your going to bake your corals.
I keep Clams, that the only reason I run mine at 60%.

Thank you for your advice! Also, I’d love to get clams. Do you find they do well in the flat 6? I just ordered some sexy shrimp and other inverts from reef cleaners, but I may get some clams down the line. I’ve always wanted one!

 

[AlexFishFriends]

I wouldnt say you need to invest in one, does your lfs rent them? brs used too not sure if they still do.
I find it a useful tool and some would argue that, but in my mind it gives me some sort of idea what the coral is actually getting. I dont think anyone really needs one. I used to run MH lights on my tanks years ago never knew the par stuff survived, thrived or started to die and got moved. If I had access I would use one though. I did buy one myself on a black friday deal.
From your description above I would think you may have something else going on though as all 3 of those corals types could thrive in the same lighting but only your Zoas did.

There’s a really cool coral store that’s actually primarily a research lab down the street from me, so I’ll ask if they can rent any equipment! And yeah it was weird. My leather also did fine, although I think it retracted a bit for a while. The montipora bleached a bit but actually pulled through and is thriving now. Might have also been that I was studying for major exam at the same time that I was messing with the lighting so I wasn’t as good about water changes as I normally am, but now that I passed (woohoo!) and also just installed a small media reactor in the back, I should be able to keep the water quality better.

 

[AlexFishFriends]

So you're running the David Saxby schedule, that's good. I prefer the light blues down with the UV and violets though. My schedule AI Primes is below. Two Primes on a 30 gallon mixed reef BTW. You are running the lights too high. Use the two fingers on the screen method and slide the whole schedule intensity down by 30% so at peak, your highest number (Royal blue) is in the 60s. This should be more than enough to achieve par levels adequate for LPS and soft corals.

Thank you so much for your advice, and for teaching me about the two finger slide! Hooz suggested the same but with lower peaks, so since I’m a little afraid of light right now I think I’ll go with those lower peaks and then maybe gradually work it up haha

 

[AlexFishFriends]

Okay... I have the same tank (16x15x7 Flat 6) being lit by a single Prime HD. My tank is mushrooms coral only, so I run my light intensity very low. The light is 9" above the water line, and my light is, what I would say, at about 20% of its potential "max intensity". My PAR is from 50-85 throughout the entire tank, which is perfect for my mushrooms.

That being said, you have roughly twice the potential power in your light. If you ran it at the same 20%, you would still get double the output. Even at the crazy height you have the light, I'd say that schedule with blues peaking at 60-100%+ is absolutely cooking your tank. That may be ok for SPS, but softies and LPS would probably appreciate less light.

From a color mix (blues/red/green/white) standpoint, that schedule (Saxby) looks just fine. You can do the "2 finger slide" (place 2 fingers on the screen in the MyAI app and slide them up or down to change the intensity of the whole schedule at once) and get the majority of those peaks down around 25-30%. I think that will get you much closer to where you need to be.

As a side note: You can also "2 finger slide" the entire schedule left or right to change the start/end times.

Thank you! I’m going to do this exactly. I didn’t know you could do that with the finger slide.

 

[Tahoe61]

Thank you for your advice! Also, I’d love to get clams. Do you find they do well in the flat 6? I just ordered some sexy shrimp and other inverts from reef cleaners, but I may get some clams down the line. I’ve always wanted one!

You're welcome.

Clams in a 6 gallon Pico is chemistry focused. I have only had my 1st clam for this tank 2 weeks, so honestly it too early to claim success.
I don't keep any snails, shrimp or crabs, and no fish. Clams are intolerant of being moved or bothered when small. I don't put my hands in the tank unless absolutely necessary.
I dose AFR, NeoNitro, Microbactor7.
Honestly it's not easy keeping clams in a Pico as a mixed reef. Parameters have to be spot on consistent.

With that said I still think the Reefcasa is a fantastic tank that you will get a lot of enjoyment out of.