Recommendations for Lower par sticks?

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Keep in mind its not just about the par number... the right spectrum is just as, if not more, important for acro colors. Not all blue light is created equal. You will want as broad a range as possible that covers all the peaks from 480nm-500nm all the way down to 380nm-400nm. Compared to, for example, the common "actinic" blue which is only a single peak at around 420.

Goal here is that different fluorescent proteins have peak activation at specific par AND spectrum so you will want cover as many basis as possible to give you the best chance to maintain color.

Not sure what light you have, but most high end reef leds should have that covered

Otherwise I think you got some great suggestions here. Many things with the green/cyan as the primary flouresence should do well. Its just how well some of the secondary flouresence colors will hold, which depends on what I mentioned above.

My myagi tort has very popping greens but unfortunately lost the secondary purple (which is basically red + the brown regular zoox + the nature blue light). I havent figured out why yet bc acro color is such a loaded topic and hard to master.

I think at some point you just want to start with some inexpensive frags just to test it out bc every tank is going to be slightly different and how certain coral colors react is going to be unique to your own tank, which is a function of par, spectrum, nutrient, flow, temperature, and possibly other factors that as a hobby we haven't fully understood.
Thank you very much for this post. Ive been trying to wrap my head around why certain light sources are so different when it comes to intensity. I really have been trying to follow the discussion and read up on whatever I can and make sense of that. Ive seen @jda post on this quite a bit but have to admit I don't understand or haven't wrapped my head around it lol
I am running v2+ on brs reccomended settings. Which to me is a more full spectrum with about a 50/50 ratio blue to white.
I am supplementing this with T5 (2 actinic bulbs) during peak(8) hours to obtain the intensity im getting over my current rack with sticks.
I'm walking a really fine line trying to add sticks to my current 80 that is predominantly a shroom garden full of fussy shrooms that have very specific light and flow needs as it is lol.
I'm not pushing very heavy flow just a steady moderate flow with pulsation that more or less makes water "bounce"
5-10 nitrates
.05-.1 phosphates.
Just added the goblin and slimer within last 10 days. The slimer is growing and encrusting @175 par but im gonna bump that up to 200 over the weekend.

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Semisonyx

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You’ll find most acros will do fine in 200 par, as long as water parameters are consistent and photoperiod is long enough. I have montis growing in as little as 50-75par, and some variety of tort doing well at about 100. I have no proof, but personal experience is feeding the tank some sort of sps food helps too. Acros in lower light will tend to shift towards green IME.
 
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You’ll find most acros will do fine in 200 par, as long as water parameters are consistent and photoperiod is long enough. I have montis growing in as little as 50-75par, and some variety of tort doing well at about 100. I have no proof, but personal experience is feeding the tank some sort of sps food helps too. Acros in lower light will tend to shift towards green IME.
Right on.
I seen a well respected vendor post a disclaimer in live sale thread not to long ago. That all corals seen in pictures where grown in 250 or less par and there was plenty of acros in it.
 

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Right on.
I seen a well respected vendor post a disclaimer in live sale thread not to long ago. That all corals seen in pictures where grown in 250 or less par and there was plenty of acros in it.
Oh yeah. Even WWC has mentioned here or there that some of their acros get as little as 50 par in their big holding vats.
 

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If you are running Photons, find Therman's for sale and other threads. No reason to run them any other way that he does. He has perhaps some of the best looking acropora under any LED. If you don't want to read, it is all channels near 100%. Do yourself a favor and look at the photos, at least.

Forget about low PAR, IMO. While some can do fine, nearly all will do better with more. Keep in mind that light is the only thing that gives acropora energy (through the zoox). People wrongly think that dosing N and P are food and then keep their lights low which is actually providing food. Get that light up and get those corals some sugar. I don't have a single acropora that is not healthier nor grows faster with more high quality light - none... even bounce & jawbreaker mushrooms and BTAs (Colorado Sunbursts) will do better under 500+ PAR of MH than 100, even though they do OK with 100 PAR.

The few-sentence answer to different light sources has to do with spectrum, mostly. Mercury based sources will deliver UV and IR to some extent - MH more than fluorescent tubes. Corals can use these waves too for energy, pigmentation, excitation and for energy transfer between photosystems... LEDs don't have them since the diodes that they borrow are mostly for visible light in the 400-700 range, but waves from 350 to 850 nm are beneficial for corals.

PAR from different light sources is not the same. The PAR meter only reads from 400-700nm (visible light) and it is soft on the edges. It cannot capture all of the spectrum from a good light source... so 100 PAR of LED is going to be less light than 100 PAR from MH. PAR is a good swag and a good tool isolation, but it is not a great comprehensive measurement of actual input or from tank to tank.

Lastly, don't be a reefer who believes what vendors tell you. If they are telling the truth, they are keeping corals just long enough to sell them and have different goals than a hobbyist does. Most massage the truth to sell more corals... not really lies, but not really the whole truth either. I trust WWC and Vivid the least... maybe Adam at BC the most. In any case, listen to hobbyists and you will be better off.
 
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If you are running Photons, find Therman's for sale and other threads. No reason to run them any other way that he does. He has perhaps some of the best looking acropora under any LED. If you don't want to read, it is all channels near 100%. Do yourself a favor and look at the photos, at least.

Forget about low PAR, IMO. While some can do fine, nearly all will do better with more. Keep in mind that light is the only thing that gives acropora energy (through the zoox). People wrongly think that dosing N and P are food and then keep their lights low which is actually providing food. Get that light up and get those corals some sugar. I don't have a single acropora that is not healthier nor grows faster with more high quality light - none... even bounce & jawbreaker mushrooms and BTAs (Colorado Sunbursts) will do better under 500+ PAR of MH than 100, even though they do OK with 100 PAR.

The few-sentence answer to different light sources has to do with spectrum, mostly. Mercury based sources will deliver UV and IR to some extent - MH more than fluorescent tubes. Corals can use these waves too for energy, pigmentation, excitation and for energy transfer between photosystems... LEDs don't have them since the diodes that they borrow are mostly for visible light in the 400-700 range, but waves from 350 to 850 nm are beneficial for corals.

PAR from different light sources is not the same. The PAR meter only reads from 400-700nm (visible light) and it is soft on the edges. It cannot capture all of the spectrum from a good light source... so 100 PAR of LED is going to be less light than 100 PAR from MH. PAR is a good swag and a good tool isolation, but it is not a great comprehensive measurement of actual input or from tank to tank.

Lastly, don't be a reefer who believes what vendors tell you. If they are telling the truth, they are keeping corals just long enough to sell them and have different goals than a hobbyist does. Most massage the truth to sell more corals... not really lies, but not really the whole truth either. I trust WWC and Vivid the least... maybe Adam at BC the most. In any case, listen to hobbyists and you will be better off.
Hey Jda thanks for taking the time to write that up. I am most likely going to reread and circle back to this post pretty often until it all finally soaks in. The seeds have been planted and alot of what you just wrote up made alot that I have been reading on the subject make sense.
Tbh I have seen the threads and journals you mention as well as battlecorals schedule and the results your speaking of. As well as @FarmerTy was kind enough to share his 14k schedule with me as well. On a real note. Ive played with spectrum from one end to the other. Ive found best reaction and results in 99% of my coral in a more full spectrum. No joke some of my shrooms nearly tripple in size. So thats where I'm slowly gearing up to run at. Some of my shrooms are super sensitive to spectrum and intensity changes so its def going to be slow rolling but ill get there for sure.
To be even more real honestly. This whole stick endeavor has been more of me just trying to find certain balance with calcium consumption. Ive been finding it hard to balance calcium with alk and mag considering there's not a whole lot in system using it quite frankly. As well as I wanted some more diversity. May be all jist a pipe dream in the lagoon since shrooms have there own set of wants and needs and I may not be able to meet the demands of sticks im finding out especially when it comes to lighting needs.
I'm with you on the vendor thing:D
 

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Keep this in mind too... nearly everything that we have in our tanks was collected on one breath in less than 3m of water. Not all, but the vast majority. In nature, this is about a 6500k spectrum. Don't believe anybody who tells you that these corals come from depths where only blue gets - this was made up by a few LED companies and just not true at all. To get near these depths, a diver would need many thousands of dollars in equipment and risk their lives to sell a coral for a few dollar - the people who go to these depths collect rare fish that they can get a hundreds of thousands of dollars for. To get all the way to these depths routinely and safely, you would need a submarine that James Cameron would drool over. Corals trade for so cheap, that just a mask, bag and something to cut or break are the tools of trade... scuba is too expensive for this. If you ever go to the south pacific, australia, marshalls, solomans, port moresby, etc., you can find locals to let you collect your own stuff out with them.

In the end, use more daylight to render good color in your coral and then blue-it-up to your liking to look at them. I just use 14k Phoenix and 20k Radiums which do both at the same time, but with LEDs, more daylight for most of the day and then more blue when you are around to look at them works well. You might be surprised how nice a lot of stuff looks when you render the good color. Some corals need all blue to look good, but you can avoid those if you don't like the windex.

I keep mushrooms and CSBs in the same tanks as my acropora. NSW ish water and Metal Halides works for everything. I have some Z*P that snuck in and grow like crazy too. I mostly only keep higher value ones since they are easy to trade for nice acropora, but they do well. I have recent photos of all of them in my rebuild thread.
 
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